My first political demonstration with the GH2

[Don Litten]

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.

[Don Litten]

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.

[Adrian Frearson]

I hope you had a few helping hands!

[Don Litten]

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.

[Bill Bruner]

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

[Don Litten]

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.

[Jeff Hinson]

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

Jeff H.

[Adrian Frearson]

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!

[Don Litten]

Originally Posted by Jeff Hinson

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

[Bill Bruner]

Originally Posted by Don Litten

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. 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

[Don Litten]

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

[Don Litten]

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

[Jeff Hinson]

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

[Don Litten]

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.

[Don Litten]

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