frankxhogan
New member
I shot the DNC in Denver a few weeks ago with my new EX3, got it a few days before the convention started along with a new Lectronics wireless. Here are a few observations from the 6-day/12-hour-days shoot:
--Shot 720 30p high quality - end product = govt cable tv show
--Images are awesome, inside the Pepsi Center, outside in bright sun, at night during mass arrest scene in near dark, and in the dark for the finale fireworks display at Mile Hi Stadium
--used a BEC wireless mic rig affixed to bottom of camera with 2 wireless mics hanging by it on right side of camera, caused severe imbalance but the entire shoot was hand held, run and gun so it worked out fine in the long run. On less frantic-paced shoots using tripod, I'm taping the Lectronics receiver to the bottom of the shoulder brace and that works ok too.
--weak point on the camera for me was the rubber eye piece, flimsy as can be and it came off at slight brush up against a protestor, twice, but fortunately friendly folks grabbed it for me. I'm considering using a couple pieces of gaffer's tape to keep it more stable.
--red "on" light at back of the handle is useless when you're shooting run and gun cause you can't see it (can I make the red light in the viewfinder bigger so I know cam is on?). It'd be nice to have one somewhere in front.
--lens got dirty easily out in the elements, and getting it clean again was tough, and yes I was using a UV filter but didn't carry air, just lens cleaner juice
--weight of the camera to produce those awesome images was negligible for me, as my previous camera was Sony DSR300, so the EX3 seemed light as a feather even after holding it for 10 hours
--bottom line, great hand held run-and-gun camera - camera arrived three days before the event began so it was definitely learn on the job training, have used it on a feature doc since then and the image choices are mind boggling
--workflow in the field was a MacBook Pro 17" no gloss laptop, dumping the cards (only had two 16 and one 8 Gb) to a portable LaCie drive (I've had great luck with LaCie over the years by the way).
--backed up the portable LaCie clips to 1Tb drives when I got home, no loss of clips, fortunately
--also, thanks to all on here who steered me to a Kata 502 backpack, great bag, everything fit fine and velcro'd down tight
--a bit hard to get used to the tiny buttons and switches compared to my old camera, but a great camera overall, light for long hand held situations, capable of much more in terms of image acquisition than I asked of it during the DNC shoot.
--didn't have rain gear for it, anybody know where to go for that?
thanks...
--
--Shot 720 30p high quality - end product = govt cable tv show
--Images are awesome, inside the Pepsi Center, outside in bright sun, at night during mass arrest scene in near dark, and in the dark for the finale fireworks display at Mile Hi Stadium
--used a BEC wireless mic rig affixed to bottom of camera with 2 wireless mics hanging by it on right side of camera, caused severe imbalance but the entire shoot was hand held, run and gun so it worked out fine in the long run. On less frantic-paced shoots using tripod, I'm taping the Lectronics receiver to the bottom of the shoulder brace and that works ok too.
--weak point on the camera for me was the rubber eye piece, flimsy as can be and it came off at slight brush up against a protestor, twice, but fortunately friendly folks grabbed it for me. I'm considering using a couple pieces of gaffer's tape to keep it more stable.
--red "on" light at back of the handle is useless when you're shooting run and gun cause you can't see it (can I make the red light in the viewfinder bigger so I know cam is on?). It'd be nice to have one somewhere in front.
--lens got dirty easily out in the elements, and getting it clean again was tough, and yes I was using a UV filter but didn't carry air, just lens cleaner juice
--weight of the camera to produce those awesome images was negligible for me, as my previous camera was Sony DSR300, so the EX3 seemed light as a feather even after holding it for 10 hours
--bottom line, great hand held run-and-gun camera - camera arrived three days before the event began so it was definitely learn on the job training, have used it on a feature doc since then and the image choices are mind boggling
--workflow in the field was a MacBook Pro 17" no gloss laptop, dumping the cards (only had two 16 and one 8 Gb) to a portable LaCie drive (I've had great luck with LaCie over the years by the way).
--backed up the portable LaCie clips to 1Tb drives when I got home, no loss of clips, fortunately
--also, thanks to all on here who steered me to a Kata 502 backpack, great bag, everything fit fine and velcro'd down tight
--a bit hard to get used to the tiny buttons and switches compared to my old camera, but a great camera overall, light for long hand held situations, capable of much more in terms of image acquisition than I asked of it during the DNC shoot.
--didn't have rain gear for it, anybody know where to go for that?
thanks...
--
