Panasonic DVCPro Operating instructions

Brand: Panasonic

Model: DVCPro

Type: Operating instructions

Operating Guide for the RTN Panasonic DVCPro Camera

Revised January 22, 2003

Tripod

The tripod is the first thing to set-up. Use the tripod whenever possible as your

shoulder is not nearly as steady as the tripod is (plus, the camera isn't exactly "light.")

Your instructors will notice when normally stationary objects, especially buildings and

signs, jiggle around on the screen.

1. The best way to set up a tripod quickly and keep it level is to extend the legs to

the desired height before separating them. Extend the legs by loosening the larger

square-like knobs by turning them counterclockwise and pulling the leg down until the

desired level. Then tighten the knobs to lock them in place by turning them clockwise.

To separate the legs, loosen the smaller knobs on the inside extender bar. Once you've

separated the legs, tighten the smaller knobs to lock the legs in place.

Note: To ensure that the camera is steady and won't tip over, spread the legs out as

far as they can go. If your shooting space restricts you from doing this, spread the

legs out as far as reasonably possible.

2. Make sure the tripod is level by checking the green bubbles located on the base

and head of the tripod. If the bubble on the head is in the little black circle then you are

level. Adjust leg heights accordingly to get the bubble in the circle if it is not there. You

can make subtle adjustments by turning the black tips of the tripod legs.

3. The panning handles are down when the camera is stored in the carrying case

so you will need to loosen the adjustments which clamp the handles in place, raise the

handles up and retighten the adjustments. The handles can be further extended by

loosening the knobs that are attached to clamps on the handles, pulling the handles out,

and tightening the knobs back up.

4. In order to tilt the camera, first loosen the tilt lock, which is located on the

upper right-hand side of the tripod by the Manfrotto logo if you are standing behind it.

When you have found the desired tilt level, tighten the knob back up. In order to pan the

camera, you have to loosen the pan lock, which is on the back of the tripod under the

upper bubble. Do not try to tilt or pan the camera without loosening these knobs, as you

will damage the tripod.

5. The tripod can be raised further by using the crank located on the base of the

tripod below the panning handles. To release the crank, push the black ring around the

crank towards the center of the tripod and pull the crank handle out. Raise the tripod by

turning the crank to the right. Lower by turning the crank to the left. When you finish

shooting, make sure the tripod is lowered all the way down. Return the crank handle to

its original position by once again pushing the ring inward and pushing the handle in

towards the tripod until it clicks into place.

6. To mount the camera onto the tripod, first locate the rectangular tripod

adapter piece in your camera case. The adapter has a grooved trapezoidal

base which needs to be slid into the opening on the top of the tripod.

First, make sure that the triangular opening on the top of the adapter is facing the

front of the tripod if you are standing behind the panning handles, and the silver "button"

on the back of the adapter should face you. Next, loosen the knob at the very top of the

tripod by turning it to the left. Then, press and hold the knob down and slide the adapter

in place. Once you have slid the adapter into place, turn the knob to the right to tighten

and secure the adapter. The camera is mounted onto the adapter by lining up the

triangular metal piece on the bottom front of the camera with the triangular opening on

top of the tripod. Place the metal piece into the opening and push the camera forward

until it clicks into place. To make sure the camera is locked in place, lift up on the

handle. The camera should not move at all. Never force anything!!!!

To release the camera from the tripod, pull the red button on the left side under

the camera base plate and then, while pressing the red button, pull the black lever. You

should then be able to pull the camera back and lift it off the tripod.

To remove the adapter from the tripod, turn the knob at the very top of the tripod

to the left to loosen. Then press the knob down towards the ground and slide the adapter

out of the tripod at the same time. Return the adapter to the camera case.

Power

The battery is placed on the very back of the camera by aligning the three copper

screws on the battery with the three holes on the camera. Place the screws in the holes

and push the battery to the right until it clicks into place. Check to make sure the battery

is securely fastened.

To release the battery, push down on the gray lever to the left of the battery pull

battery out to the left.

The power switch is on the bottom left-hand side of the camera. Push the switch

to the ON (right) position to power up the camera.

Default Settings

After you have powered up the camera, make sure the following buttons are in the

following positions: There are four switches just above the power switch. Make sure the

Gain is at 0; the AWB is at MEMO; the Output is on CAM; and the Shutter is OFF.

Remember to check this next one carefully; many students have been returning with

dark video because they haven’t checked this next switch: on the opposite side of the

camera near the lens is the camera grip (the place your hand goes when you're shooting).

On this grip just in front of the zoom adjustment you'll see a switch that has an "M" and

an "A" option. Make sure the button is switched to "A"!!!! This

makes sure the Iris is always in automatic mode, which automatically lets in the proper

amount of light.

Loading Tape

After powering up insert your tape by hitting the eject button on the top of the

camera. Insert the tape into the camera with the writing on the tape upside-down and

facing away from the camera and manually shut the tape door (gently of course).

White Balance

White balance must be done every time you set up and every time the lighting

situation changes. Place a sheet of white paper in front of the camera in the same lighting

conditions in which you will be shooting. Zoom in and focus on the piece of paper so

that the white fills up the entire screen. On the bottom front of the camera, flick the

AUTO W/B BAL switch up to AWB. Your viewfinder will go black and then come back

to the picture. Continue to hold the white sheet of paper in front of the camera until the

white balance is completed in about 10 seconds.

If you are trying to white balance the camera outside and you receive a message

inside your viewfinder that says "too bright," you must turn the ND Filter on. The switch

for the ND Filter is located on the very front of the left side of the camera. Move the

switch to the ON position and try again to white balance. If you move to a different

location to shoot, turn the ND Filter off before re-white balancing. Also, before you turn

the camera off, make sure the ND Filter is switched back to the OFF position.

Focus

Focus for the camera is done manually. To focus on an object, turn the focus ring

at the front of the lens until the object comes into focus. To have an entire scene in focus,

focus in on the furthest object and zoom out. Everything in the foreground will be in

focus.

If you're trying to focus on an object that is close to the camera and you're not

able to get it into focus, turn the focus ring all the way to the right. Then locate the

Macro focus ring, which is the ring on the lens closest to the camera. Press the Macro

button in and turn the ring until the object comes into focus.

Zoom

To zoom the picture in and out, press either the "T" or the "W" on the switch,

which is attached to the lens. The "T" is for tight and will zoom in. Consequently the

"W" is for wide and will zoom out. If the zoom controls are not working, check the

switch underneath the lens that has an "S" and an "M" on it. Make sure the white dot is

lined up with the "S."

Audio

The audio adjusting board is on the left-hand side of the camera. You'll see that

there are two possible channels which audio can go into. Each channel can be put in

either the front or rear positions. If it is in the front position, it will take the sound from

the built-in microphone on the front of the camera. If it is in the rear position, it will take

the sound from the microphone jacks on the bottom rear of the camera (this is where your

hand-held microphone cable plugs in.) There is an outlet for channel one and channel

two. Make sure the outlet you plug your mic into coordinates with the channel on the

audio board that is switched to rear. We suggest that you always have channel one on the

rear (hand-held) mic and channel two on the front built-in mic. (This only works if you

plug the hand-held mic into the rear channel one jack, and set the side audio channel one

switch to REAR, and set the side audio channel two switch to FRONT.)

On the audio panel you can also adjust the level at which your sound is coming in.

Each channel has a dial that adjusts the level of sound. You can monitor your sound level

by looking into your viewfinder at the series of minuses and pluses in the upper left-hand

corner. If the levels are going into the pluses, it's too loud, and should be reduced by

adjusting the audio dial for the appropriate audio channel.

To make sure you're getting your sound while you are shooting (which you should

always do), you can plug headphones into the phones jack on the bottom rear of the

camera next to the mic jacks. There is also a small monitoring speaker on the left side of

the camera, the level of which can be adjusted by a small monitoring dial on the bottom

left of the camera.

Recording

To record, press the VTR button on the camera grip with your right thumb. To

stop recording, press the same button again. (There is another VTR button that does the

same thing on the bottom front of the camera next to the white balance switch.)

Playback

You can play back what you just recorded once you have stopped recording by

hitting the button marked RET which is next to the zoom switcher to the right of the lens.

If you hold this button down it will rewind the tape until you let go. It will then play the

tape in the viewfinder up to the point where you stopped recording.

You can also play back a tape in the camera by using the VCR controls on the top

of the camera. The controls are hidden beneath a black cover next to the eject button.

Flip up the cover to expose the controls. You can view the tape in the viewfinder and

listen to the sound through the headphones or the small speaker.

Holding the Camera

When shooting with the DVCPro camera, always use the tripod. But if a situation

arises in which you must hold the camera by hand, here's the proper way to hold the

camera:

As a general rule, pans and zooms do not work well in television news stories. If

you decide you must do a pan while holding the camera by hand, here's how:

Advanced Features

Gain

On occasion, you might be forced to shoot in unusually low lighting conditions,

and not be able to use a stand light. For example:

· Your light stand doesn't work

· You are at a meeting or a restaurant or a nightclub and it seems awkward to suddenly

turn a light on

· You have to grab the camera and run quickly to get a shot, and don't have time to

bring the light stand

· You are doing a "hidden camera" report

Under conditions like these, there is a way to artificially boost the apparent light

level going into the camera with a feature known as GAIN. It is one of the series of

buttons located just above the POWER switch on the camera.

To boost the apparent light level, you would boost the GAIN on the camera. First,

white balance the camera with the GAIN OFF. Then try moving the GAIN switch from

the OFF or "0" position to the next position, "6/9". You should see things appear lighter

in the viewfinder. If it is REALLY dark, you might have to boost the GAIN all the way

down to the "12/18" position.

WARNING:

1) There is a tradeoff here! The more you boost the gain, the more grainy your

video will become. Often there is little or no visible graininess in the "6/9"

position, but you will almost certainly see some graininess in the "12/18"

position. You have to decide which is the lesser of the two evils.

2) REMEMBER TO TURN OFF THE GAIN (BACK TO "0") BEFORE

SHOOTING UNDER ANY OTHER LIGHTING CONDITIONS!!!

Macro

Sometimes you may want to shoot a very small object, or something so small you

need to get unusually close to it to tape it, like a paragraph from a printed document, or a

small photograph. The normal lens will not focus on anything closer than several feet

from the camera. To record subjects extremely close to the camera, you need to use

what's called the MACRO LENS.

To use the MACRO, find the part of the lens ring closest to the camera body that

has markings that looks like this:

MACRO button

MACRO

This is the MACRO lens, which includes a MACRO button. Here's how to use it:

· bring your camera close to the object you want to shoot

· zoom out with the regular lens, as wide as you can go (i.e., press the "W" side of the

regular zoom all the way)

· when you are aimed at the (fuzzy) subject, press the MACRO button towards the

camera and then slowly turn the attached lens ring to the right

· stop turning when your subject comes in focus, and start taping

· if you change the position of the camera, you'll need to adjust the macro lens again

until the subject is clear

WARNING:

Remember to exit the MACRO lens when you're done by turning it all the way to

the left. You will hear a click as the MACRO button returns to its normal (locked)

position, and the MACRO lens will stop moving. Students often have subsequent

focusing problems by forgetting to return the MACRO lens to its normal (unused)

position.

TO ENSURE THE EQUIPMENT WORKS PROPERLY, DO

NOT TOUCH ANY OTHER BUTTON OR LEVER OR

KNOB ON THE CAMERA OR TRIPOD THAT WE HAVE

NOT MENTIONED. HAPPY SHOOTING!

Before shooting use the following checklist to make sure all

switches are positioned properly:

Default Setup for the RTN Panasonic DVCPRO

Camera

1. Return all Camera Settings to the Default Positions.

A. Set the Gain Selection Switch to 0.

B. Set the AWB Selector Switch to Memo.

C. Set the Output Selector Switch to Cam.

D. Set the Shutter Selection Switch to Off.

E. Set the ND Filter Switch to Off.

F. Set the Iris Control Switch to A. (Automatic)(Top of hand grip)

G. Set Light Control Switch to On Position. (Small switch under

battery pack)

H. Set Macro Adjustment Dial to the Lock Position.

I. Set the Power/Manual Zoom Selector Switch to S.

(Servo)(Under hand grip)

2. Return all Viewfinder Settings to the Default Positions. (Front

of Viewfinder)

A. Set the Peaking Control Knob to the 12 o’clock Position.

(Indicating mark pointing upward)

B. Set the Contrast Control Knob to the 12 o’clock Position.

(Indicating mark pointing upward)

C. Set the Brightness Control Knob to the 12 o’clock Position.

(Indicating mark pointing upward)

D. Set the Character Switch to On.

E. Set the Zebra Switch to Off.

F. Set the Tally Switch to Off.

3. Return all Microphone Settings to the Default Positions.

A. Unless your professor instructs you otherwise, set the

Microphone Selection Switches.

1. Channel 1 to the Rear

2. Channel 2 to the Front

B. Set the Recording Level Dials to the 12 o’clock Position.

(Arrows point upward)

4. Physical Checks

A. Verify the Lens Locking Ring is Secure. (The lens locking ring

pin should point downward)

B. Verify the Viewfinder Locking Ring is Tight. (Hand tight only!!)

If you experience any problems in the field, please call CPS @

ext. 5660.

Panasonic DVCPro Operating instructions

Panasonic DVCPro Operating instructions

Panasonic DVCPro Operating instructions

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