I've been doing marathon testing with this little camera and this afternoon it's going on it's first real shoot. This has the potential to turn nasty (I love them).

II'll have my XA 10 locked on the speakers, 12 GoPro's in static positions all over including 4 on the protst pole for a 360 degree view.

The G10 on my shoulder rig, 7D with 100-400 for stills and the GH2 with a 24m Nikkor wide angle lens on a Monopod with the feet opened. It's set up for the high detail shots of individuals misbehaving.

2 H4N's will round it out.

I was a little disappointed. It was an orderly and peaceful demonstration about 3 hours long. I got bored.

The GH2 was magnificent. I'm hooked.

I tried two patches. Sanity 4.1 and Driftwood"s Mysteron. Not a glitch out of either.

I hope you had a few helping hands!

No, I've gotten used to doing it myself Adrian.
The GH2 did take a little extra fiddling with the lens I was using, but it was worth it.

Since there weren't any counter protestors, I didn't set the GoPro's up. I just use them to catch what's happening while I'm busy with another shot. (I missed a stabbing once and it still irritates me)

The only real complaint I had with the GH2 was the audio. It was weak. I record secondary audio, but I'm not sure the camera is good enough to sync to.
I'll fiddle with that today.

It's the time of year for Tax Protests and the GH2 should fit into my event kit very nicely especially if I get a lens that will autofocus on my Merlin.

The newest Patch Driftwood came out with has great 720 and in 24P has the cleanest low light I've ever seen.

Don - Sounds like fun! Glad the GH2 is working so well for you. Curious about the weak audio, though - I have found that to be true with the internal mic, but not with a good shotgun or lav. Where did you set the audio level?

Best,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution (http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogspot.com)

I had it wide open Bill but the shotgun was on the H4N and the GH2 was just using the camera mic.
It's strange though. It picks me up very well when I make inappropriate comments, but barely gets a sound ten feet away. Almost as if it was directional in the wrong direction.

Please post some of the GH2 and XA 10 clips...I have those cams.

Jeff H.

Well that's quite a lot to set up and tear down on your own. I take my hat off to you. The mic on the GH1/2 is even better for camera commentary if you pop the flash, but more or less useless for anything else. I have a ton of footage, with a soundtrack that sounds like Dart Vader snoring in a paper bag. Great if that is what your going for!

Please post some of the GH2 and XA 10 clips...I have those cams.

Jeff H.

I have a short clip with the GH2 up now. I was showing the detailing of the patch to someone. I'll put up more and XA clips as I get time (I'm in the sticks and high speed is a running joke). There's some jutter and other things that Vimeo was nice enough to add for me.
This is straight up with no post.

Quick look at JMU Protest GH2 DRIFTWOOD MYST. on Vimeo

I had it wide open Bill but the shotgun was on the H4N and the GH2 was just using the camera mic.
It's strange though. It picks me up very well when I make inappropriate comments, but barely gets a sound ten feet away. Almost as if it was directional in the wrong direction.

You're right, Don - the on-camera mic is completely useless. Sadly, if you crank the mic level up, you don't get more mic sensitivity - all you get is a higher noise floor.

What I do is set the mic level to "1", the lowest setting, turn the Zoom on, then pump the line/headphone out from the recorder into the GH2 with a Sescom cable designed specifically for connecting Zoom recorders to GH cameras (http://www.adorama.com/SELN2ZMH4GH1.html). That way I usually get two pretty good tracks. The preamps in the camera are OK - I think it's just the mic that's bad.

Cheers,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution (http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogpot.com)

Jeff, This isn't protest related but I've been testing Driftwood's Mysteron Burst in the GH2.
Thought you might like to see it and yes, it's handheld...and unplanned.

Another test of Mystron Burst on Vimeo

This is one from the 10 Jeff. Sorry they're short but my bandwidth is pretty narrow anyway, but we're having a storm.

JMU VCDL PROTEST CLIP on Vimeo

Thanks so much Don.....
The video looks really nice on the Great Dane clip....I could not get the protest clip to play...will try again later.

I look forward to viewing any clips you have time to post.
Jeff

They all play now...........all are really nice looking.
What zoom lens were you using...looks motor driven with autofocus..right? ...or is that clip the XA10

That's the XA10 Jeff. I've tried to upload a longer clip 3 times now and gotten bumped off.

The Great Dane clip is the GH2. As one of the Personal View idiots pointed out, it's out of focus. I was more interested in seeing if it would record more than 10 seconds.It did this time but it's a very temperamental patch.

I'll get more of both cameras uploaded as soon as I can.

This a little longer one. You asked about autofocus...yes, I was using it. It helps with the shoulder rig in a crowd.
I have no idea what's up with Vimeo. Everything I've uploaded has juttered.

Longer JMU CLIP on Vimeo

All nice looking clips....thanks for sharing.

I use Adobe CS5 for editing. It has a preset for Vimeo HD and SD. Seems to work OK for me. Just ask Vimeo for advice on the upload problems.

curious....do you video these events for experience, or do you market the videos?

Jeff Hinson

I'm using the Vimeo Preset Jeff. This is something recent. The staff at Vimeo has never been much help. Some of their new software is buggy and they don't like to admit it. I may not renew this year.

Most events are marketed but this one was so unevetful, I'll let the organizers have it after I publish parts on the news site and store it for Broll later.

These things are a lot of work in post. I'll have a several thousand small clips, some bad some good, that have to be edited then put together.

It's a little like a wedding except you never have the chance for any staged shots. Everything happens fast and it seems like all at the same time. That's the reason for all the locked down cameras. For this one I have 12 GoPros running non stop for 2 hours. The speaker for a half hour. around 200 clips from the GH2 and about double that from the XA. 927 stills and they all have to be reviewed and the ones I keep, edited and put in the timeline....then the part I hate most, the commentary.

Come to think of it, weddings are a lot worse (That's why I don't do them). All I have to worry about is getting the shot. It doesn't have to be especially good, just get it. Weddings require a good deal of artistic composition. I expect it would be considered bad form to climb poles or gang out of windows at weddings too.

Don't have to worry about getting locked up at weddings either.



Henrico Cop draws Taser on Vimeo

Or chase an enraged Commonwealths attorney who just lost a case because of one of my videos.

Poindexter flips on Vimeo


That's a lot of 3 to 5 second clips.