topic Sony HDR-SR7 Video Exposure Settings in Camcorders

Sony HDR-SR7 Video Exposure Settings

timscully — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:19:20 GMT

Can anyone tell me what the exposure settings on a video for the HDR-SR7 represent ?

It seems the manual says that there are 24 settings, however I have found 28.

Does it modify the apeture size, shutter speed, or is it perform electronically ?

Does anyone have a reference to what values the exposure settings represent ? i.e. relative exposure values.

Thanks for any assistance.

Sony HDR-SR7 Video Exposure Settings

Mick2011 — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:36:23 GMT

Hi timscully, welcome to the Sony Forums

I'm not quite clear what you're asking here; which '24 settings' are you referring to? Could you maybe reference a page in the user manual?

Cheers

Mick

Sony HDR-SR7 Video Exposure Settings

timscully — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:29:19 GMT

Mick,

Thanks for replying and welcoming me to the forum.

In regards to your question, have a look at the Sony store page:

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&partNumber=HDRSR7#specifications

It says 24 steps of exposure, however there seems to be more. I'm only refering to the exposure settings on video.

I have taken some videos, with different exposure settings and have noticed some slight depth of field changes. So I am assuming that there are changes in the aperture ?

However, are there really 24 or more f-stops for the aperture ?

Are there changes in the gain as well ?

Tim

Sony HDR-SR7 Video Exposure Settings

Mick2011 — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:17:08 GMT

The SR7 aperture ranges from f1.8 to f10, which represents a range of approximately 6 stops.

However like most electronic cameras, the aperture itself can be adjusted in much smaller increments. I think a quarter-stop per step is quite likely, and 27 steps overall not unlikely, for this camera. Not sure why you get the 3-step discrepancy but it might be that when you're zoomed in the lens is darker, with an effective wide-open f-value of f2.9, instead of f1.8. So you might get 27 steps with a wide lens but 24 with it zoomed in. Just a guess

As with all lenses, you'll get more depth of field as the aperture closes down. In very low light, the aperture will remain wide open; in bright light, it will vary according to other settings, for example if you shoot in a sports mode the camera will try to keep as fast a shutter (and therefore as wide an aperture) as possible.

Gain will only increase in very low light when the shutter speed becomes unfeasibly slow, raising the sensitivity of the sensor and allowing a faster shutter speed.

Hope that's what you were looking for

Mick