It’s the Best Time of Year for Capturing Night Views! Part 1

In winter, the air is clear, and night views are more beautiful than at any other time of year. The high-sensitivity GZ-HM860 and GZ-HM650 both have Back-illuminated CMOS Sensors that let them take clear captures even at night, so I took them to Yokohama to capture the city lights!

Yokohama is the second most populous city in Japan, after Tokyo, and is located about 30 kilometers south of Tokyo’s downtown. The bayside area is particularly well known for its beautiful night view; of special note are the reflections of the city lights in the water, and other effects produced in tandem with Tokyo Bay. Over two posts, I’ll start shooting at twilight, then try out various methods as I capture the scenery until night falls completely.

Everios that can take clear nighttime captures

Capturing Twilight Scenery with the Optical 40x Zoom!

First, using the GZ-HM650’s Optical 40x Zoom, I took aim across the bay at Yokohama’s city lights. It was the beautiful twilight hour, and the sun was setting slowly.

When capturing night views, it’s absolutely essential to minimize camera shake. Since light is less intense at night, shutter speed is slower. For that reason, the blurring will be obvious if you capture while holding the camera in your hands, so as a rule, you’ll capture using a tripod.

Using the manual settings, I fixed the focus near the time display on the ferris wheel and slowly zoomed out and then in again. I’m always amazed by the power in the 40x zoom, and the fact that it’s optical means there’s no deterioration in image quality.

Capturing Changing Night Views with Time-Lapse REC

The sun had very nearly set, so I used Time-Lapse REC to capture the changes in the city nightscape until it was completely dark. Using the manual settings, I fixed the focus on the very farthest distance and began capturing at one-second intervals. Pay special attention to the buildings and illuminations, which grow brighter as the night sky changes, and to the movement of the clouds and the ships crossing Yokohama Port!

This video was shot at one frame per second and played back at thirty times its original speed. In actual recording time, the changes in the video cover about twenty-one minutes. When recording a night view, there are a lot of lights in the city and sky that move more than you’d expect, so I recommend setting your interval at one or two seconds.

Comparing Capture Modes for Night Views!

Next I took the GZ-HM860, which is capable of taking wide-angle captures even at close range, to the bayside area and tried to capture a dramatic cityscape! In this area, you can see the lights from the ferris wheel and the skyscrapers reflected at the water’s edge. As a result, you also see lots of people with single-lens reflex cameras and camcorders, here to capture the night view.

All right! At that point, I wanted to do some full-on night view hunting, but I had a hard time deciding which settings to use. This model is particularly good at taking bright, clear captures with Intelligent AUTO. This time, though, I was after a night view with more impact, so I also singled out Night, Night Eye, and Shutter Speed 1/3 in the manual settings and tried them all! Go ahead, check out the video.

After trying each, I discovered that Night Mode makes the sky blacker and plays up the lights, making them clearer. Night Eye Mode makes the colors brighter and more vivid; it also blurs very easily, so be careful. Does each setting have situations in which it’s particularly effective? I checked on their merits with our technical supervisor!

This is only the technical perspective; listen to your feelings about a particular shot and try the one that seems best! Okay: in the next post, I’ll apply what I’ve learned about capturing night views. You’ll find lots of info on night view onboard video and on how to capture nighttime cityscapes to their best effect, so look forward to it!

>> Continued next time

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