What are you thinking and doing in the field right up to the moment you push 'record'?

In other words, what's your pre-record zen?

For me (a newbie) it's, "level the camera... watch your horizon line... zoom in and focus... compose the shot..." or something like that.

Honestly, I don't have my camera zen down yet so I'm asking what yours is.

Thank you!

Hoping I remembered everything necessary to set the camera correctly while I'm paying attention to the action so I don't miss anything. Frequently, in run and gun, the action is first, the camera settings are a distant second. So I try to anticipate what I'm going to need and set things before hand.

Sometimes, when I'm out with the police, it's auto everything except focus.

A variation on the film shorthand F.A.S. T.

Focus
Aperture (light level)
Shutter (Speed/setting/Framerate)
Timecode (running)

Hoping I remembered everything necessary to set the camera correctly.

That is so important, especially when you're still getting used to a new camera. I've had a Z1 for about 6 months now, and have been doing some nature shooting recently just for fun since I haven't used the camera all that much. The first day I made a whole series of dumb mistakes! First I left the gain switch at +6dB when shooting in the bright sun (and I was wondering why I had to stop way down when using ND2!). Next I somehow accidently changed the shutter speed to 1/30 sec. Then I left steadyshot on while the camera was on the tripod. The only good thing about all this is that I realized how sloppy I had gotten, and now I'm making an effort to check and doublecheck everything before I start recording.

notice what the breath is doing....

heh.