NX5U and auto iris

[Abraham Texidor Sr.]

I've had NX5U for two weeks now. My first shoot was a play and the camera was set to full manual controls. During the show I notes the camera seem to make iris adjustments during very bright scences. I checked my iris ring during a break and it did responed to my adjustment. So it was not set to auto. My second gig was a meeting in which I shot a projection screen on what was a very white slide it happen again.

What am I missing here?

Camera is switched Manual

Manual focus

No auto white balance

No Spotlight

[Jeff Wallace]

I have this same problem with my FX1000 which is in the same family as NX5 / Z5u.

I'm wondering if it's some setting buried in the menus, but haven't had time to dig.

Would love to know the answer!

[Cristian Adrian Olariu]

The iris is changing from 1.6 to 3.4 when you zoom in. It is not constant.
However, in Manual mode it remembers a certain position. If you set the iris (generally to less than 3.4) when the lens is to the wide end and then you zoom in, the setting changes to a higher value, but if you don't touch the iris ring and you zoom out the iris decrease to the initial value. If you are zoomed and modify the iris, the setting remains the last you made.

I hope I explained correctly.

[Ron Evans]

There are a number of possibilities. When the switch is in manual it means manual is allowed!!! Until the gain or iris buttons are pressed it stays in auto. If you have all the displays on you will see an 'A" next to the controls that are still in auto. You can for instance be in manual, have shutter speed set fixed to 60 and gain and iris in auto ( in the menu you can also set limits on these). Pressing the gain switch will transfer control to the l,m,h switch which will correspond to the fixed values set in the menu.
The 20x zoom has lens ramping which means that at full tele it ramps to f3.6. So if you have the lens set in manual to F1.6 it will shut down to F3.6 as you zoom in. IF you don't have gain in auto the picture will get darker.


Ron Evans

[Abraham Texidor Sr.]

Adjusting the setting on my still camera it hit me!!

Shutter Speed!

This was set to auto and I think is set this way by default.

Press the shutter speed button once and it set to manual. ( it will display on your LCD and be highlighted)

turn SEL/PUSH EXEC

[John Vasey]

So...if one wants to shoot a stage show, what might be the best approach for the best recipe?

The goal being:

1. Keep the blacks clean (free from noise)
2. As you zoom in or out, the picture doesn't get bright or dark on you.

Might the following work?

1. Manually lock down the gain (I don't think you want the noise to be going in and out and you want to get clean blacks)

2. Manually lock down the shutter speed (to avoid motion artifacts)

3. Turn on AUTO IRIS but if possible, also turn on the SPOTLIGHT control at the same time which hopefully would ride the iris within a certain dynamic range as stage lighting changes? And hopefully it would compensate for the F-stop ramping factor as well?

4. Also turn on AE if available (it finesses the auto exposure up or down in small increments) and turn it down if the picture highlights appears too bright.

Not having a NX5U yet makes me less knowledgeable than others, but shooting a stage show, whether it be theatre, music concert, dance, etc., is one of my goals for this camera. And I hopefully I can be afforded the control I need to capture it cleanly -- in other words having the F-stop ramping during zooming compensated for without having a "gain" in noise.

Thanks,
John

[Ron Evans]

Locking gain and shutter speed means AE only has iris to play with. My solution on my FX1 and now with the NX5U is to lock shutter at 60, set gain at 3,6,or up to 9db depending on the lights of the show so that iris stays in the F3.4 to F 5.6 range as this removes any ramping and also maximizes the depth of field making focus on the stage easier( it is also likely the sweet spot for the lens). Manually adjust iris using zebra or occasionally touch auto( press iris button twice, once to go from manual to auto and then back to manual at the new setting). Use peaking to set focus.

Ron Evans

[Stelios Christofides]

I haven't got the NX5 but what I do with my Z5 when I film stage shows that the lights keeps changing I use full auto but set the gain up to 12db and manually adjust the focus. I always get excellent results with these settings.

Stelios

[Tom Hardwick]

Sony's spotlight mode is very intelligent indeed, and may be worth trying for stage shows. You lock the shutter speed and w/bal, but let the spotlight mode expose for the highlights. I use it all the time on my Z1, and it works wonderfully.