Your Tips

Bronwen Grady
May 1998

Proper color balance is essential for our work with underwater videography. We record two minutes of color bars at the start of each field tape to allow us to set editing equipment and monitors in studios regardless of whether or not the studio has access to a color bar generator. The Sony VX-1000 DV camcorder can create color bars internally, though you won't find instructions on how to do this anywhere in the manual.

First, load a fresh tape and power the camera off. Simultaneously press and hold the red start/stop button and the photo button behind the zoom rocker. While holding these two buttons, push the lock release button on the power control and rotate the power selector to Camera. Then release both the start/stop button and the photo button to create color bars visible in the viewfinder. These internally generated color bars can be output to another deck through the video out jack or through the S-video out jack, but most importantly, they can be recorded onto a Mini DV tape simply by pressing the red start/stop button.

Richard Todd
Monterey, California

A year ago, my wife and I were taping footage of land-locked Koknee Salmon at Odell Lake in Oregon. I had a wireless microphone clipped to my belt that came unclipped when I bent over to tie my shoe. My transmitter bounced into the river and was swept back under a log by the current. A few months later and $400 poorer (after purchasing a new mike system) I was determined not to let the same thing happen again. Pagers have long had neoprene cases that have a Velcro closure and strap to a belt. I found that these cases fit wireless mike transmitters, too. My mike will never slip away again!

David Brannan
Delta Junction, Alaska

The small rubber eyepieces on most newer camcorders make it difficult to see well on bright, sunny days if you wear glasses like I do. I solved this problem by always taking along a second pair of glasses with one lens removed. Now I can see where I'm aiming as well as what's in my viewfinder with no sun reflection to interfere.

Sid Steele
Fort Worth, Texas

I have a weekly show on public access television that I stage and record all by myself. I use cue cards to make my on-camera delivery look natural, and since there isn't anyone to hold them for me, I attach the cue cards right to my camera lens. I tried putting the cue card off to the side of the camera, but as my eyes traveled right and left, it was obvious that I was reading.

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