I remember the day I won my Canon 518sv on ebay I was as happy as a kid on Christmas day now it's turned into a nightmare before Christmas. I'm wondering if I got a lemon. Are there any owners of the Canon 518sv that can pass on their expertise and experience? Let me list my problems:
1. Exposure was terrible. Everything I read about this camera says that it reads 64T correctly (which is what I used) but all my footage was horribly underexposed. Exteriors shot on sunny days look as though they were filmed at night and let's not talk about interiors...oh the horror. Is this a common problem for this camera? Should I only be using a handheld meter and setting the exposure manually? If so, how do I set exposure for wide and distant subjects?
2. Color has a reddish tint. It was my understanding that there is a built in filter and shooting a tungsten balanced film like 64T in daylight would work fine. Not in my case. The camera comes with a key that inserts into a slot on its top that has something to do with the filter. Under what conditions do I need to use this key? Should i buy a lens filter? How would that effect the built in filter?
3. I tried a few sync sound tests. After bringing in my footage into my editing software and lining up the clapper with its sound wave I found the audio quickly drifted out of sync and required lots of tedious re-syncing. Is this normal? Is this because the camera isn't crystal? Is there a way of retro fitting this model of camera with a crystal motor?
Are any of these problems insurmountable? Should I be looking into getting a different camera?
