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Shooting Modes
There are four main shooting modes:
P - This is your standard automatic mode, which also sets the focus, exposure, gain, and white balance.
Tv- Shutter Priority - when you set the shutter speed, the camera automatically sets the exposure.
Av- Aperture Priority - when you change the aperture settings, the camera will automatically apply the best shutter speed and gain to get the exposure right. M - All exposure settings are in manual.

To control the aperture, shutter, and gain settings in Manual mode, press the ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäSTOM switch to highlight the individual settings on the LCD screen. Then turn the knob at the front of the camera to change the setting.

When you shoot in Manual mode and zoom in, the f-stop changes automatically. The image gets darker because you narrowed the field of view and less light can reach the imaging sensor. You either need to adjust the ND filter or the gain to get the exposure right. In Av or P mode, when you zoom in the gain will adjust automatically along with the f-stop to keep the proper exposure.

Look Settings: to access them, tap the FUNC and then scroll to the symbol illustrated here. 

There are four different looks on this camera:

• Standard – the normal way we might see the image
• Neutral – produces an image that’s a bit more flat, but a more natural sense of perceived resolution.
• Wide DR – applies a gamma curve with a wide dynamic range, which can deliver brighter highlights – essentially it takes and then combines several different exposures of the same subject matter producing a better range of luminosity ; this can produce an image that looks a bit soft. The lowest available gain setting is 9dB. This setting is the closest thing to RAW !"B&W

A Note ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Gain

In old school cameras, the more gain you apply, the more noise or graininess appears in the image. But with the XA50, you can up the gain quite a bit without distracting noise. Shooting in low light isn’t that bad.

Recommended settings for the camera:

Shoot at 1920 x 1080 and 60 fps

Use Wide DR Gamma, which achieves a wide dynamic range of 800% to produce almost seamless tone gradations, resulting in smooth detail, accurate colour and virtually no blown-out highlights. It’s the closest thing to have RAW footage in a camcorder, and great for popping out detail when the footage gets colour graded.

Accessing the Menu to adjust the camera settings

At the back of the camera, press the MENU button.

Above the MENU button is a joystick control, which enables you to scroll through the menu pages. Push the joystick to make a selection. Or you can tap the screen where you want to make a selection.

Where to change the resolution?

Tap the symbol for Recording Setup. Page 1 shows Movie Format at the top.

You want the following settings:

• Movie Format - MP4
• MP4 Resolution - 1920x10800.
• MP4 Frame Rate - 59.94P
• Audio Format - 2CH

To find Wide DR Gamma, X out of the MENU screen and return to the Home screen.

• Tap the FUNC button

• Scroll to locate the Looks options
• Tap on the #3 Looks setting

Inserting and Removing SD Card

Make sure the camcorder is powered off

Slide the SD Card switch to open the cover.

Insert the card with the label facing away from the camera straight down into the slot until it clicks.

Close the card cover – cover must be closed for the camera to operate.
To remove, press down on the card. When it springs up, remove the card the rest of the way.

Initialising the Card

When you use a card, whether for the first time or not, it’s best to initialise so that the camera’s firmware can communicate easily with the card. Failure to format the card to the camera’s firmware may result in corrupted data or problems with recording.

Go to Menu > Recording Setup > and then go to Page 2 where you will see Recording Media at the top of the page. Look for Initialise > and then select the appropriate card slot. Tap the Initialise button and select Yes. When complete, tap OK.

White balance tells the camera what is white under different colour temperatures. Under sunny skies, the colour temperature appears blue to the camera; in most indoor lighting, the colour temperature to the camera appears reddish. Point the camera at something white, and zoom in to fill the viewfinder with white.

Press Button 2, located on the flip out LCD screen. Hold the button until the white balance is set. You will see the white balance symbol in the LCD screen flash until it locks onto the proper white balance.

Focus Guide

Under Camera Setup in the MENU, the Focus Guide is set to ON. The Focus Guide gives you an intuitive visual indication of the current focus and the amount of turning the focus ring until the image is sharp. When used in combination with face detection, the Focus Guide will appear in your viewfinder near the eyes of the person that's detected, or when the camera determines the main subject of the image. If necessary, you can touch the Focus Guide grid and move it to other parts of the image.

When the main subject is in focus, the Focus Guide will turn green.

Using Focus Assist (Peaking)

Another option that will assist you in focussing your shot is Peaking. Press Button 3 (PRE REC) to turn on PEAK, which will then apply a red highlight where the image is in focus.

But to get good critical focus, Button 1 (MAGN) is assigned to AF/MF.

Zoom in all the way to your image, press Button 1 to switch on Auto Focus, and once critical focus is achieved, turn off the Auto Focus and zoom out to compose your shot.