AC160 Bought 160A for Deposition Shooting. Any Advice?

nedcam

nedcam

Well-known member
Hi All,

I feel a bit strange having bought this older model here in June of 2016 while everyone is moving into 4K, but I have several large law firm clients for which I have been doing litigation support videos and they ask me to do depositions. Thus far I have avoided them but now that I realize that they are relatively easy compared to my other shoots, I will be getting the CLVS certification and offer to do deps.

I have the Panasonic HPX 300, used to own the AF100, back in the day I had the HVX200 and DVX100A. I was thinking, since deps will be available light in a conference room, just go with the Fluorescent scene file? Obviously do dual recording on legitimate San Disc cards, on AC power.

Any other tips for using the 160A on depositions?

Thanks,

Ned
 
Ned- does the 160 burn in TC? Are they still asking for that? I looked at doing depos a few years ago, but didn't do it.
 
Hi Chuck,

Yes it does burn in D&T, although some deps will not need that. I did a lot of research and it seems that this is the last professional Panasonic model that will shoot in 4x3 SD so although it's an older model it seems that this is the best camera in use by that area of the biz. Deps want SD for a few reasons. I always looked at deps as too low paying to deal with however...I have done very profitable litigation support videos such as Day-in-the-Life, Settlement Videos, Mock Trials, IP, etc. and invariably the firm would ask if I did deps. Saying no is not good. I love the non-dep area because it reminds me of the old days of working with ad agencies: They don't care about money! They pass it through to their clients. Doing deps is very easy from a cameraman viewpoint but...you have to pay attention constantly for up to 7 hours because you're always mixing mics plus attorneys want to go off and on the record, so you must know The Rules, which is the hard part.

On another note, I'm 63 and looking at having to drop $13-$16K on buying 4K gear so I can continue to participate in the downward spiral of this business and I'm thinking: There's a lot to do with my life, a long Bucket List, so after shooting several days a week on average for 38 years, I'm moving into semi-retirement now, smelling the roses. I had planned on teaching to bring in a few bucks but the adjunct controversy nixed that, so I feel doing deps I can be using a walker! It doesn't pay well by a DP's standards but as a semi or retired geezer you can bring in between $300-$800 a day depending on how long the dep goes and they hate to work past 5PM and you're sitting down all day. Staying awake and timing your bathroom breaks are the challenge!

I also discovered there are soooooo many incompetents doing deps that once the clients have been burned they want to hire pros like us, preferably certified, plus I am very good at marketing. It seems to me that deps will be an ace up my sleeve if I need to bring in some pin money to add to our nest egg's dividends, wife's pension and my SS, if needed.

Anything electronic for deps I am buying new because this is like us doing a live event. I won't use my Trams because I learned that one's lavs get destroyed from the yanking by attorneys. I figure I'm all in for around $6K plus $1000 to be certified by the NCRA in August, I'm taking the Experienced Track. So in sum I think easing into deps for my semi-retirement phase, only when I need some extra money, is a great way to glide into retirement. My idea of retirement is to avoid any commercial work and do only freebie small charity fundraisers where my contribution will move the needle. I love shooting so I can never truly "retire", just want to do good deeds only soon.

See ya,

Ned
 
I have an AG-AC160A.

I have two comments re ". . . do dual recording on legitimate San Disc cards, on AC power."

1) I recall hearing that with the AG-AC160/160A that if one SD card fails, the recording stops. I have never observed this 'feature' in action.

The manual is not clear on this but Barry Green apparently pointed out to Panasonic that this is not the way customers want things to be and Panasonic apparently took his advice for newer models, but not for the 160/160A.

2) The other thing is I believe as a general rule you might be better off on battery power because if there is a power failure, you can lose footage.
 
Update: I returned the 160A to B&H for a full refund. I bought it in haste to get the $400 rebate and we all know what greed leads to.

So, I will be taking the CLVS class and do more market research before deciding what to buy and I do lean towards buying new. I'm not in a big hurry so I will see what the Panasonic AG-AC30 offers and am toying with buying the Sony FS5.
 
The AG-AC90 will do date and time burned in as long as it is the most recent firmware. I used my 90 for a little while forbdepos. Tne only irritating part is that it is a 24 hour clock only so you need to do the time conversion in your head when you announce on and off the record once you are past 12:00. It's not that bad. Just irritating as opposed to an am/pm clock.
 
I did many years of depositions and here in Texas, Timecode was not necessary. At the time we recorded to VHS and a DVD recorder and I did not need any type of certification.

We used a single light to improve the image as so often the available light less than good... The most important part is audio. Use almost any camera you want but bring a 4 channel mixer with LAV mics for all who are speaking. That what the lawyers want in a professional, great sounding audio so it is very clear what the people are saying.
 
That's a nice unit but I don't think anyone in their right mind would do so when you can use a $150 4-channel mixer instead.
 
Yep. I often have attorneys here for Texas cases. More often than not they don't want time and date stamp. Pretty much every other places requires it though.
 
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