On D8 and most Sony consumer cams, manual aperture control combines the iris aperture with the electronic gain in a sequence of 24 steps on the jog/dial, but the exact value (data/code) is only displayed in playback on the LCD.
So when reviewers say there's no gain control on D8 cams, they're wrong : there is a manual control of gain but it's not independant of the iris aperture.

On my TRV320, these values are:

step f-Stop Gain
1-----close----0
2------f28------0
3------f22------0
4------f19------0
5------f16------0
6------f14------0
7------f11------0
8------f9.6-----0
9-------f8-------0
10----f6.8-----0
11----f5.6-----0
12----f4.8-----0
13-----f4-------0
14----f3.4-----0
15----f2.8-----0
16----f2.4-----0
17-----f2-------0
18----f1.6-----0 (wide open but no gain)
19----f1.6---+3dB
20----f1.6---+6dB
21----f1.6---+9dB
22----f1.6--+12dB (noisy)
23----f1.6--+15dB (very noisy)
24----f1.6--+18dB (waaaaay too noisy)

So, remember, iris fully open with 0-gain is not step #24. It's step #18 on the jog/dial.
On a quick evening or indoors shoot, I count 5 or 6 steps down from the right end of the scale displayed on the LCD to avoid the grainy video noise caused by electronic gain.

__________________
- Pete

Excellent post, Pete.

I'm going to print it and your post on AE programs and put them in my camcorder bag to use as a guide. Thanks for the info.

__________________
JAB285

You are just a gold mine of valuable information Pete. Just to clarify on how you get to this feature...you just press the EXPOSURE button and run the thumb wheel all the way to one end where the bar graph display on the LCD doesn't move with additional clicks. That gives you a starting point of either 1 or 24, depending on which direction you went. Then start counting the clicks when you head back it the direction you came from. Seems to work just fine on my 320. I never knew all that was built into these D8's. Thanks Pete.

Just think of all the happy customers Sony could have had years ago if they had just put this information in the operators manual?

Dave

If you have another model of cam, and it only shows the settings data in playback, do the test for yourself.

1. Put the lens cover on.
2. Switch to MANUAL aperture
3. Turn the thumbwheel (jog/dial/whatever) all the way down
4. Start recording and turn the thumbwheel one step up every second while you count the steps in the microphone.
5. Stop recording, rewind.
6. Play back with the data diplayed on the screen.

Note the settings for future reference. They may differ from the ones I wrote on the first post of this thread, depending of your camcorder.
Professionnal cameras have all this info displayed in the viewfinder in REC mode. Consumer cams keep all that info as a mystery...

__________________
- Pete

Addendum : The "Sweet Spot"

Each camera iris has a sweet spot, an aperture value where it preserves maximum focus and sharpness, due to less diffraction effect. Mine seems to be around f4.

Normally, in bright daylight, the auto aperture will set the iris around f5.6 to f8.
In order to bring it back to its sweet spot, I let the "Soft Portrait" AE program automatically set the shutter speed to a faster 1/250 or 1/500, and the iris aperture will fall around f4 : right in the sweet spot !

__________________
- Pete

I have a TRV260 and this also works with my camera and the values are the same. I did find an error on the list though you jumped from 10 to 12 and missed the values for the actual 17. Thank you Pete for sharing this list, this list will help me and everyone else a lot.

Joe

Ammended list:

step f-Stop Gain
1-----close----0
2-----f28------0
3-----f22------0
4-----f19------0
5-----f16------0
6-----f14------0
7-----f11------0
8-----f9.6-----0
9------f8------0
10----f6.8-----0
11----f5.6-----0
12----f4.8-----0
13-----f4------0
14----f3.4-----0
15----f2.8-----0
16----f2.4-----0
17----f2.0-----0
18----f1.6-----0 (wide open but no gain)
19----f1.6----+3dB
20----f1.6----+6dB
21----f1.6----+9dB
22----f1.6---+12dB (noisy)
23----f1.6---+15dB (very noisy)
24----f1.6---+18dB (waaaaay too noisy)

Thanks a lot, Joe!
I didn't notice step #11 was missing.
Just for the record, I edited the original post to match yours.
We'll finally get it straight!

__________________
- Pete

Hey Pete, that like my PV-GS35! My PV-GS35 must have open apperture to manualy adjust gain, just like your D8, it needs a f1.6 apperture (almost open) to adjust gain. But here a question for you, Sony: Where in the world is the shutter speed control and most of all, where the heck is the White ballance control?????????????? I've would of bought the D8 cams if that had those manual controls and a better CCD. Well too bad, go for panasonic!