Setting up a sony pd170
 

Hear is a clip i took a few days ago and would like to see how better to set up the sony pd 170 I was using with the merlin. The lights in the shed where yellow type street lights and one 250 watt light i think in the corner. Be honest as this is the way I like to learn, hand on as they say.

http://www.v-i-cstudio.com/Show.html

A question - How tiring was it on your arm/hands, shoulders using the Merlin?

The longest I ran around with it was one and a half hours at a parade in the town i live.. The total weight was 12 pounds and yes it did hurt my back a bit but no other parts of my body hurt. I am 6 foot 4 and 18 stone. The biggest problem i have is trying to keep it down at a reasonable height, this is why my back hurt as i was bending a lot. "Really have to try and bend my knees more". I wouldn't suggest this as i am pretty well built "not all fat" and can carry the weight. I would think others would struggle with the weight for any longer than ten to twenty minutes at a time. If you don't do weights or have weak fore arm mussels then you will struggle with it.

Rob,

What are you looking for advice on- how the image looks, the lighting, how your shooting looks with the Merlin...? I watched the clip but I'm reallly not sure what your actually looking for us to comment on.

Sorry patrick, i should of explained better. I white balanced the camera to white and was wondering if this was the best quality I could get out of this camera. I know how to set the gain and iris and was wondering if this was set right for the lighting conditions properly. I know my camera work is shaky at the mo, am working on it. As for the merlin, mikko on the steady cam forum said that I needed to relax and loosen my grip on the guilding gimble more. So I suppose it is image and lighting Im looking advice on.

The easiest way to manually set the PD170 IMO is as follows.

Shutter Speed - 60
Gain - 0db
Then allow the iris in full auto to expose for what you want to be exposed correctly. If I am shooting a talking head I will fill the frame with their face and allow the auot iris to expose. Then I will click the iris button to see what the camera recommends. I then turn on my 70 zebras and check to see that I have zebras on the highlights of the cheek and forehead. If the iris needs adjusting to do this I do it.

Then I manual white balance with a white balance card or reflector. Your biggest problem at this party is the bright light right next to dark areas. This would not be your normal shooting environement. Also every new room you shot in would constitute a manual white balance (as the color temp changed room to room)

This should give you a basic understanding and improve your picture overall.

I would turn off the stabilization feature - it gives you little dancing white spots around the reflector at the beginning of your clip.

Thanks for the info and will check it out when I get back from holiday. Another question I would like to clear up is how do zebras work. I have an idea but would like to be clear on it.