Taking My HMC150 to Haiti Next Week - I have questions

M

MCPFilms

Member
I am filming a medical team going into Haiti next week. I am running around trying get ready. I am running into a few snags:

1. No Electricity to Charge My Batteries: I found a solar powered bag that will charge my battery, the only catch is that it requires the cigarette style adapter to charge. Anyone know of a site that sells the cigarette style charger for the HMC Battery?

I found this site http://www.snapitdigital.com/itemdetail.asp?mod=CVWVBG130 but they don't look legit. Thoughts?

2. SD Cards - I am very limited on funds and I only have one 16gb card for filming. Can someone tell if they know of a site that is running a deal on SD Cards 16gb and higher?

3. Other than safety, anyone have any recommendations on how to best maintain and keep the camera in good working order in a Disaster situation?


I am leaving next Thursday so I need to move fast!

Thanks in advance....
 
They are on ebay too, apparently:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270422672440&rvr_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=WVF%3F&GUID=575a7f311260a0b584217101ffbaa566&itemid=270422672440&ff4=263602_263622

Feedback is good. I'd say just go with it. Don't see it anywhere else.

Patriot 16gb is $40 apiece at Amazon. Also, might want to have a good sturdy external HDD to offload and store footage.

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Class-SDHC-Flash-Memory/dp/B000VE4PNS

Use a UV filter so you don't scratch your lens, and use a sticky LCD protector for your screen. And maybe you could use one of these:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/654173-REG/Kata_KT_VA_605_62_DVG_62_Camcorder_Guard.html

Good luck! And have a safe and productive trip.
 
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They have adaptors

They have adaptors

I have an adaptor that you plug into. its shaped like a lighter plug on one end and my chargers just plug in. walmart has 400 watt converters with mulitple outlets to plug into. just make sure your paying attention to your wattages and what your solarbag or whatever is outputting. I used to keep my laptop plugged into my car lighter outlet too long, and burned the car outlet up. Make sre you don't exceed ampacity!!!
 
Galleddrim said:
They are on ebay too, apparently:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...fbaa566&itemid=270422672440&ff4=263602_263622

Feedback is good. I'd say just go with it. Don't see it anywhere else.

Patriot 16gb is $40 apiece at Amazon. Also, might want to have a good sturdy external HDD to offload and store footage.

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Class-SDHC-Flash-Memory/dp/B000VE4PNS

Use a UV filter so you don't scratch your lens, and use a sticky LCD protector for your screen. And maybe you could use one of these:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/654173-REG/Kata_KT_VA_605_62_DVG_62_Camcorder_Guard.html

Good luck! And have a safe and productive trip.
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That cover looks great, but I am concerned it won't fit my HMC150.

Also I pulled the trigger on the charger from Ebay.
 
MCPFilms said:
That cover looks great, but I am concerned it won't fit my HMC150.

Also I pulled the trigger on the charger from Ebay.
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Well . . . it is advertised here as being for HMC17/HMC150. I thought they were pretty much the same form factor other than the P2 vs SDHC transport.

http://www.buy.com/prod/kata-dig-videoguard-f-pan-hpx170-hmc150/q/loc/111/213689745.html

Buy.com is pretty reputable, so I don't think they'd fudge the description, but if you decide to go with it, I would go with B&H for equipment needs if possible anyway.
 
so.... What was the price you guys got it for?

Listed as unavailable and no longer lists price.
 
Make sure you have your shots. I just looked into this as there is a chance I may go there myself with a NGO from Jamaica that helps rebuild homes. Likely not for a while yet. There are like 5 shots I think plus malaria pills.

Do you have a cover for your cam? Highly suggest it for any work like this.

Downside to a DC to AC converter is the loss of amperage. That solar unit probably doesn't kick out a heck of a lot of amps.

Another option is take some 12V DC batteries and charge those off of it. Wire a 12v to 7.2 (or 7.5v) adapter into your cord that goes to the camera when you are on mains power. I have this setup. I used a car adapter that was about 1 amp. (I do have higher amp custom converters but I found this one also worked and has a Car plug on it).

Those 12v batteries come in a range of amperages and are fairly inexpensive though they are a tad heavy. I have a 3.6amp hour and 2 8.2 amp hour so amp batteries.

Are you doing sound right off the cam (ie shotgun or something?) I have been wondering about this and figure if I go it will have to be either on camera shotgun and maybe a hand held mic and some xlr's. Not exactly going to be an environment for lighting kits etc. Unless you are also taking a sound guy, but to be honest, if I had just gone through what they have I wouldn't want a boom pole shoved over my head. Less intrusive the better IMO.

Not sure what your situation is. But since you seem to be providing your own SD cards, then I'm guessing you are not part of a funded doc crew or news org. So I would be concerned about what happens if your cam gets damaged. Roll the dice? Not sure if you can insure for this or not.
 
Denwa said:
Make sure you have your shots. I just looked into this as there is a chance I may go there myself with a NGO from Jamaica that helps rebuild homes. Likely not for a while yet. There are like 5 shots I think plus malaria pills.

Do you have a cover for your cam? Highly suggest it for any work like this.

Do you mean the cover noted above or a rain cover?

Downside to a DC to AC converter is the loss of amperage. That solar unit probably doesn't kick out a heck of a lot of amps.

As per Voltaic the first generation bag (which they are selling me) will give me 10V which will be enough for the charger. I just need to secure the car charger unit before Wednesday.

Another option is take some 12V DC batteries and charge those off of it. Wire a 12v to 7.2 (or 7.5v) adapter into your cord that goes to the camera when you are on mains power. I have this setup. I used a car adapter that was about 1 amp. (I do have higher amp custom converters but I found this one also worked and has a Car plug on it).

Those 12v batteries come in a range of amperages and are fairly inexpensive though they are a tad heavy. I have a 3.6amp hour and 2 8.2 amp hour so amp batteries.

Do you mean a battery like this? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...MM7NC_MM_7NC_Starved_Electrolyte_Battery.html . If so, can I just connect my charger to the battery? (once the cigarette charger comes, of course.)
Are you doing sound right off the cam (ie shotgun or something?) I have been wondering about this and figure if I go it will have to be either on camera shotgun and maybe a hand held mic and some xlr's. Not exactly going to be an environment for lighting kits etc. Unless you are also taking a sound guy, but to be honest, if I had just gone through what they have I wouldn't want a boom pole shoved over my head. Less intrusive the better IMO.

I have the Sennheiser wireless mic kit including lav and xlr mic adapter.

Not sure what your situation is. But since you seem to be providing your own SD cards, then I'm guessing you are not part of a funded doc crew or news org. So I would be concerned about what happens if your cam gets damaged. Roll the dice? Not sure if you can insure for this or not.
Click to expand...

I have the break insurance from B&H so as long as I can bring something that looks like a camera back, I am in good shape. The crew is funded but the budget is limited this round.
 
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I'd suggest getting this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/552381-REG/Bescor_LED14_LED_14_14_watt_LED_On.html

I just got one yesterday. I haven't really used it yet, but I would think a little energy efficient on-camera light like that would probably come in real handy at times, for what you are doing (filming in a disaster location) - might also come in handy as essentially an emergency flashlight for that matter. It runs off a couple of AAA rechargeable batteries. I'm pretty sure you can grab a charger with a cigarette lighter adapter, along with some extra batteries, at Walmart for like $30 or so.
 
MCPFilms said:
I have the break insurance from B&H so as long as I can bring something that looks like a camera back, I am in good shape. The crew is funded but the budget is limited this round.
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Yeah, I missed the posts above about the covers.

That battery pack is basically what i was talking about (I make my own) though you still need to wire in a voltage conveter to your cord to the camera.
 
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Nexto Extreme

Nexto Extreme

wannabeapilot said:
i would reccomend an external hardrive with a lot of space 1tb ,and youll need a computer to use as an interface
1h 39m is not going to be much time so make sure you get at least 2 more 16gb cards
and i highly reccomend this light ,although idk how long it will take to get to you ,im in texas and it took exactly one week
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300358190964&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
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I seriously considering buying the NEXTO EXTREME http://www.nextodi.com/en/product/eXtreme_en.html . I can't afford the video versions. It seems like the only difference in the Extreme and the video versions is the ability to use Sony SxS cards.
 
How long are you going for? That is the question. A bit heavy, but you could bring several large HMC-150 batteries. Expensive though, I think $160 or so at B&H. Dunno if there are any cheaper clones out yet. Power is going to be the biggest problem for charging batteries, and also for lighting. Depends where you are, but don't count on having any location-supplied lighting.

I've gone on several 2-week tours and I had to carry 2 chargers and 8 batteries for my old GS400 because I only got 6 hours a night max to charge things up, most days the camera was on the whole time because you never knew when something needed to get shot.. Night shooting was very difficult, I just gained up and it looks like it looks

A trick you could use is get a small HD camera that is capable of nightvision. The medics and NGO's are working by torches and candles at night, might get you by for the night shots, and as a bonus, you've not got a backup HD camera in case you have problems with the 150.

If you had the right parts, you could get some kids to peddle a stationary bicycle with a generator to charge a car battery. Then charge off that at night, when your gear isn't being used.

My personal thoughts are the 150 might not be the most ideal camera for you if you can't source some of the very necessary parts you'll need to go into a situation like this. Car charger is the best solution but with the gas problems good luck finding anyone willing to plug you in.
 
I am back from Haiti with my HMC150 YEAH!

I am back from Haiti with my HMC150 YEAH!

I am back from my Trip and everything from a technical standpoint worked out great.

1. Memory Cards and Back Up - The NextoDI Extreme worked like a dream! I travelled with 3 16gb cards (2 Kingston and 1 Adata) and I backed up (actually used the move function) 90 Gigs of footage.

2. Power and Batteries - I used the Voltaic Solar Messenger Bag to charge my HMC150 camera battery, Nexto Di and iPhone. I had access to a car several times so I used a car charger in between stops. I traveled with the standard HMC150 battery and one extended battery from Panasonic and it worked great switching between the two batteries.

3. Lighting - I used the MicroPro Light Panel for lighting. I only used one set of six Lithium Batteries and they are still going.

4. Sound - Rode NTG 2, Rode Dead Cat, On Camera Shock Mount.

I hope anyone reading this will learn from my experience and know that they too can film anywhere and go anywhere with the HMC150.

Thanks!
 
Just an FYI about that cheap charger on Ebay. I ordered the exact same one and it turned out NOT to fit/work with the HMC-40/150 battery. Maybe ya'lls luck will be better.
 
Denwa said:
Make sure you have your shots. I just looked into this as there is a chance I may go there myself with a NGO from Jamaica that helps rebuild homes.
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yow Denwa...If and when u pass through Jamaica, give me a shout. It would be cool to meet a fellow dvxuser. I was actually supposed to be shooting a doc that involved 4 countries including Haiti b4 all this happened. Now thats in jeopardy. guess i'll see.
 
jambredz said:
yow Denwa...If and when u pass through Jamaica, give me a shout. It would be cool to meet a fellow dvxuser. I was actually supposed to be shooting a doc that involved 4 countries including Haiti b4 all this happened. Now thats in jeopardy. guess i'll see.
Click to expand...

Do you know Mystic Bowie? If so, it's his organization I was talking about. Worked on a music video for him.

To bad about the doc. Man it's going to be a mess for a long time in Haiti.
 
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