Tips and/or tricks anyone?
 

Hello everyone!

I am about to embark on my first major project using my brand new PDX10, a video of a western street show. I'll be shooting multiple performances of the street show, then editing them together into what will hopefully be one beautiful polished production.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks on how to get the most out of this little camera on this sort of video? Like should I use the focus ring, or would it be best to use the touch screen for focusing, or leave it on auto focus? What about white balance? I'll be shooting as the sun is setting so I'm afraid if I white balance before the show my settings will be off by the time it is over.

Any tips anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated :-)

Auto white balance is ok to use. It will do the job well enough, and you can always tweak things later in post.

Beware of auto focus. Don't be afraid of it, but pay close attention to framing. This will help guide where your AF focuses. If your subjects are in motion, this will probably help things stay in focus. Be aware of backgrounds that are lighter or brighter than your subject. Very easy to not see on your little screen that the background is in focus and your subject is not.
Get used to using your auto-touch button. This function is easier to use if the cam is on a tripod.

Forget the touchscreen, altogether.

If you can bear the thought of video that isn't razor sharp, consider using alternative shutterspeeds, such as 1/30 or 1/15 (a personal favorite), possibly even 1/8. I find 1/15 to be the slowest shutterspeed that doesn't altogether thwart the appearance of synchornized speech to moving lips, and the motion isn't stilted to the point of surreal. The slower shutterspeed will allow for better lit video.

Dial the Sharpness effect all the way down and leave it there. It will only make a mess of your video, particularly if it's underlit video.

Oh, forgot to add: slower shutterspeeds are generally much easier to use when shooting from a tripod.

I used to have my sharpness quite low, but then the softness started to bother me when I reviewed the footage. I now leave it at about the middle point.

Can you describe how it would make a mess of the video Shawn? What am I supposed to be looking out for?

An out-of-hand condemnation of edge enhancers on my part, but one I stand by whole heartedly. "Sharpness" accentuates noise in low light conditions and isn't actually adding real sharpness to an image, ie via resolution or contrast. It serves only, in my experience, to accentuate the stair-steppiness of digital video. Adjustment of contrast in post is a better alternative, imo.