Camera Workshop filming with prime lenses

 The other day we had our first workshop session of the year. In this session we were recapping on how to set up the camera. As it has been a while since we have all been behind the camera, it took us all a few minutes to get back to the hang of it. We started by opening the tripod bag and setting up the tripod. We all made the same mistake of setting up the tripod from the top of the tripod and then working our way down. Matt then showed us that its actually much easier to pull the tripod up if you start from the bottom, this allows each tripod leg to be on the exact same level which when we did it, it wasn't.

We then went on to place the camera on the tripod, when placing the camera on the tripod we had to remember to press the side button which would allow the camera to slide onto the tripod and then from there to twist the lever on the other side of the tripod which secures the camera.

After this we loosened the screw under the top of the tripod, this allows us to make sure the camera is sitting on the tripod completely level. When the bubble on the spirit level on the tripod is inside the circle, you turn the screw back to secure the level.

Matt then showed us some new features on the camera which we hadn't used last year.
Matt showed us how to change the shutter speed on the camera. On the touchpad on the camera pressing the icons for shutter speed gives you several different options. 90 degrees looks faster than usual which gives a really cool effect. 180 is the normal default setting and then 360 which slows movements down by blunting the image. My personal favourite was the faster 90 which I felt gave a very cool effect. The cameras usually film at 25 frames per second but these cameras can film at 50 frames per second to film slow motion.

As we are filming music videos this year matt showed us the prime lenses which we will be using which give the film a better quality and an overall better finish for the music videos however you can't zoom in using these lenses. There were several lenses which all had different numbers. The lower the number the more you can see in the shot and the higher the number the less you can see in the shot.