Basic Camera Information

You can check out these two excellent cameras from the Library for this class.

Canon ZR-40	Canon GL-2

These cameras are made for novices as well as professionals so they include features that this class will not need, such as digital effects, audio dubbing, and still photo capture (you can do this later and better in your computer).

You can get lost in all the features of these cameras. However there are really only 6 main things you should make sure you have an understanding of at first:

1. CCD's
2. White Balance
3. Zoom control
4. Focus
5. Aperture
6. Audio

1. CCD's (Charged Coupled Devices)

In the old days, video cameras used vacuum tubes for capturing images. Today, video cameras use chips called CCD's. They either use a single CCD to capture a full-color image, or three chips to capture separate red, green, and blue data, which is then assembled into a color image.With three-CCD's, the camera is dedicating an entire sensor to each color so color fidelity and image detail are much improved over single-chip cameras.

The ZR-40 is a single-CCD camera and still provides excellent image quality. The GL-2 however is a three-CCD camera and provides broadcast quality images.

 

2. White Balance

To accurately represent color, your camera needs to know what objects in your image are white. Once the camera is calibrated for white, it can more accurately reproduce other colors. Both of these cameras can automatically adjust their white balance, however sometimes the light fools the meter and you will want to override the auto features. Both of these cameras allow you to adjust the white balance manually by taking a reading off of a white object that you hold in front of the camera.

 

3. Zoom Control

Both of these cameras allow you to have variable speed zoom control. It can be tricky but you'll get the hang of it. It is regulated by the amount of pressure you apply to the zoom control with your finger.

Also both of these have Optical and Digital Zooms. Here's my opinion....Optical Zoom....Good........ Digital Zoom...Bad!

Optical Zoom is just that...it uses the real optics of the lens to zoom in closer to your subject. Digital Zoom is meant to go beyond the optical zoom. Once you have maximized your zooming through the optical lenses, it then magnifies the existing pixels. It's an illusion, and a poor one. You're not getting closer to your subject, you're just getting closer to the pixels which results in...uhhh pixelated images. They get mushy and jaggy. Unless you have a specific reason for such poor quality imagery, I would turn this feature off.

 

4. Focus

Both cameras have auto focusing which is great! Sometimes however you run into situations where this could be a hinderance, such as something moving briefly in front of subject causing the camera to focus on it rather than your subject. There are actually many situations you may run into which would require you to manually override your camera. Fortunately both cameras allow you to manually adjust focus

 

5. Aperture

Some expensive cameras allow you to have separate lenses with f-stop control just like a 35mm camera. If you don't know what this means, no worries, these cameras don't have this. They do however give you the option to adjust for more or less light, in the same way the iris of your eye lets in less light when it's bright out or more light when it's dark.

Most of the time you will just use the automatic aperture settings on your camera. However sometimes you need to override this. For example if you are videotaping a person in a room standing in front of a window. The window light may be so bright that your camera adjusts for this leaving your subject looking like a silhoette. You can manually override your aperture with these cameras, so your camera adjust for the light falling onto your subject and ignores the bright light outside.

 

6. Audio

Microphones included on all cameras are convenient but terrible. Low-quality to begin with, their usefulness is further degraded by the fact that they often pick up camera motor noise, as well as the sound of your hands on the camera itself. An external microphone is essential. You can check out a hand held microphone that can also be attached to a boom extension handle, or you can check out a wireless microphone that attaches to your subject or hidden nearby your subject. I highly recommend you use an external microphone. You will also want to plug in some little headphones (like the ones you use for your Walkman) so you can ensure that you're actually recording audio and that the levels are correct. You have the ability to set audio levels on both the cameras.