Settings

Settings

Open the Keystone window (the keystone button on the game's toolbar, or the modifier key and K: Option-K on a Mac, Alt-K elsewhere), turn to Cinema Camera and switch it on. Every number can be dragged to or typed into the box beside its slider.

Setting	Installed as	What it does to the picture
Cinema camera	off	on: the flight camera takes its angle of view from the lens, and the rest below applies. Off: the game's camera exactly as it was, at the zoom it had
Focal length	50 mm	how much the camera sees. 12 mm is very wide, 300 mm a telescope (4.6 degrees). The game's own zoom keys turn this ring too
Sensor	full frame	36 x 24 mm, Super 35 (24.9 x 18.7) or IMAX 70 mm (70 x 52.6). The same lens sees wider on a bigger sensor and blurs the background more
Aperture	f/2.8	the f-number, 1 to 22. Small numbers: a thin slice in focus and a soft background. Large: nearly everything sharp
Focus on	the ship	the ship being flown (the part of it you are looking at, if you are looking at it), whatever is in the middle of the picture, or a distance set by hand
Distance	10 m	where the focus is when set by hand
Focus speed	4	how quickly the focus follows. It moves as a lens ring does: as long from 2 m to 4 m as from 100 m to infinity
Blur quality	medium	how large the out-of-focus blur may get; larger takes more of the graphics card's time
Shutter	1/120 s	how long the shutter is open: motion blur. It cannot be open longer than one frame of the game lasts (at 60 frames a second, 1/60 s)
Film speed	ISO 100	fast film is grainy, and takes less light
Exposure	left alone	by the camera: how bright the picture comes out goes by the aperture, the shutter and the film speed. Full sun wants f/16 at 1/100 s on ISO 100 film, or anything that lets in as much (the photographer's "sunny sixteen"); every stop the lens is opened, or halving of the shutter's speed, or doubling of the film's, is twice the light. Needs the TUFX mod. left alone: as bright as the game, or another mod's eye (Natural Light's), makes it
Grey filter	0 stops	a grey filter in front of the lens, holding the light back by so many stops: for a wide-open lens or a slow shutter in daylight
Lens character	0.3	darker corners (most with the aperture wide open), a little colour fringing, and the bend of a lens shorter than 35 mm. None at 0
Lamps' flare	0.5	(since 0.7.0) how much a lamp shining into the lens flares, as real lenses do: a soft glare, rays from the aperture's blades (longer the more it is stopped down, barely any wide open) and faint ghosts of the aperture across the picture (by the lens's character); only while the lamp is in sight. The sun's flare is the game's own (or Scatterer's). None at 0
Bars	none	black bars for a 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 picture, drawn only while the game's interface is hidden (F2) or the viewfinder is up
Camera move	none	stay here and follow: the camera is left where it is, fixed to the ground (or to the spot above the ground that it is at), and turns to follow the ship as it flies off, a moment behind, as a hand on a tripod does. circle the ship: the camera goes slowly round it. drift and follow: for space; the camera is left where it is, going on at the speed the ship had, as a camera on a second spacecraft would, so that a burn takes the ship away from it. fly the path: the camera flies the path set for the craft. track from afar (since 0.7.0): the camera stands on the ground kilometres off, to the side of the ship's way with the sun behind it, and follows it with a long lens. chase (since 0.7.0): it keeps station on the ship as a chase plane does. A move is never kept from one flight to the next. See Moves and paths
Zoom to keep the ship's size	on	while the camera stays behind, the lens is drawn out as the ship gets further off, so that it stays the size it was in the picture when the camera was left: as far as 2400 mm, which is what the cameras that follow real launches have. Set the focal length first: that is the size it keeps
Circling	6° a second	how fast the camera goes round the ship; less than nought, the other way
Tracker's distance	4 km	(since 0.7.0) how far from the ship track from afar puts the camera, 0.5 to 15 km
Hand-held	0	(since 0.7.0) 0: as on a tripod; up to 1, as held in the hands, the picture wandering a little and swaying with the breath, the more through a long lens, while a move holds the camera. A camera near a launch shakes with its roar whatever this is, once the sound gets to it
A pull of focus takes	1.2 s	(since 0.7.0) when what the focus is on changes, the focus is pulled from one to the other over so long, as a focus puller turns the ring. 0: at the focus speed
Path takes	10 s	how long the camera takes to fly the path, from its first point to its last
Between moves	a dissolve	how one move gives way to the next, and to the game's own camera: a cut, straight from one picture to the next; a dissolve, the last picture of the one fading out over the next; through black, down to black and up again. Not into or out of the cockpit
Its length	0.8 s	how long a dissolve, or the way through black, takes
Viewfinder	off	on: the game's own interface is put away and a camera's is drawn in its place. with thirds adds the lines a picture is composed on. See The viewfinder
Meter	centre-weighted	the viewfinder's light meter: how far over or under a middle grey the picture comes out, in stops. centre-weighted: the whole picture, its middle counting most. spot: only what is inside the focus bracket. off: no meter

The page also reads out what the markings on a real lens would tell you: the angle of view, where the focus is, and from where to where the picture is sharp (to a blur of 0.03 mm on full-frame film, the usual measure), for example 85 mm on full frame: 16.1° from top to bottom. In focus at 45.0 m; sharp from 35.7 m to 60.9 m.

Keys

All with the game's modifier key held (Option on a Mac, Alt elsewhere), in flight:

C	the camera on and off
V	the viewfinder up and down
F	what the focus is on: the ship, the middle, by hand
T	leave the camera where it is, to follow the ship from there (fixed to the ground near a world, drifting in space); again, to take it back to the ship
Y	fly the path; again, to stop it
Page Up, Page Down	pull the focus further and nearer by hand, for as long as they are held (taking hold of the ring from wherever the focus was)

The game reads its own keys whether the modifier is held or not, and its own T, F, V and C would switch SAS on or off, hold it, change the game's camera mode and show or hide the crew's portraits. While the camera is running and the modifier is held, those four of the game's are held off. (With the camera switched off, the modifier and C still also show or hide the crew's portraits as it switches the camera on.)

The path

Under Path, at the foot of the page: Put a point here (the camera's place, which way it looks and its lens, as they are now), Take the last away, Clear, and Fly it. A path is kept for the craft being flown, by its name. See Moves and paths.