Fully Auto/Fully manual

Philip Lewis · April 8th, 2019, 09:02 AM

I enjoy video as a hobby chiefly. I have a Panasonic HCX 1000 4K camcorder the results from which I am very pleased.

Hurray it has a mechanical switch to swap between fully auto-everything and manual. It also has a proper switch for Auto/Manual focus. Unfortunately everything else is push button menu driven.

Now whilst using fully auto one selects fully manual all the exposure variables ie Shutter Speed, Aperture, Gain, all stay in auto-mode until manually cancelled one by one by pressing the appropriate button.

How annoying is that. I even read a review which stated that the cam was, for some reason, unable to operate its exposure fully manually - I suspect the reviewer having locked shutter and aperture had neglected to cancel the gain AGC .

Anyhow I just wondered if owners of differing brands of semi-pro camcorders (or even other Panasonics) had this performance to go through or if mechanically switching to manual actually achieved manual settings in one action.

Actually thinking on it would be nice to have a proper switch for each function auto/manual as sometimes I am happy to leave auto white balance set in auto with the other settings on manual. I suppose that would come at a large price increase.

Any comments welcomed.

Tony Neal · April 8th, 2019, 02:57 PM

I agree it would be great to have a row of auto/manual toggles for each function but this style of control has been standard on Panasonic and Sony (and probably other) pro-sumer and semi-pro cameras for some years. Very confusing at first, but you quickly get used to it.
The HC-X1000 can definitely be put into full manual exposure mode, and so can the DVX200, but I often use the semi-auto mode to lock the shutter speed to 1/50th.
What I would really like to see is a semi-automatic exposure mode that lets you manually change the exposure and allows the camera to optimize aperture and gain to keep the lens close to its sweet spot while
minimizing gain. I hate having to juggle aperture and gain in manual mode,

Philip Lewis · April 13th, 2019, 02:09 AM

Thanks Tony - the other thing I don't understand on the HC-1000 is that in Full Auto mode the camera somehow seems to be able to disregard any ND setting. Now the ND filter is a full manual click position switch. I'm really not sure what's going on when you switch to Full Auto as the filter seems to stay in place even if it's inappropriate to the lighting - For instance if you are filming in Full Auto in dark conditions and the 1/64 filter is set, the image is still exposed correctly. Baffling. I actually miss my old Panasonic HMC-41 which had no gain switch and no manual ND switching. It had a variable ND filter system which kept the lens in optimum aperture until low light forced full aperture then (and only then) further rotation of the aperture adjusting wheel increased the gain
It was a wonderful sysytem as far as I was concerned as (being a stills photog) it made sense to me to use the gain + control only when you have run out of lens aperture.
Does anyone know if any of the newer 4k pannys have this feature? It's a shame to see these features come and then go.
I see the new Sony Z190 appears to have an auto ND filter setting but I'm really not keen to swap cameras yet again as otherwise I am very pleased with the HC-1000 - even if operation does take a bit more (of my) brain processing power when it comes to manual shooting.

April 8th, 2019, 09:02 AM	#1
Philip Lewis Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Barrow in Furness UK Posts: 30	Fully Auto/Fully manual - logic with different cams I enjoy video as a hobby chiefly. I have a Panasonic HCX 1000 4K camcorder the results from which I am very pleased. Hurray it has a mechanical switch to swap between fully auto-everything and manual. It also has a proper switch for Auto/Manual focus. Unfortunately everything else is push button menu driven. Now whilst using fully auto one selects fully manual all the exposure variables ie Shutter Speed, Aperture, Gain, all stay in auto-mode until manually cancelled one by one by pressing the appropriate button. How annoying is that. I even read a review which stated that the cam was, for some reason, unable to operate its exposure fully manually - I suspect the reviewer having locked shutter and aperture had neglected to cancel the gain AGC . Anyhow I just wondered if owners of differing brands of semi-pro camcorders (or even other Panasonics) had this performance to go through or if mechanically switching to manual actually achieved manual settings in one action. Actually thinking on it would be nice to have a proper switch for each function auto/manual as sometimes I am happy to leave auto white balance set in auto with the other settings on manual. I suppose that would come at a large price increase. Any comments welcomed.

April 8th, 2019, 02:57 PM	#2
Tony Neal Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Fareham, UK Posts: 160	Re: Fully Auto/Fully manual - logic with different cams I agree it would be great to have a row of auto/manual toggles for each function but this style of control has been standard on Panasonic and Sony (and probably other) pro-sumer and semi-pro cameras for some years. Very confusing at first, but you quickly get used to it. The HC-X1000 can definitely be put into full manual exposure mode, and so can the DVX200, but I often use the semi-auto mode to lock the shutter speed to 1/50th. What I would really like to see is a semi-automatic exposure mode that lets you manually change the exposure and allows the camera to optimize aperture and gain to keep the lens close to its sweet spot while minimizing gain. I hate having to juggle aperture and gain in manual mode,

April 13th, 2019, 02:09 AM	#3
Philip Lewis Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Barrow in Furness UK Posts: 30	Re: Fully Auto/Fully manual - logic with different cams Thanks Tony - the other thing I don't understand on the HC-1000 is that in Full Auto mode the camera somehow seems to be able to disregard any ND setting. Now the ND filter is a full manual click position switch. I'm really not sure what's going on when you switch to Full Auto as the filter seems to stay in place even if it's inappropriate to the lighting - For instance if you are filming in Full Auto in dark conditions and the 1/64 filter is set, the image is still exposed correctly. Baffling. I actually miss my old Panasonic HMC-41 which had no gain switch and no manual ND switching. It had a variable ND filter system which kept the lens in optimum aperture until low light forced full aperture then (and only then) further rotation of the aperture adjusting wheel increased the gain It was a wonderful sysytem as far as I was concerned as (being a stills photog) it made sense to me to use the gain + control only when you have run out of lens aperture. Does anyone know if any of the newer 4k pannys have this feature? It's a shame to see these features come and then go. I see the new Sony Z190 appears to have an auto ND filter setting but I'm really not keen to swap cameras yet again as otherwise I am very pleased with the HC-1000 - even if operation does take a bit more (of my) brain processing power when it comes to manual shooting.