[Ken Zukin]

The president of the company, name escapes me now, suggested either the 17″ or the 24″, which costs twice the money. He said the in-between sizes were more for rack mounted applications — not for critical type work.

The 17″ Flanders Scientific (which I bought) looks terrific, and has all the options I need, but, it is a little on the small size. Still, $2500 is a lot easier to swallow than $5000-

[Ken Zukin]

I would use your EX-3 to get all the stationary shots you need, and buy a Sony HXR-MC1 for all the moving footage. I have one (Sony lipstick camera), and it’s a joy to use. I simply attach it to an audio boom pole — make sure you buy the wide-angle lens adapter. The whole package was about $3K. The camera head has 3 chips, and will intercut reasonably well with your EX-3. Someone with a critical eye can tell the difference, but the applications are so different (moving vs. stationary) — you should be OK.

I’ll also chime in about safety: if anything catastrophic happened, your career can be impacted, both financially, and reputation-wise. So, if you have control over the situation, make sure you do your filming on semi-deserted roads.

Here’s a link to the little Sony lipstick camera:

https://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665837099

[Ken Zukin]

I was in the same boat as you, and just purchased a 17″ LCD monitor from Flanders Scientific.

Pretty much feature for feature the same as Panasonic’s 17″ model, at a much cheaper price.

Bonus: When I called their Atlanta headquarters, I ended up speaking the President of the company for 15 minutes. That sold me. And, in case you’re wondering, they are a relatively new company, but filled with veterans from other broadcast endeavors.

https://www.flandersscientific.com/index/LM1760W

[Ken Zukin]

What John says….and you may be able to use some car headlights to punch up the backround ambience.
Just make sure the cars are far enough away so that their engines won’t pollute your audio.

[Ken Zukin]

Short answer: You’ll be better off adapting large, pro-style batteries for that camera.

Anton Bauer has expensive, but tried-and-true products that will meet your needs.

https://www.antonbauer.com/Products/ElipZ10KBattery

They (Anton) recently announced a solar-powered rig that, if available, would be of help to you.

I don’t think it’ll matter much whether you are shooting tape, or writing to P2 cards with regards to power usage; however, you are probably aware that if you shoot tape with your camera, it will be Standard Def (DV25) only.

This topic (cold weather/batteries) has been covered here before– search!!

[Ken Zukin]

Maybe you should consider a newer Suburban. Since gasoline costs aren’t stopping you, it’s probably a great time to buy something that’s a couple years old with not too many miles, since families are dumping their full size SUV’s. Maybe a lease return. I think you are going to be miserable in a smaller vehicle, esp. if you have to haul around crew in addition to equipment.

I currently am driving a 10 yr. old Ford Club Wagon which has been really reliable, but expensive to operate these last years as it gets about 13 mpg. I may look into a Ford Transit, which has been in use as a delivery vehicle in Europe for many years and recently brought to our shores — not 4WD though.

Chevy makes a 4WD Express van, which has sliding doors on both sides. I’d probably look at what plumbers, electricians and the like are driving in your snow-belt area.

It’s too bad Toyota or Honda hasn’t produced a full size cargo van domestically — they’d probably sell a bunch of them.

[Ken Zukin]

Thanks for the help, Nick. There is a feature within FCP’s “log and transfer” window that allows one to revert back to the original name (or number, in the P2 case).

[Ken Zukin]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions….I am aware of Proxymill, as I own one of Imagine’s related products: Shotput Pro.

My intent here is to be able to re-name files for my producer/reporter. As best I can tell, Proxymill just takes the files my Panasonic camera generates (numbers and letters) and compresses those.

I already have a real-time avenue for this with Panasonic’s native Proxy system (which I bought to the tune of $1500). This system can record compressed images to a SD card — problem (again) is the files are numbers/letters.

[Ken Zukin]

Well, my reporter is pretty technologically challenged….it’s much easier for him to deal with a video file identified, for instance, as “red-barn wide-shot, than a series of (P2 generated) numbers and letters.

I know that my camera has the feature of being able to simply hand off an SD card full of proxy files. But that isn’t going to work for me here.

I really just need a way of taking a High Def timeline with it’s many GB’s of content, and creating a compressed version of that.

Or, if you have any other ideas for me…….

[Ken Zukin]

I recently purchased HPX2000, which doesn’t have a “split” filter wheel….meaning there is essentially no way of “rolling-in” ND to control the iris. Not a big problem when using the 5600K filters — but a giant problem when shooting in 3200K.

Question: would it be possible to retrofit a split-filter-wheel set up into this camera body?

From an operating perspective, it’s really annoying not to have this option. For me it means dragging a matte box around to help open up the iris. I would have gladly spent an extra couple hundred dollars for the more “professional” filter wheel, had it been an option.

Not sure about Panasonic’s thinking here: I suppose they think this camera is designed for news shooters who are too clueless to appreciate a split-wheel design?

The split wheel design also incorporates a fluorescent (4300K) default — I miss that too.