Short Video from Maldives (HC-7)
- Thread starter pakman
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OP
pakman
Contributor
nice Martin 
Which port did your get?
First thing, yes do read the HC7 manual...
1) Learn how to customize the on screen menu ("P-menu"). I am assuming you had the MWB control installed. If so, make sure the White Balance button in the menu is located at the bottom right. I also put the Telemacro button right above the WB button on screen. A trick that Gates doesn't mention is that the MWB control rod can also reach this button. Kind of nice to have although the min distance of the HC7 at telemacro is a bit disappointing.
2) Turn the Quick Record on. This will help reduce the lag when the recording heads go to sleep and you want to record.
3) Turn on Zebra (so you can see where the picture gets overexposed)
4) Play around with the Manual button upfront and the Cam Ctrl dial. You can select Focus, Exposure, Shutter Speed, AE Shift and WB Shift. WB Shift is useless (good only for subtle topside WB adjustments).
Get comfortable with how these two interact topside. Not as nice as having dedicated controls for focus and exposure but can work. Say you are doing WA work. You would select Focus, AF on something at a medium distance (maybe your fins or the reef), lock the focus by hitting the Manual button once. Then hold the Manual button down until the menu pops up. Switch to say Exposure and now you can control the camera's exposure while the focus is still locked at your last setting. I've found the camera tends to overexpose resulting in blow outs or it starts upping the gain in low light situations. Shutter speed, I have been leaving at auto (defaults at 1/50s I believe).
AE Shift - I need to experiment with this a bit as I tend to adjust exposure a lot on this HC7 u/w. Maybe leaving this at -4, and then freeing up the control for Focus might work. A few times I've been caught with a fixed exposure and find myself panning into a bright shot (say following a hammerhead as it swims over...).
White Balancing U/W- I am far from being the expert here. In shallow bright situations, the HC7 does nicely. As you start going deep, you'll need to drop down the red filter of the HC7 as it will have a hard time WB'ing and you'll get some real nasty green/red combo.
Other basic tips, especially from a 1st time video person like myself... Count to 10 when you hit the record button and don't stop filming until you reach 10! You'll need the extra footage at the start and end for smooth transitions in editing. I've made this mistake so many times when I started: basically "snapshotting" and finding I'd had useless footage because it was too short...
And of course, smooth camera movements... It might not look shaky reviewing the footage on the camera's LCD, but watch it on a 40+" HDTV and your viewers will be looking green...
I'm sure the experts here can chime in with better general shooting advice.
edit: 1 more thing. If you happen to be using the Fathoms WP-25 Wide Angle port, you might find that the shiny lens barrel on HC-7 creates an annoying reflection off the dome if you are shooting twds the sun or a bright light source. I happened to have some black matted tape to tape around the front lens barrel of my HC-7.
Which port did your get?First thing, yes do read the HC7 manual...
1) Learn how to customize the on screen menu ("P-menu"). I am assuming you had the MWB control installed. If so, make sure the White Balance button in the menu is located at the bottom right. I also put the Telemacro button right above the WB button on screen. A trick that Gates doesn't mention is that the MWB control rod can also reach this button. Kind of nice to have although the min distance of the HC7 at telemacro is a bit disappointing.
2) Turn the Quick Record on. This will help reduce the lag when the recording heads go to sleep and you want to record.
3) Turn on Zebra (so you can see where the picture gets overexposed)
4) Play around with the Manual button upfront and the Cam Ctrl dial. You can select Focus, Exposure, Shutter Speed, AE Shift and WB Shift. WB Shift is useless (good only for subtle topside WB adjustments).
Get comfortable with how these two interact topside. Not as nice as having dedicated controls for focus and exposure but can work. Say you are doing WA work. You would select Focus, AF on something at a medium distance (maybe your fins or the reef), lock the focus by hitting the Manual button once. Then hold the Manual button down until the menu pops up. Switch to say Exposure and now you can control the camera's exposure while the focus is still locked at your last setting. I've found the camera tends to overexpose resulting in blow outs or it starts upping the gain in low light situations. Shutter speed, I have been leaving at auto (defaults at 1/50s I believe).
AE Shift - I need to experiment with this a bit as I tend to adjust exposure a lot on this HC7 u/w. Maybe leaving this at -4, and then freeing up the control for Focus might work. A few times I've been caught with a fixed exposure and find myself panning into a bright shot (say following a hammerhead as it swims over...).
White Balancing U/W- I am far from being the expert here. In shallow bright situations, the HC7 does nicely. As you start going deep, you'll need to drop down the red filter of the HC7 as it will have a hard time WB'ing and you'll get some real nasty green/red combo.
Other basic tips, especially from a 1st time video person like myself... Count to 10 when you hit the record button and don't stop filming until you reach 10! You'll need the extra footage at the start and end for smooth transitions in editing. I've made this mistake so many times when I started: basically "snapshotting" and finding I'd had useless footage because it was too short...
And of course, smooth camera movements... It might not look shaky reviewing the footage on the camera's LCD, but watch it on a 40+" HDTV and your viewers will be looking green...
I'm sure the experts here can chime in with better general shooting advice.
edit: 1 more thing. If you happen to be using the Fathoms WP-25 Wide Angle port, you might find that the shiny lens barrel on HC-7 creates an annoying reflection off the dome if you are shooting twds the sun or a bright light source. I happened to have some black matted tape to tape around the front lens barrel of my HC-7.
Great write up Pakman!!! Hard to add anything to that! I generally use AE shift instead instead of manual exposure. The HC7 does really seem to overexpose. I like how the camera handles the AE shift and doesn't seem to force the HC7 into a really show shutter speed. I guess if I took more time I'd do full manual for each shot, but the dial does really slow that process down.
OP
pakman
Contributor
Thanks for the confirmation on the AE shift Bob. If I bring my HC-7 along on my next trip in early Feb, I'll give this a test. If it (setting AE shift to negative) just does a good enough job of preventing the gain to jump, I might stick to that and dedicate the control to focus lock. I've got some ruined footage where I tried to manually adjust exposure as I panned (not pretty...).
Martin- one more tip for topside. Get a Raynox HD-5050pro wide angle converter. Pic quality is very good, slight barrel distortion, no vignetting, and full zoom thru. I think the Sony HD one is only 0.7x vs 0.5x for this Raynox. Really handy for those wide angle topside shots - e.g. while on the boat.
Martin- one more tip for topside. Get a Raynox HD-5050pro wide angle converter. Pic quality is very good, slight barrel distortion, no vignetting, and full zoom thru. I think the Sony HD one is only 0.7x vs 0.5x for this Raynox. Really handy for those wide angle topside shots - e.g. while on the boat.
Well I have a lot to work on. My wife handles most of the video. I think getting her comfortable with using the MWB is objective one. Our little Canon/Ike she just put the filter on and shot away. We did go to the SWP25, it was the main reason we went with Gates over L&M. We went with the Greenforce 50 Squids.
Couple of dumb questions.
1. At depth with red filter down I am assuming your not using lights?
2. How are people carrying their white boards?
3. I believe your lights are much more powerful than ours. Do you use them much for WA? We have a Mapelo/Cocos trip in April it did not look like you used light there? Did you try a filter?
4. Open on opinions on editing software. I have to admit I got lost reading one thread where people were reviewing what they had to do to upload to Stage 6.
Thanks again for all the great info.
Couple of dumb questions.
1. At depth with red filter down I am assuming your not using lights?
2. How are people carrying their white boards?
3. I believe your lights are much more powerful than ours. Do you use them much for WA? We have a Mapelo/Cocos trip in April it did not look like you used light there? Did you try a filter?
4. Open on opinions on editing software. I have to admit I got lost reading one thread where people were reviewing what they had to do to upload to Stage 6.
Thanks again for all the great info.
I have an FX7, not an HC7, but some of this might still apply.
In general I don't use the filter with lights.
I don't use a white board for setting MWB. I use my grey fins, the sand or the sun.
I edit with Vegas.
Many different ways to get video onto Stage6. I like the quick easy method. Your raw HDV files have a "m2t" extension. I rename the "m2t" to "mpg". Convert the "mpg" file with Dr. Divx and upload the divx file to stage6. To try out this method, use a small 10-20 second raw clip. If you like the results, use the same method with your finished edited video.
PerroneFord
Contributor
OP
pakman
Contributor
Couple of dumb questions.
1. At depth with red filter down I am assuming your not using lights?
This one I'll leave to more experienced as I'm still figuring this out and might need a separate thread. One thing I have noticed is that HC7 can really struggle to lock WB even in what you think might be decent light. So a lot of times, you'll find you are using the red filter even with lights on (unless you're doing close macro with lights).
2. How are people carrying their white boards?
I have a tethered slates on a coil clipped to my chest D ring. But like Ronscuba, I find I'll use the sand and sometimes my hands.
3. I believe your lights are much more powerful than ours. Do you use them much for WA? We have a Mapelo/Cocos trip in April it did not look like you used light there? Did you try a filter?
I bring my lights along pretty much all the time unless I know for certain I am only doing real shallow (5m or less) and it's really sunny. The HC7 loves light, and even in good daylight, they really bring out the color on macro and close wide angle.
Their reach is still limited and only help on say the coral withing 3-5ft of you (maybe less?). For Cocos, even my lights were useless unless you had a hammerhead come in real close. But, I think those squid 50's would do well on the night dives w/ the hunting white tips.
4. Open on opinions on editing software. I have to admit I got lost reading one thread where people were reviewing what they had to do to upload to Stage 6.
I had been using Premiere Pro 2.0 Nice interface but was getting frustrated with their encoder. For the last video, I gave Vegas Pro 8 a shot. I think I might be switching to Vegas.
1. At depth with red filter down I am assuming your not using lights?
This one I'll leave to more experienced as I'm still figuring this out and might need a separate thread. One thing I have noticed is that HC7 can really struggle to lock WB even in what you think might be decent light. So a lot of times, you'll find you are using the red filter even with lights on (unless you're doing close macro with lights).
2. How are people carrying their white boards?
I have a tethered slates on a coil clipped to my chest D ring. But like Ronscuba, I find I'll use the sand and sometimes my hands.
3. I believe your lights are much more powerful than ours. Do you use them much for WA? We have a Mapelo/Cocos trip in April it did not look like you used light there? Did you try a filter?
I bring my lights along pretty much all the time unless I know for certain I am only doing real shallow (5m or less) and it's really sunny. The HC7 loves light, and even in good daylight, they really bring out the color on macro and close wide angle.
Their reach is still limited and only help on say the coral withing 3-5ft of you (maybe less?). For Cocos, even my lights were useless unless you had a hammerhead come in real close. But, I think those squid 50's would do well on the night dives w/ the hunting white tips.
4. Open on opinions on editing software. I have to admit I got lost reading one thread where people were reviewing what they had to do to upload to Stage 6.
I had been using Premiere Pro 2.0 Nice interface but was getting frustrated with their encoder. For the last video, I gave Vegas Pro 8 a shot. I think I might be switching to Vegas.
