Shooting in Kenya

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danielbrevick

Member
Has anyone shot in relatively isolated primitive conditions? Access to electricity and web will be limited. At this point it would appear as though I may have just 4-5 hours to recharge batteries for my camera and laptop. I will bring extra batteries for both.

Data storage is an even bigger challenge. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Right now I'm imaging that there is an ideal solution that might include portable HD's (I can get a very fast 500 gb for under $200) powered by the laptop. But maybe a blue-ray burner makes more sense? But needs a power supply? The P2 Cards are small in size and weight but too expensive (I may be there for as much as 15-20 days).

Has anyone tried using FTP upload for files? I could have someone dump files to HD's state side perhaps.

Buying many portable HD's may not be best.

Again any ideas - thoughts - much appreciated!
 
Sounds like a job for Tapes! Sorry, I really couldn't help myself. It seems like uploading to an FTP would take quite some time since A) Your files will be pretty big, and B) chances are really slim you'll have access to a High Speed connection in the wilderness. You could do the portable Raid deal, and take along solar chargers and batteries, and a converter. BluRay would also be a good route to go, since it would run off the Laptop. With the solar charger, it wouldn't be that big a deal. There was also a company that had a remote Satellite system, where you could transmit streams and whatnot in the field. But again, that is likely to draw a good amount of juice, as well as being pricey. What camera are you using?
 
Thanks - I'm using an AG-HVX200AP - shooting 24fps hd - i'm getting a gig per minute. On one hand I'm thinking about backing off on the res for the Africa stuff - but it's probably going to be some of the best footage. One friend told me he sees no cheap solution no matter what.
 
Well, here's a thought- If you can shoot it in 24p SD on tapes, you could wait till you got back and uprez the footage. You will take a hit in quality, but what else are you going to do? If you will have a car or truck taking you around, you might be able to use a power converter to run your Laptop stuff off the cigarette lighter... if it has one.
 
It's good advice with the tape. I had not thought about that. SO MUCH CHEAPER!

I think if nothing else tape will be part of the mix, just allows for so much more shooting.

Much appreciated!
 
Yeah, while I admire the footage and results you can get from the P2 cards, they just don't seem practical if you aren't loaded with cash or gear. You either need thousands of dollars worth of cards, thousands of dollars worth of laptop and storage, and lots of available power to run the laptop and storage. If you need to shoot 10 hours of footage, just how many cards will it take to hold all of it? Just not cost effective.
 
Do you already own a laptop and some P2 Cards?

One option that I used for similar shoots in the Galapagos with minimal charging time and then for 11 days in the Arctic without any power was a couple of 16GB cards, Powerbook G4 laptop, two On The Go small bus powered drives (320 gb each).

For the Arctic I used a larger rechargable power source with a solar panel trickle charger to charge batteries. This unit with the Solar panel was about $400 in Canada. This unit is heavy though, weighing a little under a car battery.

I had 5 laptop batteries and 5 HVX batteries. I bought both after market on eBay for $50 a piece. You might not need as many as I did as you will have access to some power it sounds like and you could recharge the portable power source once and while this way as well.

It doesn't have to cost thousands but it depends on how long you think you will be shooting/downloading in between charge times that will determine how many batteries yoiu will need. As well it depends on what gear you already have such as P2 cards. You can make it work with 2 16gb cards and a laptop but 3 would be ideal.
 
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Why not see about renting a P2 Portable. It runs off the same battery as your camera and will power small portable hard drives.

Barry and I had one in Africa and it was sweet to be able to offload in the vehicle and not have another set of batteries that we needed to worry about charging every night.
 
appreciate all the comments - i thought the tape idea was good (setting aside the res issue), but the tapes themselves become quite bulky - i won't have room!

i'm gonna go with some 500gig portable hds - between 7-10 as space and budget allow.

thanks!
 
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