Hello again,

Well the Ninja 2 has arrived and it's superb. Thanks to all who helped.

Now, I'm now having issues with the Z7 itself ...

It's been a while since I operated it and there are a couple of those niggly little settings annoying me.

IRIS : I have the IRIS switched to MAN (I wouldn't have it any other way) and the AUTO/MANUAL switch on the left side of the camera is set to MANUAL. However, the iris still balloons when I move from dark to light and vice versa. I've found the setting which allows me to change the speed of this horrible auto function but for the life of me I can't seem to switch it off. On the viewfinder I have a hand icon and the word "OFF". Any ideas as as far as I can see I'm in total MAN mode but no ...

NOISE : To test the Ninja I shot a bit of footage from my 6th floor balcony. The sun was up but there was a fair amount of fog in the distance. The buildings opposite were quite brightly lit so I played around with various ND settings and noticed the stark difference between ZEBRA at 75 and 100%. I also noticed that once I had imported the clips into FCP, there seemed to be a fair bit of noise in the darker areas (such as a dark blue sky).

GAIN : -3 / 0 / 9dB (L-H)
SMOOTH GAIN / HYPER GAIN : OFF
AGC LIMIT : OFF

(in PPs)
BLACK LEVEL : R/G/B 0/0/0
GAMMA : STANDARD
BLACK GAMMA : RANGE LOW

Before you ask, I have a Z7 tutorial DVD but it just doesn't cover this ...

Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from someone soon.

Stuart

I don't use the Z7 or S270 but if they are like most all other Sony Pro type cameras the HAND with the OFF on it is the Image Stabilizer which is set to OFF. This is a setting in the menu. On/Off are the only options for that. As for the iris, do you have the shutter set to Manual/Off...in one of the menus there is a setting for Auto Shutter to either On or Off. It should be off. OR there is a switch on the front of the camera to go On/Off. In either case it should be OFF. Why? Well IIRC with Auto Shutter on the camera will hold the speed but kick the iris first, then whwn it needs more or less it will change the shutter. Counter-intuitive I know but that's how it goes. Make sure the settings of the menu or switch on the front of the camera is set to Shutter OFF and that should do it.

OR there is a switch on the front of the camera to go On/Off. In either case it should be OFF.

Mister Bloom is MOSTLY correct.

The switch on the front of the camera is a Shutter switch, not an AUTO Shutter switch and should be set to ON in order to lock the shutter speed.

Thank You Mr. R. I knew it was backwards when I typed it and still....Thanks for keeping me straight.

Mr B and Mr R,

Thank you both. I'll get to that straight away.

As for the noise question, any takers?

Oh, and while we're at it;

I have (if you have been following my posts) started using an Atomos Ninja 2 HDMI recorder with the Z7.

In the menu of the Z7 I have selected 1080i / Interlaced / 25 yet the screen of the Ninja 2 informs me that it is receiving 1080i 50. No amount of adjustment or fiddling about changes it. And, yes, I have checked that the menu in the Z7 has "1080i / Interlaced / 25" selected.

By means of a test, by changing the format of the Z7 to DV, the Ninja 2 quickly shows that a 4:3 image has been selected. I can only assume that the Z7 only pumps 1080i 50 down its HDMI output - which would be silly. Touching the on-screen menu of the Ninja, I can toggle between 1080p 25 and 1080i 50.

Design fault or …?