Video Camera Tips Settings ?

Hi all, I was thinking about looking up at the night sky with my New video camera which is a HDR SR10E.
I was wondering if there are any tips / settings I might need to change apart from the basic nightshot setting???
Would this Video camera be up to the job or is the idea dead in the water ?
Thanks for any idea`s.
Cheers
mrix

You should be fine, just get a tri-pod please. If you ever film anything zooming in to the max on for the duration of the video does nothing to help ID it. Remember to film the surrounding area for perspective. The cam should be fine to do what you want to do, but please no morphing orb videos.
Good luck

[edit on 10-12-2009 by zaiger]

reply to post by mrixxx


Looking at the specs for the HDR-SR10E it looks like quite a well specced camera . In addition to what Zaiger has said about tripod use, I'd recommend learning to use manual focus. Using your camera's manual focus will avoid a lot of problems commonly seen in UFO videos (including the specific morphing orb problem Zaiger mentioned). Also, try filming planes - to see how the autofocus copes in various lighting conditions. If the autofocus doesn't cope well in specific circumstances you'll know well in advance to use manual focus.

If the nightshot mode defaults to having a front IR light turned on automatically, and you're filming the sky, you may want to turn the beam off to save battery life. If the camera has a 'slow shutter' mode experiment with that to see how changing the setting affects things. Always film at a minimum of standard quality mode, ideally HQ mode, and never LP mode. LP mode will never have as much detail.

The main thing is to experiment by filming known objects in a variety of lights so there's no niggles when filming potentially unknown things. Good luck .

I forgot to add im not sure what you can do on your cam but you might want to see if you can adjust exposure when on nightshot mode. If you can't look up how to mod it how you can. If it looks easy enough mod it so you can adjust exposure while in nightshot.

Def. get a tripod for stable shooting, also if you like the infrared range check out some IR filters for your cam i just got me one about 2 months ago its great

i bought a 37mm X-nite 1000nm 1mm thickness filter even though my cam is only 30mm i have step fittings, these are for daytime with nightshot turned on

www.maxmax.com...

I also got a new battery for mine the factory only last 1 hour so i upgraded on amazon and got one that last over 8 hours for around $60 i think

Here is some of my setup my cam is HC-52 not quite as good of a picture as yours

My 1st cam setup

Really pleased with so many useful responses, many thanks for all these idea`s.

also if you like the infrared range check out some IR filters for your cam i just got me one about 2 months ago its great

Yes definitely interested in the infrared side of it



Right! I`ll starting filming day and night shots to see how I get along.

Many thanks for the help very much appreciated.
Cheers
mrix
p.s many thanks for the link OpTiMuS_PrImE, very informative post with all those useful links.

also if you are going to be filming in IR i strongly advise that you stay away from the bro method. That is where you block out the sun and film right around it.

All you get is lens flare and you pick up dust particles and other small thing that are catching the sun but you can see in the cam because you are filming in such a high light spectrum.
Just point it at the sky now and then and see what you get you might get something like this

please note im not saying that this is a UFO but im just using it as an example.

also if you like the infrared range check out some IR filters for your cam i just got me one about 2 months ago its great.
these are for daytime with nightshot turned on

Hi there, I have read from the manual the camcorder does have infrared

I am a little confused at the moment as regards the IR filters and how they work???? and what benefits you get from them???

Cheers
mrix

reply to post by mrixxx


An IR pass filter block out other wavelengths of light, a IR cut-off filter blocks out IR light. The former is not the same as a thermal camera, but acts indirectly to objects that are potentially emitting heat.

Another thing to consider, although it's really a preference for bright daytime shooting, is a polarizing filter:

en.wikipedia.org...

For avoiding glare off things, while increasing saturation, it really can't be beat. With some caveats - at the widest end (e.g. unzoomed) a polarizing filter will not work uniformly across the scene - the sky will look odd. But zoomed in it will a) significantly cut through haze, and b) help eliminate annoying glare from objects, as well as having other uses, such as eliminating distracting reflections.

[edit on 11-12-2009 by jackphotohobby]