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Hello and welcome to a brief tutorial on the HMC 150 camera. These cameras are used all
over the world and they're used for documentary production. Today we're going to look at the
basic features. On the back of the camera you'll see the SDHC card goes in. It looks
like this. We recommend a class 10 card. The cover pushes to the left and then comes down
so you can insert the SD card and you're good to record media. We'll show you how the battery
releases and attaches. The release is a little button that says push on it. Push it, move
the battery up and pull it out. To insert the battery, make sure the pins will connect
at the bottom. Start the battery at the top, push it down, it should click and it's good
to go. The on switch is on the side of the camera. The viewfinder will fit into the camera
like that. On a sunny day you can use the eyepiece. You'll find that the viewfinder
sometimes is hard to see when there's sun directly on it so use this the eyepiece - look
through on a sunny day. You'll find the button that says mode on the back of the camera.
That allows you to toggle back and forth between playback and record. The playback controls
are on the top left hand side of the camera and there's a little joystick. There are some
built in presets controlling how the camera sees the picture. Generally you're going to
leave this on F1 or F2 if you are shooting in florescent light. On the side of the lens
there is a neutral density filter, ND filter. This will cut the overall amount of light
coming into your lens and therefore onto the chip of the camera. You can add neutral density
on a bright day to help expose the scene. When you're shooting you'll want all of the
controls set on manual so you have control. That means that this switch should show manual.
The ring switch should be on the focus position because that means that you can then use the
lens ring to control the focus manually. The white balance we'll get into in a minute,
but it should be on A or B at this point. We're not using preset. And gain should be
on the lowest setting, which is L for low. Gain boosts your picture. You want to add
light rather than boosting the picture electronically, so leave the gain on low. And this iris button
allows you to toggle through between auto iris and manual. We'll show you that and how
it appears in the viewfinder. Once your iris is set to manual, you'll be controlling the
exposure with this control right here ok, so that opens and closes your iris if it's
set on manual. Zebra is going to give you information about the exposure of your picture.
When you push the zebra switch it gives you some settings. Zebra 80 percent and zebra
100 percent. Here's an example of how to use zebra. In this scene, we'll be able to tell
which parts are overexposed by setting zebra at 100 percent. As I adjust the iris, you
can see the zebra appear in the picture. That means that those parts of the scene are overexposed.
It's ok for a little zebra to show - maybe a highlight on someone's face, maybe something
that's very bright in the background but you're exposing for the foreground. That's how you
tell what areas are a little bit blown out in terms of exposure. Speaking of exposure,
you can only expose something properly if you have lots of light. Always take one of
these little sima lights or a bigger light for the top of the camera. It fits right on
the shoe. Tighten it up. Turn it on. That will work fairly close to a subject just to
put a sparkle in their eye and make them look alive. Always use a little light like that,
even outside. The HMC 150 has two zoom controllers. One's here on the side. Zoom in, zoom out.
And there's also one here on the top. If you find that the top controller zooms too slowly
or too fast for you, there's a speed control on the side here for that handle zoom. The
camera has two built in microphones also known as internal microphones. It's important that
you use these just for ambient sound. If you're doing an interview always use one channel
for a microphone. These audio inputs are known as XLR connectors. Here's how you plug your
mic in and it should snap. To get it out, there's a little push button and it pulls
out. Ok, XLR connectors, that's how you plug your mic in. Choose either channel 1 or channel
2 but I want to show you something that's really important. On the front of the camera
near those XLR inputs, you'll see these switches for each channel. Line or mic, you have to
select that. If it's a microphone going in there, you definitely want it on mic. If you
had a mic going in here to channel one with this switch on line, you would not see an
audio level, or you certainly wouldn't see one that you could use. That's because line
is for a pre-amplified feed of sound. If you're using a microphone that position allows the
camera to use the very small input from the microphone so if you're using mics, make sure
these switches are down on the mic position, otherwise that will cause you audio problems.
Also really important for sound - the settings here on the side. Channel one and channel
two, that's your audio inputs. If channel one is up on internal, and channel two is
up on internal, that means all of your sound is coming from the on-board microphones. If
you have a microphone for an interview plugged in to let's say channel one, you would have
to take the channel one selector switch and flip it down to input one. Ok, so if you didn't
have it in that position, you would show levels however they would be coming from the camera
and you wouldn't be coming from the microphone. So if you've got a microphone plugged in,
switch it down to the input that corresponds to where the microphone is. Another very important
switch - white balance, AWB stands for auto white balance. This button allows you to get
a white balance and we're going to show you how. To get a white balance, you're going
to zoom in on something white, preferably a white card or a white piece of paper. Make
sure the exposure is ok. Once the screen is filled with white you simply just touch that
white balance button on the front of the camera. It will say white balance is active. ABB which
is the black balance is active, now your camera is ready to give you proper colour.