Coming soon are gear reviews. I will post what gear I use and why I use it. I will let you know how the gear stacks up to professional use on set. I’ll describe the advantages and disadvantages to any of the gear. I work on a wide range of productions, tv commercials, corporate and web videos so can recommend gear that’s versatile and worth considering taking on your next shoot.
Also if you have questions on film and tv gear let me know and I will pass on an industry veteran opinion.
With the range of gear options increasing everyday it’s important to know what works well and why.
First up I will let you know about my lighting gear and will give the pros and cons for HMI lighting.
Happy shooting til then.
Tag: gadgets
At last a really useful drone
It seems every man and his dog has a drone these days. The sad fact is though that the vast majority of these are either not equipped with a decent camera or are flown badly or even worse illegally.
To get great results you do need to get a professional drone crew. On shoots that I have been on by far the best results have been achieved by a two person Drone crew. One person to fly the drone and the second to frame the camera.
The good news is that there are better drones everyday equipped with better cameras giving more options to get the shot. I have to admit though I am old school and can easily see the advantages in shooting from a Helicopter with a stabilised mount. In this type of setup you can choose the camera and lenses you need rather than having to accept a fixed lense that distorts the image from prosumer type drones.
But all that aside, here is the best way to enjoy using a drone I have seen.
Gear gear gear ….
Does it ever end ? No, when it comes to film and TV gear. So with that in mind I have a bunch of new gear. New lighting frames 10 x 10, 6 x 6 and 4 x 4. Also a new Chromakey green 10 x 10 screen as well as some new new textiles for my other frames.
I also have a new monitor stand setup to make having a monitor on set in the right place easier and faster. This is a combination of a few Mathews products specially designed for onset monitors.
I now have a “low boy ” attachment for my Wally dolly kit. This enables the tripod head to be mounted to the T frame on the dolly, making for some really nice low angle shots.
Then there is a load of other new gear, including Shot bags x 4, C stands and more light stands.
All this new gear comes included with all my existing gear as part of my shooting package which means I can handle any shoot.
Is this the future ?
Cameras are getting smaller and stranger shaped, but this one even with its odd looking body just maybe the future or cameras. Say hello to the DJI Osmo, a new handheld camera that lets you shoot 12MP photos and 4K video while being stabilized with a 3-axis brushless gimbal.
The camera system is basically a sleek handheld stabilizer that comes standard with the Inspire 1’s X3 camera, which packs a 1/2.3-inch Sony Exmor R sensor with an ISO range of 100-1600 (100-3200 for video), a 20mm (35mm equiv.) lens with a 94° field of view, and DNG support or You can also choose to buy the grip for a new X5 camera if you’d like a Micro Four Thirds sensor and mount.
GoPro updates
There is new firmware for the GoPro Hero 3 cameras and a new app. With these you now can watch video recorded on your GoPro via WiFi on your smartphone or tablet. In video playback mode you can only watch a low res version of the footage but its a great feature making it really easy to check a shot back straight after the shoot to make sure all went well.
You can also view stills taken with your GoPro via your smartphone or tablet. With Stills you get a reasonable high res image version.
You can also save video or stills directly to your smartphone or tablet and even share these immediately with social networks.
I love these updates, they make a great camera even better!
GoPro Hero 3 – Black
GoPro have released their new range of cameras and I recently got my GoPro Hero 3 Black camera. The Black edition is the top of the range GoPro camera. It is the most versatile of the range as it offers more video resolutions and higher recording resolutions, in fact it will record 4K files. Other great features are its now 30% smaller, 25% lighter and 2 times more powerful than previous models. It’s waterproof to 60 m, capable of capturing ultra-wide 1440p 48fps, 1080p 50 fps and 720p 100 fps video and 12MP photos at a rate of 30 photos per second. It also has time lapse capabilities, being able to take a frame every 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 60 second intervals. Another stills innovation is the Continuous Photomode where you can take 3 photos per second or 5 photos per second or 10 photos per second – get for capturing the exact moment.
This camera is so small it can be mounted almost anywhere, meaning that I can now offer another camera to get a different view than possible with a normal sized camera. Also the waterproof housing meaning that is can be used almost anywhere in any weather conditions.
It has built-in Wi-Fi enabling remote control via included Wi-Fi Remote as well as live video preview and remote control on my smartphone and ipad running the GoPro app. This means its really easy to frame up your shot and then roll and cut the camera, as well as check that the camera is still getting what you want. The app also lets you can all camera setting really quickly and easily.
North Coast NSW & SE Queensland Videographer 