Howdy, I live down in Bega, dairy farm country, on the far south coast of New South Wales. How lucky. Life is good in Australia. Good to see what the brothers are doin in the States. Good work Chris etc etc. Got some great info etc off the Community. On my second cannon XL1 (XL1s). Shoot lots of wildlife & corporate stuff. They (the cameras) have been very good to me & I've been very bad to them. I use a fully optioned XL1s, but still need a steadicam etc. Lots of marine life footage. Just made a fairly substantial sale to the BBC of Brydes whales in WA. Another sale in the wind for Discovery, of Humpbacks & tiger sharks. My Xl1 took over 600 tapes. It stopped the other day. Will fix. It had the Wide angle lens on it. Slung over the shoulder, I could grab it instead of doing a lens change. When you're doing wildlife, time is short. The XL1s ran a bit red initially, but presets fixed that. Never run a mic on the camera, unless there's lots of surrounding noise & the monitor issue is big. Should just buy a B&W viewfinder. Would love to come to the States to buy some gear. Where I live you can't even buy tapes. I buy boxes of them at once by mail order. Cheers & happy New year everyone. Sure feels good not using Sony products. Pete Constable Australia

yup.. winters coming..
i came across this site by accident, and ill prolly hang around now :)

nice to meet u all!

Glad you found it! How cold is cold? 15 C?

Welcome aboard Peter!

thanx guys :)

winters comin in so teh wedding season is slowing a while.. gives me time to rebuild the studio at least LOL

this site is something...
My friends and i run a board www.austech.info which covers alot of technicalical based discussions, and when i came here, i felt at home...

Really nice and great help throughout :)

Gald to see you here, Peter.

Hard to imagine it's cold there when spring is in full bloom here. Keep bundled up while rebuilding the studio.

We'll see you on the boards.

How can you say Syndey is cold, it may be wet and humid but not cold. But in Melbourne, it is cooling down a lot, i believe it was 10C the other night, brrr.

:)

Zac

ps. good to see more sorta local people on board.

I used to think Melbourne was cold, that was until I went to Canada for the winter. I was in a warmer part of Canada, Eastern BC, and it was -35 C. My friend in Winterpegg said the air temp was -45 C with a 50km/h wind that was even colder. I was kinda glad to go back to the mild Australian "winter".

Adrian i don't live in a cold place, because i don't want too, heh heh

Nowhere except for very high in the mountains is extremely cold in Australia, who needs the cold anyways.

Zac

TGFF (Thank God for Florida) hehehe.

The day I left for Canada it was 34 degrees at Coolangatta Airport, when I arrived in Calgary it was -20, when I got to Fernie it was -30. A 60 degree temperature differance in less than 24 hours. No wonder I spent the next week inside, at least there was a James Bond festival playing on cable.

Hey People,

Just registered today. Living in Sydney, Australia.

Been shooting surf footage (as a hobbie) for the last 5 years and mucking around with it on premiere. Recently I have had a few professional vid makers offer to buy footage off me , hence I would like to get a bit more serious. My panasonic nv-dx100 is getting a bit ancient and I think its time to upgrade.

Compared to the rest of you I am a mere novice, so would like to get some feedback. Has anyone out there had any experience shooting surf footage before ?

Am tossing up between gl2/xm2 and the vx2000. Have read plenty of comparisons/reviews but am thinking the gl2/xm2 purely for the 20x optical zoom (needed for shooting surf footage) and the fact that it would be smaller and easier to use in the water (with a housing that is). Can anyone offer any other suggestions ?

Thanks

Say hello to my brother-in-law, my buddy Dez and Stuart from Pana AU, would you? Yes, it's a small world. Welcome aboard!

One fellow I know uses a PD150 with a Century tele adaptor for his surfing videos, but I assume that the XM2 should be just fine with its 20X zoom (stabilized with a tripod).

or monopod....

Welcome aboard Jeremy! Not all of us are "seasoned" pro's! Your
amongt a lot of people who are finding their ways and learning
the "ropes".

But my wife and I got engaged on the Manly ferry in May 2001. It was slashing down (read: raining heavily) but there were still surfers out at Manly beach. I guess they couldn't get any wetter anyway!

Welcome Jeremy- If you plan on going into the water with your cam, keep in mind most housings start at about $1000 USD.

I edited surf video for a year, for SurfGuru.com. All of their footage was taken from the beach, using anything from a digi 8 to a Pana 3CCD mini DV. Our waves might be closer to shore than yours, and definately much smaller, so that might mean you would want a stronger zoom lens. Hope this helps some.

Jeremy,

the XM2 is a good choice for shooting surfing. I use an XL1 but will be adding a housed XM when I get back to Aus. Housing wise the best value for money I have found is the Ikelite GL/XM housing (http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/vcanongl2.html), it's not the cheapest available @ US$1300 but feature and reliability wise I think it's one of the best around.

Hello,

I guess I'm the "New Boot" for now.

I live in Sydney, Australia but was born in Korea. Lived in Sydney for most of my life.

I got into video because my wife wanted to video our first born (and any future kids). My interest initially lay in photography and I was dead set against video. Thought they were a waste of money.

I gave in to my wife's suggestion and bought myself a Sony TRV-22. Funnily enough, it was quite fun to record. I edited on my work's powerbook and iMovie, and soon realised that I needed my own computer system for editing.

I convinced my wife that we needed our own computer, and being a long time Mac fan, got an iMac.

Did some fun projects here and there, and my friend asked me to do his wedding for him. I don't think he was expecting a "rewatchable" wedding movie, but he suggested that I seriously consider getting paid for any future wedding jobs.

So now I'm doing weddings part time and my "arsenal" has grown to a Sony VX2100 using FCE as the editing system, and putting it all on DVDs for my clients.

I think DV with readily available NLEs has changed the video landscape quite a lot. I just hope that I don't fall into the trap of building up equipment to force my family to move to a bigger house, before I can hone my video taking skills.

What's even more ironic in some ways is that I told my wife that there was no way we were getting a wedding video done at our wedding - but after looking at what is possible, I'm the one shooting weddings.

I hope I haven't bored anyone :)

cheers,
Peter

Welcome aboard Peter! We have a dedicated forum for wedding
videographers, which you've no doubt already found. Good to
have you with us.

Yeah :)

Hi name's Dan and I live in Manly which is an awesome place to live (beach, close to the city etc) - unless you want to do anything with your life as it's an easy place to do nothing!

I just bought a PD150 which I plan to use to make shorts in my own time and corporates and other stuff to make a living.

I guess I am a writer by instinct but I'm starting to really get into photography and camera work, so on the digital side of things I'm keen to get to know all the nuts and bolts so I can produce the best images I can.

This site looks like a pretty good resource!

Cheers everyone, catch you on the boards.

Hi Daniel! Welcome aboard (H)DVInfo.net. It's good to have you with us!

Hi all. Nice little (maybe not so little) community you have here. I love the real name idea. Promotes a nice atmosphere.

I'm new to video editing so I'll have a few questions I'm sure. I come from Sydney as the title suggests but was originally from Macedonia which is a small country North of Greece for those that have not heard of it. I've been living here for 17 years now and absolutely love the Sydney life. It sure is a change of pace from my birth place.

I'm an avid gamer (what some would call hard core) but I'm slowly getting over it and video editing seems like something I could get into. I love my cars and have burned lots of money on them over the years and that's one passion I guess I won't ever get over. I also race go-karts which I've found to be a great release. Keeps my angry driving on the track where it's controlled instead of on the road. Not that I'm an angry driver...

Anyway, I had an idea about 4 nights ago and I just haven't been able to shake it off so I'm here to pursue it.

cheers

GDay there,

I have been a member of this board for quite a while but have never really ventured into this subject/forum until one late night the other week.

So here is my belated Hello to everyone from Manly, Sydney. Actually I am not a true Australian but a pommy (Australian for englishman)! God knows where that comes from.

I am an avid film-maker here in Sydney. I have only been doing it for just over 1 year, so still relatively new, but I love it! I have got myself involved in local film clubs/organisations, and have learnt heaps. Coming from an IT background and working in new media it's been an easy transitition. At the moment I work as an architect in IT, but maybe one day I might be a feature film maker :)

Anyone else who is cooking up films, and enjoy film making in Sydney then feel free to drop me a line.

Cheers

Robert

www.robertrobertproductions.com

hi everyone.

im glen, live in sydney aust, and im an absolute panny fanatic for the past 2 years and i cant believe i only just found this place.
i have posted in other video forums and get truck loads of garbage and end up more confused than i was before posting threads :( at least i now have a place to call home especially that there are dedicated spaces for different camera users like us PANNY fans etc.

i run a small home based business called MediaWorks, and the core of my work involves video and photo processing which i started about 2 years ago.
filming isnt the core part of my business but i do take on filming projects when im asked, i dont go out looking for it and the only work i dont do with my cameras is weddings, i leave that to the big guns in town, although i do have some better gear than others who do actually do the weddings circiut.

my first cam was a panny NV-GS70 (well i actually bought 2 of them in hong kong, saved $1000au on the retail cost here in oz) i sold one for a profit and bought some extra batteries and a camera light with the profits and used the other cam for everyday stuff at home and family gatherings etc.
not long after i bought a friends newish panny MX500 which was a great cam as well, used it to film heaps of stuff, i then sold that and got the newer GS400 which became my main cam until 2 mths ago (yep thats right i upgraded again :) but it was really by accident that i did.

i did a corporate video shoot for a small company and they hired a canon XL2 for me to use and thats when i decided i had to get the new panny DVX100-AE cos for me the XL2 was a bummer of a cam to use, looks nice but a mother to handle, not very well balanced and i didnt like the baby lcd screen compared to the 3.5" on the DVX100 and the GS400 models, so my profits on that shoot bought me the DVX and i just luv that baby, and my GS400 is my support act when i need one (mainly outdoors)
dont get me wrong people, im not saying the canon XL2 is a bad camera, for me its just not right in the handling department and that was the foremost concideration for me as much as all the features and the DVX100AE just won my choice hands down.
i should point out that the DVX100AE i got retails here in oz for around $5000+ and i got mine 2nd hand for $2500au with additional lens with barn doors, 2 extra 3 hr batteries, and a beskor klk-50 on cam light kit (this cam was 4 mths old with 6 hours on the clock) so i got the deal of a lifetime that i couldnt pass up. ive already been offered $5000 for the complete outfit as it is now so maybe i could do another upgrade (just kidding, i luv this little girl too much)

as i mentioned i dont do a lot of filming with my business, i mix it up with video and photo processing, i like the processing side of things more i think, and the photo work helps break the manotomy a bit.
my video processing work involves transferring clients dv and anolog video tapes to dvd, and vhs tape conversions are a large proportion of my work, and i do quite a lot of it at the moment and its a great feeling taking those big old vhs tapes from clients and putting it all together on dvd for them. some clients also want the original footage dubbed to a dv tape which i also do as well.
i also create dvd photo slideshows using Muvee AutoProducer and add those to my clients dvd videos as well.
my photo processing work involves all kinds of photo processing from cropping, resizing, enhancements, archiving, dvd photo slideshows, photo restorations and repairs, and photo printing services.
its a great business to be in, very competative to say the least, but very enjoyable and rewarding work.

anyway, thats it from me, i can go on forever. its been great to find this place and im sure this will not be the last time ill be back here :)

cheers everyone and have a nice day.....GLEN

Hi Glen, welcome aboard (H)DVInfo.net! Good to have you aboard!

Hi, I am a 17yo male from Sydney Australia and have been reading up on this forum for some time now, great site you guys have here. I have been involved in Pro TV production and broadcast since I was 12yo! I currently work for Foxtel in Sydney fulltime but am about to go freelance with my soon to be ordered Canon XL H1 among other gear.

It's great to see we have alot of aussies on this forum!

Cheers,
Ash

Hi Ashley and welcome aboard (H)DVInfo.net! My appologies for such a late
welcome note. We're glad to have you aboard!

Heya all,

Just a noob with an old Hi8 Handycam that I really hate using, wanting to start doing docos for television once I get either a Z1, or a HD-101. Kind of a big jump huh? I hope they last longer than 3 years. I'm looking for at least a 8-10 year investment. I'm told the JVC is the one to get.

Hello Leo, welcome aboard (H)DVInfo.net, good to have you with us!

Hey guys, found this place by accident! Looks really cool.

Live in Sydney and occasionally head back to Newcastle. Studying an MA at UTS and have a HD Everio camera which is my pride and glory :D but my real passion is directing. Made a few shorts for class and a competition done very much guerilla style. Looking to learn as much as I can about it all :)

Have a good one fellas.

g'day Nick,

there's a few aussies here - it's an awesome site, plenty of experience and knowledge to draw from. take your time and go through the posts, use search if you want something in particular and enjoy.

If you're back in Newcastle and want to direct - give us a yell

Hi Nick,

Welcome to Dvinfo.net! Always good to see more Aussies on here.

Thanks guys :)

Paul that sounds really cool, I checked out your website and thats really awesome that exists in Newy. Will have to hit you up sometime!

Hi Nicholas, welcome aboard DV Info Net. Good to have you with us!