I think a setting on my DVX100a is wrong. I'm new with the camera but I went to shoot a scene in direct sunlight today and with iris on auto the entire scene looked near white (above 80 on the zebra.) The iris had stopped everything down to F16 so not sure if there is another setting that I needed to change like shutter or something else.

Help would be appreciated!

-Jonathan

Look for the ND Filter slider switch that is on the left side of the camera near the lens. That is, if the lens is facing away from you, it's on the left side of the camera.

The ND filter (Neutral Density) darkens the image so that you may expose correctly in brighter light, so as you click it up, it will get darker.

Bravo!

You're right on. It was turned off. Now next question is where is the switch normally set by default and how do I know when it's set correctly (I assume that I just check my zebra as usual?) Should the filter ever be turned off as I had it? How about indoors?

Can you give me a quick explanation as to why it's used and what's it does?

Thanks!

Jonathan - The ND switch on the DVX is a manually controlled option (as far as I'm aware). Just use it in conjunction with your iris until you reach a light level that you deem tolerable. The zebras or spot meter will help in that task - along with your eye. Pretty much all the time I shoot outside I put the ND filter on, that way I can keep the iris as open as possible to attain shallow DoF. I've never used an ND filter indoors, there generally isn't enough light to warrant its use.

As far as its use - someone likened it to being "sunglasses" for the camera. I can't tell you how many stops it knocks off, but I'm sure someone around here can. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the info!