Protecting HVX while shooting Holi Festival

Kyle Fordrung

Kyle Fordrung

Member
So, I will be shooting the Holi Festival of Colors at the local Krishna temple this weekend, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for keeping my HVX from being destroyed by chalk dust.

If you're not familiar with the festival, Holi festivities involve everyone throwing multi-colored chalk dust at each other - obviously, I don't want to get my camera filled with dust and have to send it to Panny or a repair shop to have it cleaned.

I don't have access to a rain cover, or the money to buy one between now and then - any DIY suggestions for a situation like this?
 
Thanks Postmaster -

That's what I was thinking too. Some heavy duty trashbags and gorilla tape to seal up where the bag meets the lens hood, and again around the end of the eyepiece. Might have to set my focus to auto on this one (I hate doing that).

I really need to get myself a cheaper camera for events like this. One that I could live with if it got utterly destroyed (provided my footage was retrievable).
 
I was going to suggest good quality trashbags and gaffe tape. I have used the heavy duty force flex trashbags. Cut a little opening to go around your lens hood. The cool thing about the force flex is that it is strong and has some elasticity so when you cut a small hole you can stretch it around something. it will stay tight and you can tape it. Then just get a UV fiter.

Cool thing is if you use a large garbage bag...just fold over the bottom. when you need to access the card you wont have to rip anything and re-do it. Just unfold the extra in a safe place then fold it back up again.

Also, I've been pretty impressed with the footage I get from the GoPro....just FYI.
 
I second the Force-Flex endorsement. You can open up a small hole and stretch it around the lens hood/cables.
I got some grit in my HVX200 focus ring and it took about a year before it finally turned like normal again!
 
Thanks for the tips guys! The shoot went well, not a speck of colored dust on my camera. My kata bag and tripod sticks are another matter...

I'll post the footage from the Holi festival when I've got it all ingested and cut.
 
I bought a rain coat from eBay from India that might work, but still
that powder is small.

You could also talk to people who shoot on the playa at burning man.

And I've seen video from those, and they look very fun!
 
ProfessorU - that is just tragic. If that happened to my HVX I would probably have to have the entire lens assembly taken apart and cleaned (not financially feasible).

So far, I haven't noticed any issues with my camera after this shoot. I used a double-layer of heavy trash bags and a ton of Gorilla Tape to secure just about every entry point I could. I tried keeping my camera out of the line of fire (so to speak) with people throwing the colors, but there were quite a few people who seemed to be specifically targeting my camera.
 
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