[Dean Sensui]

I don’t usually shoot family stuff but brought the EX1 along on a cruise to Alaska. Everyone loved the image quality. Made it look like they were in National Geographic. Except that they weren’t dancing topless like they do in some of the Nat Geo magazines. 🙂

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

I shoot everything at 1080p30. It provides the most resolution, and any frame can be easily converted to a still image should you need to do so. It also avoids annoying interlacing problems if you’re doing any visual effects work.

If I need to convert to interlaced, I’ll do that through Apple’s “Compressor” software. Easy enough.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

I use an Audio Technica 4051a with a furry Lightwave windscreen. Supported by a Lightwave mic mount. Works great.

The later versions of the Lightwave windscreen has shorter fur, so if you’re going to be working in gusty conditions I’d get a Rycote.

I also reinforced the Sony mic mount. It’s very weak and guaranteed to break. Where the screws go through holes slender pieces of plastic. I beefed up the voids with fiber-reinforced epoxy when one of the mic mounts broke and neither have broken since then.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

I use a Firmtek system with Hitachi/IBM SATA drives. They’re paired as mirrored RAIDs.

I have more than two dozen of these drives and just added six more. In several years I haven’t lost a single one of them.

Other World Computing currently sells 1 terabyte drives for as low as $80 each. $20 for the “sled” that holds each drive in the Firmtek housing. It’s about as cheap, fast and reliable as you can get.

The “working” RAID is set up as a level-0 “striped” RAID for speed.

I back up everything: Original camera files. Edited projects. Color projects and rendered files. Visual effects projects from After Effects.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

Mark…

Out in the field I use 250-gig G-Drive Minis. They seem to be pretty tough and don’t require additional power. I copy my SxS cards to one drive and then dupe to the second G-Drive.

I produce a fishing show here in Hawaii and haven’t experienced any serious problems with the EX1. I have a Kata CRC-15 which works well. I’ve gotten dumped on by spray from a crashing wave and this cover kept the camera nicely protected.

As long as the camera doesn’t get soaked it should do well. At the end of each day wipe down the outside with a damp cloth to clear off any salt. And have microfiber lens wipes available, with lens cleaning fluid, to keep the lens clean.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

Are you using Sony tapes or some other brand?

I noticed the same problem with Fuji or Maxell tapes. With Sony tapes it comes out right on the nose.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

There’s a device that transfers film to video with your camera, and employs an “aerial image” technique which provides a very clean image: https://www.moviestuff.tv/ No ground glass or screen pattern to get in the way.

I have one and, while the concept and image quality are good, the projector in the unit leaves a lot to be desired. The units incorporated into the transfer setup had relatively cheap mechanisms and I’ve had film damaged by it. Definitely not as good as the old Bell & Howell 8mm projectors or Elmo Super 8 projectors.

I intend to rebuild the setup I have, using our family’s Bell & Howell, as well as my Elmo projector. The key to it all is the condenser lens which lets your video camera focus right down to the film gate. A much lower-powered lamp is employed since the image isn’t being projected across a room. And that means film doesn’t get burned.

The creator of the transfer systems also set up a nice frame-by-frame process where the projector will trip a switch that captures individual frames directly into your computer. The transfer speed is somewhat slower with this but the quality is better. When transfers are done in real time there can be quite a few double-exposed frames since the projector’s frame rate and video frame rates don’t match. Films transferred frame-by-frame don’t have that problem. And there’s no flicker.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

Something to consider: If you’re on the move during the day and camped at night, that doesn’t give you any time to charge anything with solar power. And if you’re deep in a canyon, you might get stuck in a shaded area. Might not be enough voltage to get you powered up.

Perhaps think of ways to reduce the amount of power needed. Leave the computer behind and bring enough SDHC cards or SxS cards to avoid having to transfer footage, and bring along a power source to just charge the batteries. Have enough batteries available to cover your needs just in case you can’t get a full charge during the day.

Other options: Carry enough batteries and SDHC cards to cover you for the duration of the trip without having to bring a power supply (30 batteries?!). Or see if there’s any way to drag a portable power supply (a 28-pound Honda EU1000 generator) and a few gallons of gas.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

There seems to be some distortion of the image. I’ve see the same when trying to digitally stabilize footage shot with the EX1.

So my rule is: If I want a stable shot, use a stable platform. Either a dolly, Glidecam, crane, tripod, etc. If I’m going to get a hand-held look, then take what comes.

And if I’m going to shoot HD, shoot full HD: 1080p, not 720. Capture as much image data as possible right from the start.

Even material shot with a CCD has problems when trying to stabilize a shot. Motion blur will create odd-looking frames. They’re stable, but they’re also blurred from movement. So again the mantra: for stable shots, use a stable platform… unless there’s absolutely no other choice.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

John…

Actually the internet can handle any frame rate. Way back in the 20th Century, posting 10 fps and 15 fps clips was an essential part of trying to make sure old-fashioned “dialup” connections at 28 kbps could download a video clip within a reasonable amount of time — anyone remember when 56k was considered fast? 🙂

The links I posted lead to opinions by others who are more experienced than me, and they strongly recommend shooting at 30 fps for broadcast.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing