Evening Soccer Game Preset?
 

Hello,

I'm still pretty new to using my A1. I will be shooting a soccer game today for another videographer. The shoot will take place around 7PM. I was curious if I should just use the factory preset for this, or if there is another custom preset that I should use. The videographer who hired me stated that he didn't want to have to do much "tweaking" in post. I'll be shooting HDV 60i. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jerry

Hi Jerry, I hate to sound blunt, but practice with your new baby and learn the ins and outs of it before doing an important shoot!

Just focus on these things for him/her...
1. Make sure your subject is in focus!
2. Use zebras set to about 90IRE (my personal preferance) to keep from blowing out highlights.
3. Activate the "light meter" in the custom function or display menu and try to keep it balanced by using the iris ring (manual mode).
4. For soccer, might want to set shutter to about 1/200th or more, but depends on how much light you have available.

Good luck.

My point...
 

Hey,

No problem with your "blunt" response. However, my main goal in creating this post was to get some feedback as to what would be the best color settings to use for this event. This would be a non-issue if I was shooting this for myself, as I am comfortable in deciding how I would want the footage to look for my purposes. However, I'm going to be giving this footage to someone who shoots with Sony cams. Therefore, I was trying to figure out the best "look" to give him (factory or custom presets). There are so many variations with this cam that I struggle between delivering the somewhat "stale" factory image vs. offering something that may seem overly saturated or dark (vivid, panalook) to what he would normally delivers to his clients via his Sony.

Well, I shoot with 2 Sony HC1 cameras with the Canon A1... here are two presets you can try out. The JCDVday1 matches my sony HC1 colors pretty well. The lowlight one will need some tweaking in post, ie: add a little contrast and maybe play with levels a little, and should only be used when scene is very low lit... like a 10x15 room with only a computer monitor on as light.

www.jcdv.com/PRESET/PRESET02.CPF (JCDVday1 = Good for most lighting.)
www.jcdv.com/PRESET/PRESET03.CPF (JCDVlow1 = My best low light preset so far.)

Try them out... if they work for you great, if not, use default or something else.

Thanks for the info. It is greatly appreciated.