[Max Palmer]

I shoot weddings as well, and am trying to come off of the dSLR bandwagon (it’s a great way to start though, which is why I did it). I haven’t had a hand at shooting with many different cameras, but I picked up a C100 MKI, now that the price has dropped so much, and I am completely flabbergasted by the images I’m getting out of this thing. It’s blowing away both my 6D and my XF100 in both image quality, noise levels, and dynamic range. It’s pretty frills-free, but from what I’ve been reading and experiencing, the image quality can’t be beat at that price range. It does exactly what I need a camera to do, which is allow me to still get that “big sensor” look (it’s a Super35), have professional audio features, and have something I can leave locked off on a tripod without worrying about recording limit.

[Max Palmer]

Hi Brent- A sad tale to hear; my condolences to your wife and her family.

I’ve been pretty fascinated with documentary shooting lately. I think it would be pretty cool to make one, but I’ve always wondered how a documentary is planned and produced. Can you share some insight as to what the first steps you had to take to get started with making a documentary?

[Max Palmer]

I was considering the AX100 too because of the attractiveness of it’s large sensor for low light situations. I currently shoot with a 60D B cam, and a XF100 A-cam. While the 60D will take in more light due to it’s larger sensor, the picture on the XF100 remains MUCH truer and pleasant to look at when the sensitivity is cranked up; wheras the 60D starts to fall on it’s face.

So obviously sensor size, while important, isn’t the end-all be all of low-light performance. Although, I am still curious as to how the AX100 performs compared to the smaller-sensor Canons. Does anyone have any insight into that?

[Max Palmer]

The best title (self inflicted one too) for someone in the creative world so far, was one that I told my boss I wanted to steal and use as my own official title in the company I work for: “Chief Solutionist”. That sums it up just about right.

[Max Palmer]

Don’t feel bad Mike- you and I sound like we’re in almost the same exact boat. I work in corporate marketing, and was brought onto a team as a sr. level graphic designer. Now in addition to my normal duties, I handle every single aspect of all of our in-house multimedia production other than serious camera work and only assist at times with script-writing. My title at work is still “graphic designer”. 😉

[Max Palmer]

I work at a large financial corporation, and I started here doing nothing but print design. But my background enabled me to be THE video guy in my business unit, and I’m still in the same kind of 8×8 cubicle as when I started. Although now I have a newer machine, dual cinema displays, a set of headphones, and a few external drives. I do everything from reviewing footage, to cutting, to titling and motion graphics, and any sort of chroma-keying and any sort of color correcting I need to do for my projects. I’m not a master at a lot of it, but I’m essentially a one-man shop. I don’t have any specialty external devices such as a true field monitor or soundproofing. Nobody around here gets their own office unless they’re above a certain paygrade. 😉

I do want to echo what other people on here are saying about audio editing. It’s terrible to do on headphones (not that I have a choice) and I always have to work extra hard to produce content with balanced sound mixing.

So yes, us cubicle-dwelling video people do exist, and we do what we can.

[Max Palmer]

So I was able to take some advice here, and borrow some G3’s from another department, who surprisingly had these things! They’re working out really well. Although I posted in another thread about what I can only refer to as “audio spillage” when using them both at the same time.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

[Max Palmer]

Richard- point taken. I’m crossing my fingers!

[Max Palmer]

Obviously, you get what you pay for always applies. However. I think $600 per kit might be hard to justify, especially since we need two or three, and we’re not exactly a production studio with high-end broadcast needs. That being said, I fully expected someone to recommend me a kit around that price, as this IS the audio pro forum. 😉

That being said, I have a couple questions to help my argument: 1. What about that $600 kit makes it better than a $300 kit, other than actual quality of sound? and 2. is there anything about any of these kits that would make them difficult for someone else to use, such as an administrative assistant? (I’m not always going to be around to patch people in with lav mics and xlr cables.)

On the plus side, they’re going to cross shop lav mics with whatever equipment our technology procurement department can get. So if they come back with something horrifically expensive, then I can much more easily justify a $600 kit. Fingers crossed!

[Max Palmer]

I will have to go do a dummy test for sure. I’m going to try and script it and have a single screen with prompts, and some ad-libbing of course.. Might not work if they have to turn and look into another camera, and not be able to read the prompts at the same time. Something for me to think about.