You need to put the camera into manual mode, you'll see it in the ssecond touch screen menu.
as far as the steadishot, like Farss said, leave it off if you're on a tripod, unless you're on a moving platform like a boat or train.

I dont know if the A1 uses simply image information for stabilization or an internal gyro type sensor. But i can tell you from experience, that on some cams leaving the stabilization on, while on a tripod on a boat with small wave action ,will cause a static shot to actually drift or start swaying slightly. Found out the hard way when I was reviewing a locked down shot of piece of nav equipt. on a boat. This was in harbor with Very little motion, sitting on the boat you wouldnt notice it moving but the sensor did!

Thanks! I finally got it. Hi Bob! Thanks for the steady shot info. I did ready the manual that said how to change the shutter speed to manual, but it didn't say the other change(s) needed to make that option available. I've got it now.

OK...last question. I'm not trying to stir up the old how good is this camera in low light arguement! :o) I was wondering what other settings can be used to help with lower light situations, other than boosting the gain, causing vid noise. I guess you can't set the iris manually. I haven't found any button or anything in the manual about that. So, any suggestions are appreciated. DH

PS Just finished your HDV what you need to know book Spot. Great info and it was worded in such a way that the average user could understand everything...when read slowly. :o) I haven't gotten to your VV5 & 6 dvd's yet. I'll watch those on the next plane ride or two. Should fill up most of my air time on my trip to Japan. DH

I'm pretty certain you can assign something on the camera to control the iris, maybe it's the mulitfunction ring on the lens?
I know with the C1 one you cannot unlock shutter and iris but I'm pretty certain you can do this on the A1.
However at the end of the day in low light I'd be a pretty fair bet that the camera will have the iris wide open anyway.
It's not that hard to add light though, we sell / hire a quite usable camera mounted fluro light, not terribly cheap, just under the Lightpanel kit but a little smaller than their offering. This light is a huge hit with the wedding guys, we've tried switching to the newer LED light sources but they don't like them because the 'talent' complains it's too bright.
Bob.

Hi Bob! Tell me more about this light. Is it small? Of course the only reason I bought the A1U instead of the Z1 is it's size, so, I'd like to keep everything compact if possible. I've only used one on camera light before. It was a cheap one from Sony and was much too bright "for the talent" as you said. Ideally I'd like one that is adjustable. Kind of like a dimmer switch. haha Does one exist? Not sure.

Also, I found through more experimenting that I can only change the shutter speed when Exposure is set to "manual." Strange, but I've checked it several times.

Iris is not in the index at the end of the manual. I'm assuming this means no setting of the iris. DH

Maybe the manual uses the word 'exposure' instead of iris?

For the light, go to here:
http://www.photonbeard.com/2006fluor.cfm

and click on ON-CAMERA HYPERLIGHT 471

It does look pretty big on the A1 however there's no way to avoid this if you want a diffuse light source, it simply has to be BIG. But it's not heavy, the body is just spun aluminium.

Save yourself some money and don't buy their batteries, you can run the light from either 10 AA cells for over 2 hours or else buy some Powerizer Li-Ion 14.4V batteries, around USD 60 with a charger.

Need any more specific info or help with the light email me.

Bob.