Camcorder Definitions |
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| These definitions will be used in future shooting and editing.
Read them as an overview. You may refer back to them later in the
lessons. |
| Exposure: Exposure is the result of the amount of light
that reaches the camcorder sensors (CCDs.) The amount of light is
controlled by opening and closing the iris which acts like the pupil
of the eye for the camcorder and the shutter speed. Exposure can be
adjusted automatically or manually on the camcorder |
| Focus: Focus is the sharpness of the video image.
Focusing can be done either manually or automatically. These days,
most of the camcorders have great automatic focus. This should be
enough for most cases but sometimes you need to set the focus manually
(e.g. having two objects in the frame one very close and another one
far from the camcorder). Setting focus manually is different from
camcorder to camcorder, but most of the time, camcorders have a ring
around the lens called focus ring, for this purpose. |
| White Balance: This involves adjusting the camcorder in
different lighting conditions (e.g. indoor, outdoor) to record the
white color, white. If the camcorder is not adjusted for the correct
light condition, colors will not be recorded correctly. So, white
color will not look white in the recorded video. All the camcorders
have automatic white balance that adjusts the camcorder with varying
lighting condition. White balance may also be set manually (look for
manual white balance in your camcorder settings.) |
| Zoom: Zoom is used to make the object appear closer or
further away without changing the camcorder position. This is done by
using a set of lenses on the camcorder called zoom lens, or by
digitally processing the video image. The first is called optical zoom
and the latter is digital zoom. Digital zoom reduces the quality of
the video drastically and it is not recommended to use it. The zoom
power is measured by 'X' in camcorders. For example, 18 X optical zoom
means that camcorder can magnifies the object 18 times |
