Hi,
I just got my DVC30 and am going to film a documentary. I bought a RODE videomic and have a few questions.

First off you should know I have never filmed anything before, besides handycam kind of stuff, so everything is new to me, trying to learn it al before i get to filming on the field, but I was wondering what mode is best for shooting? Field shootin, 30frame? Etc, I am mostly going to be doing street shots and street interviews.
My other question is what about the sound levels, I got a nice set of eadphones, but what level should i set the volume on the headphones to know if the sound is coming in good? Or should I just set them to whatever makes me feel ok because I can adjust the volume in post of the input? Like what level input do i set it to I am really confused not aware in this area?
I am seeming to get a very red shot inside my house when filming, is this normal? After adjusting the red and blue balance it looks ok, but i have to set it to +4, just curious if thats a normal thing. I also noticed that this resets everytime i turn the camera off, whats with that? Am i not doing somthign right so it doenst save my settings?


also any other pointers would be nice as I got a lot to learn I am sure

you have to save you settings when you are done. after you tweek it, go to where you select the scene and there will be a save settings. I like to set my input on the camcorder to a good level, then set my headphones volume to a point where if it gets loud in the headphones then it means i'm getting close to clipping the audio in the camcorder. I don't like to shoot in frame mode because there is a resolution loss, but it shoots at 30p so the movement looks cool. you have 4 scene settings, so I like to tweek each one for different locations. it's normal for it to get red in low light, if you just turn down the chroma it should look better. just save that as low light or whatever you want to name it and you'll have a setting for low light when you need it.

I am having a slight humming sound coming from my mic, the RODE Videomic, is there a way to reduce this? or eliminate this? If i hear that does it mean my sound input is too high and I need to reduce it? I had it on factory settings, wasn't quite sure where to put it, is this a simple thing to remove in post?

you could be picking up the vibration of the camcorder motor. try mounting the mic off of the camcorder and see if you still have the humm. if you do, then it could be interference or the connection of the mini plug into the camcorder. you can notch it out in post but you'll take the rest of the low end with it.

Indoor footage shot with my DVC30 set to automatic looks very yellow until I set the white balance, then it's perfect. Have you tried setting the white balance?

I also have the Rode VM, but don't hear humming. Do you hear it both when using the camera with a battery and also when it's plugged into the AC adapter? If only when plugged in, it might be interference from the power lines or from something else plugged in, like a radio.

Here's good link that helped me out a lot (since the manual that came with the camera isn't very useful). It's a .pdf file, by the way: http://www.adcom.it/public/images/pdf/agdvc30e-handbook.pdf

2 things to point out. First when shooting indoors try and set the White balance manually, as in auto or preset it is set for 3200k, most indoor bulbs are 2800k or less due to age. The dvc30's headphone out is known to be noisy, make sure it's a good head phone and that your not picking up motor humm. play back the tape and see if the noise is also being recorded or if your not picking up interferance from something.