New camcorder user - full body shot

M

markusinUK

Guest
Hi All

New here and quite new to camcorders. I have a basic cannon MV600 - which seems reasonable for the cost.

I am playing around with chroma keying (shooting against a green screen and then replacing the background with sets). My basic problem (which I think is to do with the fact that I have no real idea how to use cameras ..!!) - is getting the whole of me in shot....

By this I mean showing me from head to toe (with a little area of my feet actually on the floor (there is green screen material also on the floor).

Anyway I am finding I have to be half way accross the house and through two doors ways (!) in order to get me in shot. The reuslt looks rubbish !

I think what I need is a wide angle lens - apart from allowing the camera to be closer to me (and thus not shooting through door ways), I would imagine that the overal image should be better in that the light around the subject (me) is the light that the camera is pickup - rather than being light through the door way etc etc ...

Can someone tell me I am along the right lines, and perhaps offer me any other advice ?

cheers and thanks

Mark
 
Yes you need a wide angle lens - if you look inside the lens of your camcorder you will see - Ø30.5 - this indicates that the thread inside your lens is 30.5mm diameter and you require a lens with that thread, unfortunately they are not to common BUT fortunately step up rings and 37mm dia wide angle lens' are, what you need is something like :-

http://www.keene.co.uk/cgi-bin/codesearch.pl?30537

this screws to your camera and accepts this :-

http://www.keene.co.uk/cgi-bin/codesearch.pl?KGW05

You can get wider angle lenses but you begin to see distortion known as 'barrelling' if you go much wider.
 
hey .. thanks very much indeed for the advice and the links. I see that I do not need to go for specifc canon parts - that I guess gives me more choice ...

Can you give me any idea what improvements this will give - roughly - I mean by using the lens can I get the same vertical height for say half the distance away (or something like that) ...

thanks once again

MArk
 
Bit difficult to be precise because it depends on the characteristics of your camcorder lens. but the magnification factor of the lens - in this case 0.5 tells us that with the lens screwed on you camcorder the AREA which you will see through your viewfinder will be twice as much as without it. Similarly if you put a 2X telephoto lens on your viewfinder would be filled with half the AREA of your standard lens.

You can obtain wider angle lens' but as I said previously you will begin to get distortion as you go wider leading to the ultra wide 'Fish eye' effect

You do not have to use Canon lens's or even the ones I suggested they were just links to give you a picture - there are several alternative makers of very good supplementary lens' - have a chat with your local Jessops or do a google search for wide angle lens.
 

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