I'm probably missing something very obvious here but is there any way of changing the aperture settings on the HD1000? I'm trying to experiment a bit with depth of field but not having much success...
You'll have to set it to manual.
Yes I got that far but I can't find any way of changing the apperture settings. Maybe someone who uses this camera can point me in the right direction?
Hi Stuart,
Just saw your post and had a quick scan through the user manual but cant see much to do with Aperture. In fact a scan through the document found Aperture mentioned twice and that was on page 64. I have just bought the same camera but as yet I'm still working through another I bought at the same time. Not sure if this will help, let me know.
Regards
Ron
if this is the larger version of the A1E, then AFAIK the aperture is controlled by the touchsceen?
Also, it's probably referred to as 'Iris'.
You can sign the MANUAL button to "Exposure" then use the control ring (pg25).
You can also adjust the exposure using the on-screen menu (pg40).
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. The word "Iris" doesn't actually appear in the manual at all, believe it or not.
By setting the focus to manual and zooming in to focus on the foreground object, it's possible to zoom out and keep the background defocussed up to a point which can look quite reasonable but I'm surprised there's no actual aperture control.
Sorry if this is egg sucking but...
My understanding is that the HD1000 is an HC1/A1 in a big housing. The chip inside the HD1000/A1/HC1 is relatively small. The "Exposure" control normally opens or closes the aperture/iris.
When you need to generate a blurred background with a small chip camera you normally have to fully open the iris (max exposure) and zoom in quite a lot. You may need to control the light entering the camera by increasing the shutter speed.
The bigger the chip, the easier it is to control the depth of field for any given focal length.
'Ya canna change the laws of photography Jim' (or Stuart).*
*Except that some cameras use trickery to control exposure. There are only one or two physical stops but electronic trickery in-between these fills in the gaps to create the impression that there are more.
Does this help?
Ah I see. Now that does make sense and explains why there's very little mention of aperture in the manual. I shall have a play around but I think you've hit the nail on the head.
If it really is the A1 in a big box, the you should find.....
The exposure control combines gain, iris and shutter in one. On my A1, the control tuns in half-stop/3dB steps. It starts at, I think, +15dB with shutter off and iris fully open. It steps down the gain until it gets to 0dB, then starts closing the iris. When it gets to F/4, it holds the iris constant and winds in neutral density filtering for 3 stops worth. Then it carries on closing down the iris. The it shortens the shutter.
The only way to find out what it's doing is to record it, and then play back with camera metadata on-screen. As you operate the exposure control, you can see the shutter closing if you peer into the lens. You can also see the neutral filter being wound in.
The PDX10P used the same 'auto ND' that Alan describes, but the metadata told lies on replay (as did various other cameras, so Sony are not alone in this). Extrapolation was used so that the replay readout said that a particular frame had been shot at 1/50th and f/8, whereas in fact you were shooting at 1/50th, f/4 and using 2 stops of internal and undocumented ND.
So it's not really electronic trickery Gavin, it's bog standard mechanical trickery.
tom.
As far as I'm aware, the A1 actually does tell the truth. But it never mentions the neutral filter. So, I'd expect the same of the HD1000.
I've had a run through the manual and you may find what your looking for on the following pages Stuart:
Ring setting is on page 31, Exposure on page 46, Shutter speed, Auto Slow shutter and AE Shift are on page 47 continued on page 48.
I haven't got round to trying this out in practice yet Stuart but it looks like it might help.
Regards
Ron
That's great, Ron. Thanks. Looks like it will be a combination of exposure and shutter speed so I will play around with it and see what happens.
You're welcome Stuart, hope it helps. Glad to be able to feedback sometimes, I've done a bit of asking lately and the help from forum members has been very helpful and well appreciated :)
Good luck
Regards
Ron
Yes, Ron it's great when you get an answer. That's the joy of forums like this.