Hi everyone, so I'm off on a cycling trip, a bit different, a bit radical, a bit Bear Grylls..ish. Solo....and I'm my film crew....god help me!!!
If I pull it off, I'll go through 2 desserts, a LOT of sand dunes and some extremely remote areas here in Western Australia and cover somewhere in the vicinity of 4000km's.

As I'll be caring everything, I'm leaving the 2 XL2's and associated gear in the cupboard and have catapulted myself into the present by purchasing a GH4 with the 12 to 35mm kit lens. After a lot of thought I've decided to only take the one lens, which was a hard decision as I love glass :(, although I'll have the GoPro as well. I had tossed up whether I should take a tele with me but have decided against it. I'm taking a leap of faith here as I've never shot with a DSLR, let alone a mirrorless unit. I also passed up on the YAGH unit until I see how I go. To get around audio I'll use a Rode Video Stereo Pro and a Rode SmartLav. The Video Stereo Pro will be on camera for ambient and the SmartLav on an iPhone, with the app, for narration.

I leave fairly soon, hopefully within the next 10 days, and whilst I would love to have something like an external device to record to, I believe my learning curve will be a tad under vertical!!!, therefore I'm simply going to stick with what I know and transfer the info off the SD cards onto a wireless Seagate 1TB HD via my Panasonic Toughbook.

As of this writing I have none of this gear in my hands, other than my trusty old CF18 Toughbook, and won't have until the middle of next week, at the earliest. So....I have a couple of questions......

Has anyone used either of the aforementioned mikes? If so, thoughts...? Thank you.

Amongst my leave home gear is a Millar tripod :( I'm thinking of getting a Slik Pro C34 carbon fibre unit, it's cheap and I have another Slik I've used for years with no issues. Thoughts???

As I'm not an iOS user, how do I know if I'm setting the sync on the iPhone audio correctly for the video? Although, generally speaking, I'll be speaking from behind the camera unless I'm doing the end of day dairy in the tent or around the camp fire.

I'm thinking of shooting everything, other than slomo, (I believe I have to shoot that in some other mode) in 4K to give me the most latitude in post, am I on the right track?

Whilst I'm enroute, there will be a Super Moon at 0200, I wish to do an all night intovolometer sequence, can someone give me an idea of exposure / time settings and therefore, card size requirements.

I suspect I'll wind up with a minimum of 160 hours of video, using the premise of 32GB/ 50 minutes I'm surmising I'll clock up 3.2TB. Am I correct?

Thanks in advance, I'm sure there'll be more questions........

Al.

Sounds like an incredible adventure !!

I don't have any specific answers to any of your questions. but here's a few of my thoughts as a fellow backcountry adventurist.

You might think about the Slik 624CF tripod at only 1.8 lbs. Your reference C34 might be the same as the 634CF here. Slik Pro 624 CF 4-Section Carbon Fiber Tripod 611-615 B&H Photo

I have had the older discontinued 613 CF for 5 years and it's been an incredible tool. I removed the extension tube and saved another 1/4 lbs. I put a Manfrotto 700RC2 head on it. Total weight for both is now 2.5 lbs.

I would also think very seriously about a faster lens of some sort. F/2.8 is nice, but for the margin shots Id definitely have something like the Panny 15mm f/1.7 or Olympus 17mm f/1.8. I have the Oly 17mm and just love that lens. It or the 15mm Panasonic are only 115g !!! You just can't lose having that fast wide in your bag, even if you have to carry in over hill and dale. I think a faster lens for nighttime timelapse is essential over the 12-35.

If that's not possible, getting an old manual 50mm f/1.4 and an adaptor will do wonders for catching that one clip in the near dark that you'd otherwise miss with the 12-35. A 50mm would also work really well as a tele with ETC mode in 1080p. You get an equivatlent focal length of 240mm with a 50mm on this cam in ETC. 100mbps 1080-60p is a beautiful image on this cam in ETC mode. They only weight 1/2 lbs with the adaptor and would be a huge advantage if you need it. Even though it's 1080 you bring the subject in so much that it up res's and cuts really well with 4k.

Anyway there's some of my thoughts.

Cheers,
Pete
pete carney on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/petecarney)

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the reply. As luck would have it, I have a heap of Oly lenses from my 35mm film days, l still have an OM2, 10, 1 and 4Ti !

I'll see if get my hands on a 15mm, there's a shop in Perth that carries good stock levels and I fly in tonight.

As for the tripod, I suspect yours and mine are one and the same! I'll be susing these out in more detail tomorrow.

Thanks again.

Al.

Some resources for shooting night sky:

The Art of Astrophotography – The Art of Night - The Photography of Mark Gee (http://theartofnight.com/2014/06/the-art-of-astrophotography-tutorial/)

How to Shoot the Moon ? in Honor of Neil Armstrong - DIY Photography (http://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-shoot-the-moon-in-honor-of-neil-armstrong/)

How to Create a Colour Saturated Moon Photo - DIY Photography (http://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-create-a-colour-saturated-moon-photo/)

500px / Blog / Photo Tutorial ? Photograph The Night Sky (http://500px.com/blog/738/photo-tutorial-photograph-the-night-sky?utm_source=500px&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feb2014digesttest1&utm_content=theme3)

How To Properly Shoot Landscape Night Photographs - DIY Photography (http://www.diyphotography.net/properly-shoot-landscape-night-photography/)

Be sure to post some of your stuff when you can.

D

Dennis,

You're a legand, thanks mate!

I'll be more than happy to post up some of my screaming failures.... :)

Al.

Allan, I have worked in some of those types of areas in the Pilbara, Gascoyne and Goldfields. I would suggest some zip lock bags to store gear in as a barrier against the red dust. Have fun, it's beautiful country.

Tim,

I've got a box packed, worth their weight in bottled beer!!!

Cheers,
Al.