Camera Work Lesson.

On Friday the 18th of September, myself and my class had its first camera lesson in the filming studio. Matt taught us how to use a variety of different cameras (seen below) Including the Canon SD, the Sony FS 1000 and the Sony NX5. Matt then showed us how to set them up and work them.Over the course of the lesson we learnt how to set up the tripod. We did this by unlocking and locking the clamps of the tripod and extending the legs of the tripod to a suitable height/length.

We then learnt how to place our camera which was the Sony NX5 (seen on the right) carefully onto the tripod we had assembled, we then slid it into place and then locked it onto the tripod with a small clamp.We then learnt how to bubble the tripod 'bubbling' the tripod (seen below) allowed us to get a stable image through our camera. Matt showed us that to do this you unlock the clamp under the tripod and position it correctly so that the small bubble is in the center of the circle of the spirit level on the side of the tripod. Once it is in the center it means the camera is centered and this means it is stable. The camera must be attached firmly to the tripod so we tested it by shaking it slightly and it was in fact firmly on.

We then moved on to learning about the three rings on the Sony NX5. We learnt that the front ring controlled the focus, the second ring controlled the zoom and the third ring controlled brightness. The Sony FS 1000 also had this feature but the Canon SD didn't as it didn't have zoom so we had to use a tape measure to measure how far away it was to the image so we could use the correct amount of focus on it.

After learning this and playing around with them for a few minutes we learnt how to do a white balance. The camera must be focused fully on a white piece of material or something relatively white in order to achieve true colours in the shot. Once the screen was focused on something white the white balance button is pressed to achieve a better coloured shot.

I really enjoyed being able to explore the different cameras and I have to say I liked the Sony NX5 the most. This lesson was very interesting to me as i have never learnt about cameras in such depth before and I look forward to being able to use my new knowledge in more practical work in Media in the future.