[Dale West]

I guess by now Robert is shoveling snow or better yet taking pictures of people shoveling snow. Since no snow has fallen here in Miami since 1972 I thought I’d just toss out my feelings of camera covers. I use rain coats when it rains and polar coats when it cold (bought a porta brace polar coat for an alaska trip) and thats it. My service tech, Roger Macie, told me that camera covers hold in the heat and I have enough heat in Miami already. I’ve never put a cover on any of my cameras and they all look very good cosmetically. My 11 year old Ikegami looks almost like new. My VariCam and my PDW-530 look good but they were also rented to other operators so they have some ware on them. I’ve seen some guys put some ratty covers on their cameras and say that the camera is still pristine. I wonder who can tell under that funk they have wrapping it. But seriously the heat issue was enough for me to not use a cover. Some of these babies can fry eggs as it is! I keep my cameras clean. I carry a natural bristle shaving brush in my camera bag and if I have some down time I take it out and brush the camera and and lens. If I do put a strap on the camera I make sure that it is short enough so the rivets on my jeans do not scratch the side of the case. And functionally if I’ve got to change battery, tape, disk or card or search out a warning message of some kind I don’t have to rip velcro to do it and I can see all of the camera indicators without looking through hazed out plastic windows.
Any one wanna buy a Porta Brace Polar Coat for a VariCam?
Good shooting to all

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

Yes

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

Tyler,
While B&H usually but not always has the best prices it might be a good idea to look around a little at
a couple pro audio sales companies. They offer excellent advice in addition to the products you are looking for. Sometimes a few dollars more in the purchase can lead to manny dollars in value added services. Sometimes you can get loaner equipment from them if your stuff needs attention that may take a long time. Most box houses sell the items, they have little or no idea how its used and if it has to go for service they usually don’t provide any help with loaners. Another resource is the used equipment they can offer for sale. I’ve found a bunch of excellent values on their web sites. Money is tight all across the board so make sure that you get the best value for the dollars you spend. A few of the places I have delt with over the years are: TAI Audio, Trew Audio, and Location Sound. There are others but these guys are where I’ve bought both new and used gear.
Good Luck with your search.

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

Rob
Ive done this sort of thing after the shoot using my 1200a and the sony dvd recorder. Just used the video out with info on and connect the analog audio. Make sure the down convert is letterbox or cropped (if you are ending in 4:3 ) You can take a few minutes and put the TC window up or down in the frame. I think that doing it as you shoot will be a little cumbersome as any starts and stops during the shooting will require attention at the dvd recorder. Plus the format time and the finalization of the dvd will take real time during the shoot. I’d push for doing each of them after they are shot. You can do tape 1 while you shoot tape 2 etc. You can even put it in a different area to keep the deck fan noise to a minimum. But if you cant sell the process that way I think you can do it directly from the camera in the downconvert mode.

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

Frank, as an old friend of mine used to say. Leave the banjo playing to the banjo players…..
You need to send your banjo to the nearest banjo tuner. Sorry but I think the only solution to to get
your camera to a good service center. There are probably some tape path problems. It only takes microns out of alignment and you are in trouble. While it sux to send it out it is much better than having a shoot go in the dumper because a problem you thought was ironed out returns and totals your clients “one time” event.
Best of luck

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

Since you talk about it being in the last few minutes of tape it might also be a tension issue. If you have it in for cleaning make sure they check tape path as well. Might be time for bands etc.

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

So a couple of things I learned on an Alaskan trip:

First the battery life is easy to figure with the owners manual.
Watt hours of the battery divided by the watt hours of drain in each mode. Dont have a user manual on had but should be listed in the specs of the camera. Then figure that the cold will take its share of the battery life. Keep them as warm as you can.

Thats a long time without electricity. If you are shooting on P2 are you going to take enough cards to not have to offload for the entire time?

A couple of things I did. Although I used a VariCam I think some of the same principals apply.

I bought a bunch of air activated hand warmers from REI. I put them inside of the polar coat for the camera. Once the camera is on for a while it generates its own heat but when off it cools quickly and I had some color issues especially if I took the camera out of the polar coat. I also used the hand warmers to keep the batteries toasty.

On other thing I did was call one of the stations and talk to the chief photographer. They live it every day and can really be a good resource.

Good luck
If you have never been to Alaska you are in for a treat. It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve traveled to. Winter or summer it is amazing!

regards

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

You cant just rewind and record, ya gotta format the card.
One of the best items shipped with the camera is the user manual. Spend a few minutes with it.

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

Try motion control mounts. A less expensive version of the Tyler middle mount.
motioncontrolmounts.com

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201

[Dale West]

Shaun,
I’ve shot shows for Discovery using the VariCam and we have used our 1200a to convert it to 1080 when we digitized the tapes. The results were very satisfactory. As Robin said the HDX-900 does it in the camera and does get a slightly better horizontal resolution but as he also said you lose a lot of the things that make the VariCam the VariCam. If its good enough for Planet Earth……..

Dale West Video
North Miami, FL
305-892-1201