I purchased a used Sony PD150 pal (in a very good condiiton) and i shot some various footage mostly playing with manual options. Most of the shots were shot in a room with low light but it had more light than the camcorder needs . I adjust the settings while i was looking in the lcd monitor of the PD150 (except the focus, i adjust that in the viewfinder). In the lcd the view was perfect just as i wanted. But when i saw the footage to my computer i saw that the footage was way to dark (almost total darkness).

Sure i'm aware that a raw video needs some color adjustments from a software but i am wondering how can i judge light conditions and how clear captures the camcorder if the lcd monitor shows the view much brighter than it really records?

Any help would be much appreciated.

You were adjusting the iris and shutter right? in my daughter's first year in film school, she told me that some fellow students were adjusting the brightness of the PD150 display thinking they were changing the exposure.

You have to calibrate your display as best you can to match what the camera sees before you can trust it. A software waveform monitor using the firewire output (Veescope is one) may help.

This isn't really scientific, but it should help. Connect your camera to your computer via firewire and use your editing display the standard color bars and send them to the camera. Using the camera's LCD screen and brightness control, adjust it so that only the 11.5 IRE PLUGE bar is visible. Make sure the ambient lighting is comparable to the conditions you will be shooting under. See this link for more info on color bars: Color Bars and How To Use ‘em Video University (http://www.videouniversity.com/articles/color-bars-and-how-to-use-em)

After using your camera for awhile, you will get a sense of what the recorded video looks like based on its appearance on the little LCD screen. It takes time, but experience is always the best teacher!

Thank you both for your replies.