Sony nex ea50eh Deserted coalmine

[Don Bloom]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hey Grandpa Don

Not so much of the old stuff please! I can still sprint up stairs (well maybe a brisk walk) and at saturday's wedding there were more of them than I ever imagined so I'd rather forget.

Yeah Steve I had a K1000 too..nice cameras ...technology was rampant then and the manual lens even had a little needle which, as long as it was in the middle, took care of exposure.

We might as well all wish Don a great vacation on the end of this week as he boards the cruise ship moving steadily up the gangway with his walker firmly in front of him.

Chris

Heh, Chris...that's a powered walker! Yeah thinking back to the "good old days" is something I really try not to do but every once in a while...I can remember my first still cameras and almost all the lenes but I can't remember my first video camera although I DO remmeber it was a 2 piece (camera and deck) and it weighed about a thousand pounds AND it was BETA of course.

Steven thanks for the Bon Voage, it's something we do every year and it's about the only time we get the all the kids and grandkids together in the same place at the same time since 1 of my kids lives out of state. Plus we love taking cruises. My wife has already told me what we're doing in 2015 for our 45th anniversary. A European cruise.
anyway, I've got a few more days to be a smart a** around here and then I'll be out for 10 days so bear with it gang, I'm almost there!

Ohyeah Chris, I can sprint up the stairs but I'm way out of breath when I do that sooooo...I don't! ;-)

[Chris Harding]

Hi Don

I need one of those!! The venue on Saturday had a set of 3 groups of stairs to get down to the hotel, then another set to get down to the front terrace and a huge set down to the ceremony venue..My trolley of course doesn't handle stairs so it's a case of lugging equipment up and down.

I had a variety of cameras but the biggest recorder was my Sony UMatic, just about broke your shoulder!
I was rather happy when Panasonic brought out the "M" series cameras that were all in one with the big VHS cassette.

Even my HMC82's give me an aching back at the end of the night but the Sony is a lot lighter and a real gem to use shoulder mounted and Noa's idea of splitting the light battery works really well. I just have to get the Sony configuration right now as the image is not as great when the iris hits F16!! I will figure it out by next weekend ...I'm shooting two weddings back to back while you laze on the sundeck. Life ain't fair!!

Chris

[Steven Digges]

You guys are almost ready to mount a Go Pro on the front rail of your walker. And if Don puts his Eight Power LED on there he will always get the shot because the crowd will part when they see him coming.

I am not quite there yet:


SteveShooting by PHXPHOTOGRAPHER, on Flickr

Steve

[Steven Digges]

Gentlemen,

Now that we have completely and totally hijacked Noa's thread with our jokes....is there a legitimate way to start a tread within EA50 for banter so we don't offend the true information guys? There is only a few of us contributing so the totally off topic section would not work. I am enjoying getting to know you guys but I don't want to upset anyone. Sorry Noa if I got carried away on your thread. A sense of humor and reality are important to me. Life and business are too important to take seriously.

Steve

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

technology was rampant then and the manual lens even had a little needle which, as long as it was in the middle, took care of exposure.

My practica LTL had that too! :)

Steve: I don't mind if a thread wanders off a bit, as long as it is being put on track now and then it's ok. :) I think it's hard to prevent on a forum, if you have a blog you can catogerise posts much better and just take out any non related discussion yourself.

[Rod Pike]

Hi Noa,
well, I am not an ea50 owner (yet possibly), but it is clear that a few of us oldies come from the foundations of still photography. (I am the senior citizen here at a ridiculously young 67, so respect please!) Starting off with a Practica nova in 1959 and then a Practicamat, I progressed to my beloved Pentax S1A before going into medium format with Bronica and Hassleblad ( a dog eared one !) and a weston light meter.

It was on joining a photographic society that the President said to me, when I showed him the shiny Bronica, " a set of high quality paint brushes won't make you Rembrandt". So I started learning the craft- rule of thirds , Golden eye, let the camera capture the image, you capture the emotion etcetera.

I think that photography and the the study of the greats such as Cappa , Bresson and even Beaton give the budding videographer an insight into how to capture emotion or mood in an image , and we are the better for this grounding.

I lost count of how many still photos I took and discarded with great disappointment because they didn't have that magic. Occasionaly ( very rarely ) they did, and I leaned from them. I apply the same analytical view of my work now and still discard much, the learning continues!!!!!

Right, I'm off to tune up the wheelchair ( a great substitute for a steadicam !!) and off for a spin down the yellow brick road.
Cheers!
Rod

[Chris Harding]

Hi Rod

My very first was actually a TOPCON ..it was a nice camera too!! Also an exposure meter and that was about all!!

Well, we are trying hard to convert you back to Sony too!! I know you love them so get rid of your other shoulder mount Sony and grab an EA-50 ...Your photography skills will be needed again if you do... the form factor is really and truely awesome ... first time I worked all night without an aching back!!

Chris

[Rod Pike]

Hi Chris,
Yes I do love the shoulder mount and still have a Sony HXR MC2000. ( just about to sell it- can't stand touch screens!!) But I am finding that the Panasonic AC160A is just so versatile that I know of nothing that competes value for money-wise.

I only wish that it was a shoulder mount camera- that would do it fo me. Current shoulder mounts with similar specifications are just so expensive and for my work , ND filter switching works perfectly. Added to which most of my work is tripod mounted with the odd excursion with my steadicam Pilot rig, I am reasonably happy. But there are times when I yearn just to heave this camera onto my shoulder without loupes and rigs- ho hum-- In the words of Gillian welch, " you cannot have all things t' please ya!"
Cheers!
Rod.
PS. thanks for posting your trials, I must say that your panny turns in a very challenging performance against the Sony. ( But I am only viewing on a 23" screen.)

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Rod

The HMC's even with their tiny 1/4" chips are amazing cameras..Looking at footage on a big screen they are truely amazing so I might also keep them... in bright light they excell!! I'm still very lothe to dump them but they do suffer very badly in low light so I might at this stage shoot with 3 cameras at weddings ..the Panny's at outdoor stuff, then the Sony on the stedicam cos it's WAY lighter and doesn't kill me!! But the Sony does work very well in low light especially with a prime lens. Compared with the HMC's at the wedding the Sony image is softer on outdoor scenes but that might just be the very slow lens?? I will shoot some stuff on Saturday with primes and see what happens. The footage matches nicely too.

Chris

[Ron Evans]

Well Rod there are some other oldies here too, I turned 71 last week. My hobby has got more serious since I retired but I have always really shot theatre even back in 8mm film days with a film club.Organizing to shoot a musical of 2 hours with 16 Super8 cameras was quite the task. Occasional training shoots that I still do infrequently now but mainly dance and theatre. My interest in the EA50 was as an alternate to my NX5U ( which Panasonic carefully copied for the AC160 with newer sensors etc but still left out a few things and JVC with the new 600/650 models). Current cameras are NX5U, CX700, XR500 and SR11 all Sony's of course as well as a GoPRo Hero3 Black edition and a ContourHD that I use as headcams when I go out West skiing. As far as stills go for me it has always been for family memories and my Minolta SLR is still in its bag where it has been for 20 years !!! Current still camera is a SOny HX30 that shoots stills and full HD 60p video just like my video cameras and very nice too ( something else I take skiing ). Starting in film of course I also took all the training in rule of thirds etc of good composition. Some of the stuff on TV todays shows that camera person or director may not have had the same training!!!!

My current thoughts are to expand my small Sony's with a NX30 and then maybe get a VG30,which I am sure in Sony's usual approach is the basis of the EA50 !!!

Ron Evans

[Rod Pike]

Hi Ron, and all
Seniority honours to you then! (Ski-ing eh? you put my morning walk to shame!)

It sounds as if we all reached 28 years old and stuck there, but just kept piling up the experience- no bad thing! And yes you are right, I too have seen the occasional truly aweful "pro" video work- particularly in my field of industrial and commercial work. I see the common mistake is more often to do with structure and engagement. Particularly in instructional videos- if you are expecting to train people with a video you have to ensure it is engaging enough to watch!

Apologies to you Noa for a complete digression from your thread, but you started it by displaying your composition prowess and highlighting how a background in photography enhances a vidographers skill set. And its been great to get to know some new colleagues too!
Cheers!
Rod

[Robert Moran]

Me too. 67 and counting. :)

[Rod Pike]

Hi Robert,
good to hear from you. A word of advice- stop counting NOW! I stopped when I realised the numbers were only going one way and I couldn't find the rewind button!

Cheers!
Rod

[Robert Moran]

Great response. I resemble that remark. :)