tin_the_fatty weblog

To prepare for a little presentation in the debriefing of our Archaeology trip to Inner Mongolia, I was going thru the video footages I shot during the trip. I have therefore had an opportunity to review the use of my Sony CX7.

Video filming is hard. Staging is necessary for decent results, and by decent results I mean at the end of it we would get a bunch of footages which we could edit into a semi-watchable short movie of ~5 minutes.

I think I am going to get a decent monopod to help stablize the camera. This upsets the whole point of an ultralight videocam, but I am convinced that an HD (as in high density) ultralight videocam might be a silly idea (unless the new Sony CX12 have a much better anti-shake stablizer that renders a monopod/tripod unnecessary, but I’ll believe it when I see it).

The wide angle adaptor is a MUST for shooting people from the normal 1-2m distance. Too close and you don’t get the environment. Too far out and others start to stand right in front of you blocking the camera. I must admit, the WA adaptor is kinda big and clumsy when it is on the camera, but I had it on for the whole trip. It still hasn’t come off. Remember to bring lenspen plus a decent lens cloth. The big front element attracts quite a bit of dirt and it really gets onto the video shots. Oh the WA adaptor can’t take a protective filter.

The BMF battery is REALLY USEFUL. The standard battery is good for backup but it’s a total pain to keep watching the battery level.

The internal mic picking up wind noise is a big problem when shooting outdoor.

2 8GB memory sticks were adequate for my use during the trip, and I only got to use one of the 4GB memory sticks for once. Maybe I should just get an extra 8GB memory stick (or a 16GB memory stick when it comes out) for extra safety margin. As I use the videocam to shoot live events, I do not try to squeeze the last minute out from a memory stick, and usually just change it when I still have 5 minutes or so of space left.

I have yet to figure out how to convert AVCHD directly to other HD formats such as H.286 (in Quicktime format) or DivX.