Problem with my lens? (Over-Exposure)
 

I have a VX2100 which I haven't used that much, got it in March this year. I've been using it recently to shoot some stuff for college and I think there may be a problem with the aperature. I know the camera is reknowned for letting in a lot of light but when shooting with a three point lighting setup yesterday, I had to take the iris up to 5.6 and put the ND Filter on 2 (Even though it didn't indicate I should on the display) in order to get a shot that wasn't toally blown out...The colour scheme of the room I was shooting in was beach-wood yellow and cream, so I thought that could've been the problem...Either way, it did come out looking decent.

But now I'm about to shoot outdoors, it's an overcast day, the camera is white-balanced but I need to take it up to between 8 - 11 with an ND of 2 so that I don't get a totally blown out picture. Is this normal? Even near-closing the iris with the ND off still results in blow-outs.

Is this a problem, or what?

what happens if you run auto exposure?

leslie

Aviv.

Outdoors and high bright overcast is a hard one to make look good and manual exposure settings are probably the best method. Make a rough and ready hood for the LCD panel out of a breakfast cereal packet because the screen will be very hard to view in these conditions.

The eye viewfinder may be hard to use in these cnditions if you also have to use sunglasses for glare.

The camera is pretty good at telling you when to use the ND, so check on auto to get an ND recommendation.

High aperture settings or faster shutter settings are going to be required in manual mode.

One other setting which might happen to have been selected "on" will cause an appearance you describe and that is if the backlight function has been selected.

You will find a long skinny button on the left side of the camera body. It sometimes gets bumped "on" or if it is a school camera somebody may have selected it "on". The button toggles the function on and off with one press each time.

In priority for my outdoors manual settings beyond my choice of shutter speed, the ND filter comes first. If the camera auto says ND2, then I always use it. I then use the aperture to get best image, then move to shutter speed if the image is still too bright.

First thing to do Aviv is to connect your VX to a TV and point it out into the garden. How does the picture look in full auto mode?

If it's too bright, have you been twiddling with the custom preset settings? (Is there a CP visible in your v/f?).

There's the possibility that your six bladed diaphragm is getting stuck. Zoom to telephoto and with a torch look down into the lens. Put the camera on manual and turn the iris dial. You should see the diaphragm blades opening and closing smoothly, and there should be no oil on the individual blades.

tom.

What's the latest on the VX2100 then?

Press the exposure button so it goes to automatic mode then press shutter speed in the back and for outdoors on an overcast day, put it to around 1/350 or a bit faster.

Personal comment removed by Moderator. We don't disparage anyone and there are no dumb questions on this forum.

Well Amit, I'm not sure how long you've been in video, but the advice you give is not good for movies. Much better you use the in-built ND filters to absorb the light, as heading off towards high shutter speeds will take you ever closer to CCD smear as well as giving your movies the stacatto look.

tom.