Panasonic AG-HMC150 Product Manual page 10

3
Selecting the right neutral density filter
Neutral density filters allow the camera
to operate correctly outdoors in sunlight.
A neutral density filter does for the cam-
era what sunglasses do for your eyes—it
reduces the amount of light that can pass
through without changing the color of that
light.
Once the iris is set to auto or manual, the
camera will tell you if a neutral density filter
is needed with an indicator in the middle of
the LCD monitor. The indicator will also tell
you which neutral density filter you should
use.
If indoors and the scene is too dark
even with the iris setting on OPEN,
turn OFF the ND filter.
NOTE: If the iris is set to MANUAL
and the ND filter is changed, a
readjustment of the iris may be
necessary.
4
Setting a white balance
White balancing the camera guarantees that white and all other col-
ors record correctly. Though the human eye cannot perceive it, white
light coming from the sun is different than white light coming from a
light bulb.
You should white balance your camera before recording, but especially
when lighting conditions change (moving from sunlight to artificial light
or vice versa).
White balancing the camera
1. If the AUTO MANUAL switch is set to AUTO, the camera uses
ATW (Auto Tracking White) to white balance.
2. If the AUTO MANUAL switch is set to MANUAL, set the WHITE
BAL switch to B or A.
3. Point the camera at a white object set in your lighting and zoom in
so that it fills as much of the frame as possible.
4. Press the AWB button on the front of the camera. Release when
AWB Bch (or Ach) ACTIVE appears in the LCD monitor. AWB Bch
(or Ach) OK appears when the white balance is complete.
5. Hold the AWB button to black balance the camera. ABB ACTIVE
flashes while black balancing; ABB OK appears when complete.
The LCD monitor will go black during this process.
If the WHITE BAL switch is set to PRST, press the AWB button to
switch between P3.2K (halogen light) and P5.6K (outdoors).
ND FILTER SETTINGS
1/64 cuts light intensity by 1/64
1/16 cuts light intensity by 1/16
1/4 cuts light intensity by 1/4
OFF ND filter is not used
GAIN
If you
followed
the setup
procedure and your
video looks dark, we
recommend adding
lights first. If after
doing this the video
still looks dark, you
can move the GAIN
switch from L (low)
to M (medium) or H
(high). Only do this
as a last measure
because as gain is
increased, so is the
graininess of the
video.
SCENE FILES
F1: Normal
F2: FLUO.
Indoors under cool
fluorescent lights
F3: SPARK
Fuller variations of
resolution, coloring
and contrast
F4: B-STR
Contrast of dark
parts broadened
(exp. sunsets)
F5: CINE V
Contrast empha-
sized in movielike
scenes
F6: CINE D
Dynamic range em-
phasized in movie-
like scenes
9