HDR-CX160 low lux fireworks/night fishing settings

[scott492010]

I recently bought this cx160 and have had a ball with it up until the sun has finally and completely dissapeared. I tried taking shots of fireworks the other night and it was a complete failure. there was mostly focus issues combined with color issues. i tried turning all several features during recording the fireworks but nothing seemed to work. When i turned low lux off the camera was unable to focus. when i tried to manually focus it seemed almost impossible... as if the sensor was still trying to automatically adjust it. i then went on to disable smile detection and all the spot focus settings.... that didnt seem to help and maybe even made it worse.

I was planning on using this for night fishing on my 16ft tri hull this summer.... but now i am thinking that if i cant even do fireworks....well then whats the point....

I am hoping others have attempted these really dark situations and have found a set of settings that works for you..... if so could you please share them.

[acgold7]

Did you try the Fireworks setting (page 70)?

But no matter. I suspect the Fireworks in and of themselves are not the thing. They are very different from night fishing.

Unfortunately, I think you picked the wrong camera for this duty. While there are many small consumer cams that do brilliantly in low light, including many from Sony, this one isn't one of them, due to its very small chip. Much better would have been one of the cx or xr 500 series, which has a massively bigger image sensor.

When low-light is a consideration, almost nothing else matters besides chip size. Read all the specs carefully before buying. While the manufacturers don't always make it easy to find out all the specs, websites like B&H do.

[scott492010]

well damn. hehehe. i now see the light. to bad i am a few days late. but this definately helps me alot. thank you.

[acgold7]

How long have you had the cam? Can you return it? It might be worth eating the restocking fee if you can upgrade to a better model.

[scott492010]

due to financial considerations... i am most likely going to stick with this camera for the following year or so.... i also just bought a truck and am adding a bunch of extras to it. not to mention my windsheild broke the other day for no reason what so ever...

i am most impressed with this camera for the moment anyways... as far as night fishing goes.... i have been considering modifying one of my flood spot lights in order to mount a camera mount on it ... haven't done it yet because after all the considering i have done it totally seems like a pain in the rear to be holding a light with a camera on a boat while us fisherman are scattering around trying to pull in a big catfish.

I originally wanted to engineer a light weight mast to mount the camera on. but after price checking i realized sony no longer included remotes on their $500 price range cameras.

at the moment though i am enjoying this camera quite a bit. below are some links to footage i have messed around with a little bit.

i have noticed that in full 1080i that while playing the files on any of my computers .... that there is glitches .... as if the processor cant keep up or the codec is worthless and needs updated.... however i am unsure which codec would be the best... any recomendations on avchd codec?

http://youtu.be/wGXbOnXOIUk

http://vimeo.com/25843983

[acgold7]

Sony makes a variety of remotes and remote tripods for your cam. See them here: http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... ssory=true

But I'd buy at B&H. If you get one, be sure you get the proper connector (A/V, not LANC mini-plug).

Your playback issues are probably PC-related; AVCHD is hard on most PCs unless they are really current and pretty beefy. We'd need more specific info to know for sure.