I went down to a local criterium today as I had time, it was overcast (good light) and I made it in time for A grade.

Started filming (no good idea what I am doing but hey, gotta start somewhere) and the lil display is flashing **ND2** at me, so I quickly switched the filter to ND2, the flashing sign went away, LCD seemed to right itself and I filmed the rest of the race like that.

I could RTFM, but can anyone tell me if this is the sort of warning you expect, and did I do the right thing??

Still waiting for the iMac to arrive grrrrrr.... getting impatient to start editing and viewing the clips done so far in full HD resolution!

Neutral Density (ND) filters are different levels of "sunglasses" for your sensor. Sounds like you were shooting in auto exposure mode for it to suggest ND2.

The point of ND filters is to reduce the amount of light so you can use a wider aperture. Narrow apertures, while giving you proper exposure, typically result in lens diffraction (softness).

The manual, if typical Sony style, probaby tells you HOW to operate but not so much WHY. So read up on DVInfo about diffraction and the use of ND filters.

I haven't looked at my NX5U in auto with the data on screen but I think the diffraction limits for 1/3" is about F5.6 so the auto system will try and keep iris less than this hence the warning to use the HD filter as this is manual on the NX5U. For consumer cams it is full auto and checking on my XR500 data code the auto system tries to keep iris at f2.8 or there about by varying everything else !!!!

Ron Evans

You did the right thing Aaron - you took the silent scream at face value and switched in the ND.

Diffraction losses (blurred pictures) are much more apparent at short focal lengths, so the NX5 will call for NDs earlier when you're shooting at wide-angle than when you're shooting at telephoto in the same lighting conditions. Always better to shoot at wide apertures (f/2, f/4) than small apertures (f/8, f/11) when using cameras with such tiny chips.

tom.