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Field Report – South Sudan
Hi all,
Borrowing on an earlier post on use of the Ki Pro in the field, I thought I’d share my experiences with the Ki Pro on a documentary shoot in Africa.
I have an F model Varicam and have been shooting quite a bit in South Sudan and Kenya over the past 2 years. My latest project,(Feb 2010) had a very quick turn around time once I got back to the States, so I was interested in some sort of digital media capture. I have a HVX 200 also, so I’m familiar with the P2 workflow, but for a number of reasons I went with the Ki Pro and could not have been happier on this shoot.
My setup is a Panasonic Varicam, F model, Ki Pro with 2 250 gb HDDs, in a Porta brace soft case, B4B Lithium Ion batts for Ki Pro power.
We shot a lot of handheld, some walking interviews, a lot of jumping in and out of vehicles and a lot of transport over rough terrain. It was brutally hot, 100 deg F, days.
I was of course very aware of the perils of shooting with HDDs as opposed to SSDs, but my mindset going in was the Ki Pro was my secondary record and we rolled tape in the camera as usual.
So, while shooting I was always aware of the spinning platters on my hip, but did obsess about care in handling. I was gentle and smart in using it, just as I would gently set down my camera, I treated the Ki Pro like any of my other electronic tools that my livelihood depends on. I did not let the Ki Pro impact my shooting style and was down in the dirt and running around as usual and as needed. When traveling over the very rough roads, I turned the Ki Pro off, but it road on the seat just like my camera, no special attention or care.
I did run out of power two times, both while in a controlled, calm interview situation. It was operator error in my failure to monitor the batt level on the Ki Pro, but it was funny that it happened then and not when running around grabbing broll.
The Ki Pro does get hot. Okay it gets very, very hot. I was surprised that it kept right on trucking in the heat of South Sudan. Not a hiccup. It was a bit hot wearing it on my waist.
It took some getting used to the amount of time it takes for the Ki Pro to start up, and for the media to mount. I found myself thinking ahead to make sure I didn’t get caught waiting for media to mount while missing critical action in front of me. Battery performance was so good, that I basically left the unit on most of the time. I was using 90w Lithium Ion, and out of seven shoot days, I only had two double-battery days for the Ki Pro.
I must say, it took a bit to get used to a two piece rig again. I’m old enough to have shot two piece in the old days, and the thought of reverting back did weigh on my purchase decision, but the ease of use and media availability and price won out.
All in all, I was very pleased with the Ki Pro. I downloaded the drive each night to an eSATA Cal Digit 1tb drive. Never spent more than 30 mins downloading a day’s worth of shooting. I even updated the firmware in the field.
Thanks all. I enjoy all the postings in this and all the forums!
Ronald Borden
Atlanta, GA, USA -
10 Replies
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Nice report Ronald.
How did you find the picture quality of the Ki compared to the varicam backup tapes? Was there less noise in the picture and anything else noticible? Cheers and good work.
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Thanks Peter.
I did make some comparisons, not scientific, but aesthetically. I “lost” a couple of interviews because I lost power so I had to re-capture from tape. Definite difference in sharpness and richness of the image compared to the 10 bit images from the Ki Pro. With the Ki Pro images being the best of course!
Now that I’m back home and shooting my usual fare, I’m being constantly surprised at the number of my regular clients who know what the Ki Pro is and want to use it. No way near the “sales” job required when I introduced P2 to them. I wonder if P2 paved the way???
Ron
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Thanks Ron,
Nice rig there. The tethered thing is a bit “back-to-BVU” days but the Ki Pro is much lighter. I will investigate further.
Cheers,
PeterPeter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
might be getting hot for same reason my Ki Pro almost cooked: insufficient ventilation in the Portabrace soft case. Being retrofitted as I type…
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we were using the KiPro in a truck environment….had a bunch of tape stacked really close to the left edge…blocking the vent that I really didnt see. Well needless to say it got freaking hot…and we started to loose audio during recording…..we moved the tapes and magically everything worked great again!
That little box is great!
4 channels of audio would be better, but I am going to be buying at least 1!!
Philip Link
Evs Operator, FCP, After Effects, Electric Image and whatever else that can get me in trouble…… -
I’m going to be doing some shooting in the hear of Nevada next month. Did you take any steps to keep your gear cool when shooting?
Jim McNally
The Commercial Factory
http://www.commercialfactory.com -
shade with a small desk fan.
When I know I am going to be outside on a hot day I go to the local kids or sporting goods store and buy up all of the instant cool pack they have for sporting injuries, they tend to be cheaper than the ones in the drug stores and will keep the camera / recorder cool for about an hour each.
Just Remember that cold things on hot days gather condensation.
gary adcock
Studio37Post and Production Workflow Consultant
Production and Post Stereographer
Chicago, ILhttps://blogs.creativecow.net/24640
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Thanks Gary, that is a great idea. I hear the dust can be brutal on gear in Nevada too. I guess wrapping the camera for the dust doesn’t really help the heat issue.
Jim McNally
The Commercial Factory
http://www.commercialfactory.com -
Hi Jim,
I did not take any extra steps to protect the AJA from heat or dust. I just used my usual cautions, got out of the sun when possible, powered down often (more to conserve power than heat concerns) The unit got very,very hot, but I had no issues whatsoever. It was in a Portabrace and I wore it on my waist on my hip and small of my back. I could actually feel the heat from the unit on my back, not especially welcome in the heat of equatorial Africa!
I was also comforted in the event of heat related breakdown, or drive errors that I had tape rolling in the camera as my backup.
Ron
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