Thanks Jeff, so did you then manually select sutter speed ie set it to 60 etc (with the 60 appearing on the LCD) or did you just turn auto shutter off from the menu and shoot in manual mode without selecting the shutter speed?

Thing to remember is that the VX/PD range are basically shutter priority cameras. In the full auto mode the shutter will say at the default 1/50th or 1/60th while the aperture opens and closes and the the gain goes up or down. If Auto shutter is set to on, the camera will up (not down) the shutter speed to soak light in very bright conditions

In manual you MUST select a shutter speed first and you'll see the chosen speed displayed in the v'finder, then you can push 'exposure' and dial in any aperture you like.

tom.

cheers
 

Tom thank you very much! I can use my camera again now knowing how it thinks.

Also thanks again to everyone else who chipped in!

Joel

Joel, I know with certain florescent lights (cheap ones you find in offices for example) there's an ongoing color shift as the light cycles. Neither your eye or the camera sees this EXCEPT in certain circumstance.

Shooting NTSC in a PAL location (the camera is at 1/60 but the florescents are at 50hz) or PAL in an NTSC location (camera is 1/50 and the florescents are 60hz). The color temperature will drift as the frequencies "beat."

This may have nothing to do with your shooting circumstance but just maybe some light which has a shifting color cycle was at a different frequency than your shutter speed.

NTSC shooters in PAL countries can fix this by changing the shutter speed to 1/100. I guess PAL shooters might have to go to 1/300 in NTSC countries (unless the camera were able to do 1/120 or 1/240).

Another possibility is being in a mixed color temp enviornment where someone keeps letting in daylight by opening a door for example.

PD170 Iris won't manually adjust
 

I can't tell you guys what a help this single thread has been in finally explaining what is actually going on with my PD170. I made the jump from a mostly auto adjusted GL1 to what I am quickly realizing is a mostly manually adjusted PD170. After being a big fan of, and dependent on, the auto button for so long, it has been a rough transition figuring things out manually. This thread has explained many things. Thanks.

One quick, and hopefully easy question. I have followed the directions in the instruction manual to adjust the Iris, and nothing happens when I turn the sel/push dial. I have the auto lock switch in the middle, and the iris button pushed, and it shows up on the screen mostly at F2.4. I read something in this thread about the iris changing as the camera is zoomed in and out and have seen the numbers change when that happens. But when the zoom is stationary I cannot get the iris to change one bit.

I have gone into the menu and turned off the auto shutter as suggested, and still nothing. Am I not pushing the right buttons or is there something else in the menu that needs to be changed? My business partner and I have a wedding in 2.5 weeks and this manually adjusted stuff is getting me a bit anxious. Any words of wisdom out there?

OK, here's what you do. Auto shutter is off in the menu - good.
Chrome slider in the middle position (you never need to put it in the lowest 'hold' position.
Now push 'shutter speed'. The default 1/50th (PAL) will show in the v'finder and on the side-screen, in a grey rectangle, meaning it's not locked.

Now you push 'exposure' ahead of the side-screen hinge, and the little wheel on the lens barrel will manually change your aperture. You'll see that the grey box has disappeared from the shutter speed, and the sel/push wheel will no longer change it. If you push white bal it'll have a grey box, meaning the sel/push wheel can change it.

If you're not sure what aperture you should be using, simply push the 'exposure button. It'll toggle between auto iris and locked iris - a very useful button to have. The shutter speed will remain locked.

Now a word about the zoom. It has an f/1.6 aperture at the wide-angle end and this loses a stop to f/2.4 at the telephoto end. All this means is that if it gets dark, step forward and shoot at wide-angle - the camera only needs half the light.

tom.

Peter
 

Peter As the help above has said - make sure you have silver slider in the centre, auto shutter off in the menu system, and then select shutter to 50 (for PAL or 60 for NTSC) visible on the LCD, gain number should also be visible on the screen be it 0 to 19

then when you press the iris button in front of the LCD panel - you have to use the dial wheel in front of that button to adjust the f stop number NOT the wheel at the back - a common mistake I keep doing before I remember.