Sunday, August 14, 2016

Lac Leamy Casino Sound of Lights - Canon Vixia HF G40



So I wanted to do a review of the Canon Vixia HF G40 last week.  Life always gets in the way as a friend and fellow photographer lost her life to cancer at the young age of 28.  I hadn't gone shooting for a bit with the camcorder as my day job seems to get in the way.

But this past week, I got to shoot the Casino de Lac Leamy fireworks.  I had missed the previous show as I totally forgot about it.  And yesterdays event, let's just say, whoever went to it got soaked in the torrential downpour.

This was the first time I had used a camcorder at night.  Shooting video is a little bit different than shooting photos at night.  Especially fireworks.

I had set the camera at ISO 100, f1.8 and exposure of 1/8th of a second.  Let's just say that didn't work out as I thought.  The exposure was way too low so I increased it to 100th of a second and voila, problem fixed.  So setting with ISO 100, f1.8 and the exposure was 100/1000 of a second.  Problem fixed.  So I thought.  My external mic died about halfway thru the show.  Hence no sound on the video.  For this Wednesday's show, I have a fresh battery in the mic and I know what my settings have to be.  I also have a better idea of how to frame the shot as I framed it wit htoo much empty space to the left.  

Overall, I think the Canon Vixia HF G40 is an excellent daytime and night time camcorder.  You can control pretty much any setting on it as far as exposure, white balance, mic etc.  I am really happy with the camcorder.  

One of the reasons I bought the camcorder was to do a lot more video work at Parc Omega where I get pretty much all my wildlife shots.  I hardly go there in the summer as the animals hide in the shade of the forest because of the heat.  I'm planning to go a lot more starting in September as it's mating season and the fall colours start.  Also the fur on the animals thickens as they prepare for the colder temperatures of Canada's northern climate.

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