[Paul Marshall]

Hi Julienne,

Hope I can offer a few tips for you.

I shot an eclipe here in the UK in 1999, travelled to a little island called Alderney to maximise weather, etc. As it turned out the day was quite cloudy…and so my fun began!

I should mention at this point that I was shooting on a pro broadcast cam with adapted 300mm 2.8 (35mm stills) lens – a combo that filled the frame(4:3 in those days) perfectly.

In my opinion forget welding glasses, etc. Get yourself a proper Mylar filter. It’s an expense but, trust me, well worthwhile. Because of the rapidly changing conditions I knew I would experience, I gaffer taped the filter to the front of the 300’s lens hood for speedy removal and replacement (of the whole hood). You could do the same.

Your next huge challenge is keeping the sun in frame and holding it steady. It moves it’s own diameter in approx 2 mins, so it won’t stay in a locked off shot for very long at all if you’re tight. Get the best tripod you can, period. Keep it at it’s minimum height for rigidity, and if it’s windy get behind a wall. The tripod I used cost about $7000 and still could have been sturdier. Don’t use the pan arm – forget it exists. Balance the cam/lens combo on the head with it at shooting angle, ie so that the cam stays pointing at the sun without you having to use pressure or force to keep it at that angle. When you’ve done that just use your cupped hands on the head itself – but be super gentle.

If you go down the route of a prime stills lens mounted on your EX remember you have no ability to zoom out to find the subject. Simply finding the sun in an empty sky on full telephoto is an art in itself! I can recommend MTF adapters though.

It was fairly cloudy when I filmed in 1999 so I had to deal with all manner of camera and lens settings to account for the changing conditions. I used all 4 camera ND filters, the entire range of the lens and the mylar filter on and off. Get very comfortable with changing your settings whilst not vibrating or moving the camera and not losing the subject, if it might be cloudy.

Assuming it’s a lovely day you’ll want to try to leave room on your iris to open up for totality. Overexposing badly here would be a real shame though as you might lose too much detail in the corona. Not sure, but you may well have to remove the mylar filter too.

Daylight preset white balance is probably a good idea.

To do the job properly is a bit of a nightmare to be honest. It’s by far and away the biggest technical challenge I’ve faced in over twenty years of pointing cameras for a living. But if you do pull it off you’ll be rewarded with some amazing footage. I actually wept once I’d got my shots, it really was a challenging and emotional experience. On the plus side we probably got the best shots in the UK, apart from an ITN crew that had a stabilsed camera in a plane!

The good news is that you can practice. Don’t risk your sensors and eyes on the sun – start tracking the moon. Once you’re happy with your technique move on to the filter and the sun to check exposures.

Also don’t underestimate how dark it gets, day truly turns to night. Birds and animals go quiet. It really is remarkable.

Your toughest choice may actually be whether to put yourself through the trauma of filming the eclipse itself or whether to swing the camera round and film a nice wide shot as the landscape darkens to remind yourself of the experience in future years. It would be a shame for you to do what I HAD to do. Yeah, with weeks of research and planning we got some great shots, but my memories of the eclipse are mainly of changing iris and filters – I didn’t get to see the eclipse, I just pointed the camera that did see it.

Hope some of this helps you Julienne, and have a fantastic trip however you play it.

Regards

Paul

[Paul Marshall]

Hi Brian,

I read this thread with interest as I am in the market for such a device, along with an EX-3. I work at one of the small ITV regions in the UK, mainly on news/sport/current affairs docos and commercial and corporate but it’s the standard definition news environment that I am interested in with this camera. (I appreciate that it ain’t “built tough” but it should survive in my hands)

The main reason I’m interested in a separate recording device is to be able to record standard def straight onto low cost, easily changeable disk – Compact Flash ideally. In the fast paced news environment I can’t spare the time to be able to do lengthy down-conversion to enable our editors to do their thing on our Avid server system.

Sony make just such a device that I believe comes with one or two of their “prosumer” models. It will also be available separately apparently. It will work via I-Link on other cams, such as the EX-3.

I don’t know if this helps you but it might give you an insight into what different people are after. Also, I don’t know how practical your backpack solution will be. Sure, some people will accept this for ultimate quality in certain situations but it’s not a road I would willingly go down for many reasons. I’m not sure either that many people need such high recording capacity either, there are only so many hours in a day! Wildlife shooters might be grateful I suppose!

Another thought for you…I’ve been researching this whole subject for some time and I recall reading somewhere that the variable frame rate function does not record via the HD/SDI out – only to the SxS card. I’m not sure yet if VFR will record via I-Link. Any ideas anyone?

One final thought though. I’m sure that this camera could easily find it’s way into the news gathering arena but lack of SD recording is a big issue (at least for now). In fact I don’t really understand why Sony didn’t build this in. Firmware update possible anyone?

I’m brand new to this forum so Hi all and thanks for the fascinating posts. I also apologise in advance if I have my facts wrong.

P.S. If anyone is wondering why I want to go to this level of hassle to shoot news, it’s because I have serious back problems (20 years in this industry does that) and so I have to lighten my load. Also not prepared to drop below half inch sensors for DOF issues.

P.P.S. Brian, there is a yet to be made product that really would transform the EX-3 into a serious piece of kit for all users that are used to pro shoulder mount cameras, and I don’t just mean a shoulder brace! I have the design worked out in my head but no ability to take it further. If you’d like to e-mail me directly we may be able to come up with something to our mutual benefit.

But good luck with everything!!