Focus Assist; Iris Adjustment; Exposure Adjustment Using The Zebras - Panasonic AG-HMC150 User Manual

from changing during the shot, e.g. making sure the
auto focus does not respond to someone crossing the
frame while the camera is focused on your subject.

Focus assist

Pressing the FOCUS ASSIST button magni es the
center of the screen or displays a frequency
distribution graph in the top right of the screen,
enabling you to focus more easily. e screen display
that appears after pressing the FOCUS ASSIST is
determined by the FOCUS ASSIST setting in the
SW MODE settings menu. (see page 89 in the
manual). e display can be in one of three modes:
• EXPANDED. e central part of the screen will
be magni ed (4X in the vertical direction and 6X
in the horizontal direction). EXPANDED is
displayed on the screen during the expanded
display.
• GRAPH. A frequency distribution graph will be
displayed in the top right of the view nder or the
LCD monitor. Adjust the lens focus ring so that
the graph area expands toward right as shown in
the graph. For example, the graph shown on the
right is more
in focus than
the graph on
the left. e
graph cannot
be displayed
in both the view nder and the LCD monitor at
the same time, so to display the graph in the
view nder, close the LCD monitor.
• BOTH. Displays both the expanded screen and
the graph at the same time.
Press the FOCUS ASSIST button again to return
to the original screen.

Iris adjustment

To enable manual iris (aperture) adjustment, set the
AUTO/MANUAL switch on the side
of the camera to MANUAL.
While in manual mode, pressing the
IRIS button changes how the
aperture will be adjusted:
AUTO IRIS: the aperture is
adjusted automatically by
the camera, or
MANUAL IRIS: the
aperture is adjusted
manually using the IRIS
dial
To adjust the aperture while in
Introduction to the Panasonic AG-HMC150 AVCHD camcorder (rough draft)
manual mode, simply turn the IRIS dial on the side
of the camera.
e direction of the IRIS dial and it's effect on the
aperture is determined in the setup menus: SW
MODE screen -> IRIS DIAL. If you have set the
A.IRIS item ON in the AUTO SW menu, the
manual iris mode will be deactivated. Since the
default is ON, you will want to turn this setting OFF
in order to be able to select between automatic and
manual mode using the IRIS button.
e zoom lens on the camera does not have a
continuous aperture through the zoom range,
therefore, when the lens is set to the minimum focal
length (full wide angle), the aperture is f/1.6. When
the lens is set to the maximum focal length (full
telephoto) the aperture is f/3.0.
e lens aperture can be adjusted using the focus ring
by setting the RING (FOCUS/IRIS) switch to IRIS.
However, is a pretty strange thing to do, as you want
in most cases to have access to both manual exposure
and manual focus, so I suggest avoiding using this
mode. Get used to using the IRIS dial for exposure
and the focus ring for focus. It's nice to be able to
choose between manual focus or automatic focus on
the y, just as it's possible to choose between manual
exposure and automatic exposure at the same time.

Exposure adjustment using the zebras

Press the ZEBRA button while in CAM mode to
show the zebra pattern on the view nder or the
marker on the view nder so you can check to see
what portions of the scene are too bright. Parts of the
scene that may be overexposed are shown as a zebra
pattern.
In manual mode you can then adjust the IRIS knob
to adjust the aperture of the lens in order to increase
or reduce the exposure of the scene. e idea is to
Manual exposure controls
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