A bunch of us at my TV station went upstairs to our "clock tower," where we watched the downtown West Palm Beach, Florida fireworks happen. (It was lame this year.) I brought the HD10 with me and set it up on my sticks and threw it on HD mode and auto white balance (too dark) and I have to say, on the crappy LCD, it looked GREAT--all the colors were more vivid than what I did four years ago at our old building (we had the BEST view from there, almost right underneath, on the intercoastal waterway--it's like a HUGE "river" parallel to the ocean) with my XL-1 for my film. You can see how colorless those were in my film, SKYE FALLING (on DVD soon, plug plug).

I zoomed in onto the black sky and let the fireworks explode, and I didn't notice the auto iris. It might have been there, but I'm not sure. It all looked great; as soon as I can figure out how to capture via FCP, I'll post some clips.

I was angry earlier with the auto iris situation, and maybe this helped keep things smooth in that department.

heath

I had a similar fine experience tonight shooting fireworks with my HD1. I found I liked it best on manual with the shutter at 1/15 and the f-stop at 1.8 and the focus set at infinity. Like Heath says, lokked great in the viewfinder.

<<<-- Originally posted by Bob England : I had a similar fine experience tonight shooting fireworks with my HD1. I found I liked it best on manual with the shutter at 1/15 and the f-stop at 1.8 and the focus set at infinity. Like Heath says, lokked great in the viewfinder. -->>>

I was so impressed, actually, that I just might keep it. But Monday should provide some answers.

Can you get around the auto iris issues, Bob? Help us out!

heath

Actually the auto iris doesn't bother me. So far, I've found the manual controls work well enough to do what I want. I do wish it had a built-in ND filter like both my Sony 3-chips had.


<<<-- Originally posted by Heath McKnight : I was so impressed, actually, that I just might keep it. But Monday should provide some answers.

Can you get around the auto iris issues, Bob? Help us out!

heath -->>>