I was so pleased with the performance of my HF S200 that I purchased it’s big brother, the HF S100.

I wanted to be able to shoot a three-camera setup.  The third camera allows me to shoot an interview, for example.  I have a camera on a two-shot of the interviewer and interviewee.  Another camera is close on the interviewee.  The third camera is close up on the interviewer.  I have all three cameras running, introduce a sound sync mark, and then I can easily edit in a multi-camera mode.  It’s a piece of cake.  And if someone flubs, I have coverage to edit past that.

A couple of key camera features include zebra bars and exposure adjustment so it is much easier to get the exposures you desire.  On occasion, I want a scene dark, for example.  Instead of having the camera turn up the gain automatically and create noise in the dark areas, you set a lower exposure value and it doesn’t auto adjust.  It you are getting zebra bars, it is also helpful to lower exposure so you don’t blow out your whites.

I also enjoy the 8 megapixel still pictures.  This allows me to shoot clean plates for use in green screen and compositing.  The 16:9 format may not be so great as a still format but turning the camera sideways can give some big verticals.

– Rich Pulham

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Video equipment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.