2012 Gumball Rally - End of Winter Series Speedway Motorcyces Race Final - http://www.inlandimages.com/. Action centers on 2 time and current World Speedway Champion Greg Hancock, an American splitting time between Sweden and California, and Billy Janniro, current U.S. Speedway champion, from Northern California. In this particular race, Hancock and Janniro both started from the 60 yard marker behind the other riders, as this was the Handicap Main event. I shot only turns 3 and 4 of this 6 lap race, as other cameras shot the entire track. I have been a video producer and studio owner for the last 30 years. In addition, still photography was added as one of our services about 10 years ago. From Betamax (Beta 1) in 1981 through 3/4" U-Matic through Betacam SP video formats over the years, I have sought the sharpest, clearest original video that I could record under the prevailing circumstances and limited budgets. I added medium priced HD cameras when the prices were reasonable several years ago, and now have added DSLR-type cameras to fit certain situations. I am currently shooting action sports promotional footage for racetrack promoters and we just completed their Winter Series which was held in daytime, but the track finals was to be held at night, and would feature two of the very best from America - current World Champion and current U.S. champion. The opportunity to shoot footage with these 2 guys fighting it out would probably not come up again in 2012. This track has always been a very low-light venue, and I was looking for the best camera set-up to handle this as well as the night-time summer series starting in April. I had a couple of Panasonic GH2 cams in hand-held rigs, but I finally concluded, after testing, that they were not going to give me the footage that I needed in such a dark environment, as the specifications that I required were: 1920 x 1080 60p, and the GH2s could only shoot 720 60p. In addition, I shoot manually and the shutter has to be 1/120th for the slo-mo that is the primary purpose of this footage. Even with the Nikon adapted manual 1.4 50mm, the GH2 footage was just not there and had no in-camera image stabilization for the hand-held work. Whenever I read the early tester reports of the Sony A65 that would record in the new AVCHD 2.0 format in 1080 60p, and had the OLED EVF, excellent focus peaking, and in-camera stabilization, I ordered one with the 18-55 kit lens whenever they first came in from B&H;. I added (4) additional lightly-used Minolta AF lenses, via Craigslist. All of the Minoltas tested well and together only cost me $250.00. I made sure to include the 50mm 1.7. Still photos are also part of my duties, and I wanted just one camera that could do both well. In addition, I do not use auto-focus for video (most video pros do not as well, and most broadcast-level video cameras do not even include it). Although powered zooms are the norm in action sports, I had non-DSLR cams for those situations, but the gain (iso) settings results available for these are not acceptable to me. Unless you spend really big dollars for the latest, true broadcast-level cameras, you are going to be facing a noisy, ugly picture in post production. Unfortunately, this last race-night finals was unbelievably dark when I got there and set up, as (4) of the auxuilary light stands that had always been there to supplement the regular lighting had been temporarily removed, as this county owned facility was going to get a lighting upgrade (adding a 3rd sodium vapor lamp to each pole - big deal!). So my setup was: A65, In camera audio, video mode set to manual, auto white balance (I normally white balance manually), 1/120 shutter, Minolta 50mm 1.7 (wide open), camera image stabilization turned on, ISO 800, manual focus, OLED EVF dialed into my contact lens corrected left eye, focus peaking on, handheld without shoulder rig but using a one-hand camera grip (similar to my old super 8mm days), matte box and French flag. Shooting only turns 3 and 4 for the 6 lap Handicap Main Event. I stayed with the 2 American champs as they worked there way up from the very back (they started from 60 yards behind the start gate (Handicap!), and the guy in the black and yellow helmet won (another camera shot all the laps wide). So far, under these tough conditions, I feel that the purchase and early testing of the A65 is the right move. This is a short clip of one of the laps from many different race heats. Edited in Adobe Premiere 5.0 with auto-color and unsharp mask added. Speed slowed to 20%. Non of my previous cameras that I have owned would have done this well (yes I am well aware of the "flying flares" in this clip!). By the way, we used the A65 for a corporate greenscreen shoot last month with excellent results. Here is the link to a short excerpt from the greenscreen clip: http://vimeo.com/38865778

• published: 21 Mar 2012
• views: 0

2012 Gumball Rally - End of Winter Series Speedway Motorcyces Race Final - http://www.inlandimages.com/. Action centers on 2 time and current World Speedway Champion Greg Hancock, an American splitting time between Sweden and California, and Billy Janniro, current U.S. Speedway champion, from Northern California. In this particular race, Hancock and Janniro both started from the 60 yard marker behind the other riders, as this was the Handicap Main event. I shot only turns 3 and 4 of this 6 lap race, as other cameras shot the entire track. I have been a video producer and studio owner for the last 30 years. In addition, still photography was added as one of our services about 10 years ago. From Betamax (Beta 1) in 1981 through 3/4" U-Matic through Betacam SP video formats over the years, I have sought the sharpest, clearest original video that I could record under the prevailing circumstances and limited budgets. I added medium priced HD cameras when the prices were reasonable several years ago, and now have added DSLR-type cameras to fit certain situations. I am currently shooting action sports promotional footage for racetrack promoters and we just completed their Winter Series which was held in daytime, but the track finals was to be held at night, and would feature two of the very best from America - current World Champion and current U.S. champion. The opportunity to shoot footage with these 2 guys fighting it out would probably not come up again in 2012. This track has always been a very low-light venue, and I was looking for the best camera set-up to handle this as well as the night-time summer series starting in April. I had a couple of Panasonic GH2 cams in hand-held rigs, but I finally concluded, after testing, that they were not going to give me the footage that I needed in such a dark environment, as the specifications that I required were: 1920 x 1080 60p, and the GH2s could only shoot 720 60p. In addition, I shoot manually and the shutter has to be 1/120th for the slo-mo that is the primary purpose of this footage. Even with the Nikon adapted manual 1.4 50mm, the GH2 footage was just not there and had no in-camera image stabilization for the hand-held work. Whenever I read the early tester reports of the Sony A65 that would record in the new AVCHD 2.0 format in 1080 60p, and had the OLED EVF, excellent focus peaking, and in-camera stabilization, I ordered one with the 18-55 kit lens whenever they first came in from B&H;. I added (4) additional lightly-used Minolta AF lenses, via Craigslist. All of the Minoltas tested well and together only cost me $250.00. I made sure to include the 50mm 1.7. Still photos are also part of my duties, and I wanted just one camera that could do both well. In addition, I do not use auto-focus for video (most video pros do not as well, and most broadcast-level video cameras do not even include it). Although powered zooms are the norm in action sports, I had non-DSLR cams for those situations, but the gain (iso) settings results available for these are not acceptable to me. Unless you spend really big dollars for the latest, true broadcast-level cameras, you are going to be facing a noisy, ugly picture in post production. Unfortunately, this last race-night finals was unbelievably dark when I got there and set up, as (4) of the auxuilary light stands that had always been there to supplement the regular lighting had been temporarily removed, as this county owned facility was going to get a lighting upgrade (adding a 3rd sodium vapor lamp to each pole - big deal!). So my setup was: A65, In camera audio, video mode set to manual, auto white balance (I normally white balance manually), 1/120 shutter, Minolta 50mm 1.7 (wide open), camera image stabilization turned on, ISO 800, manual focus, OLED EVF dialed into my contact lens corrected left eye, focus peaking on, handheld without shoulder rig but using a one-hand camera grip (similar to my old super 8mm days), matte box and French flag. Shooting only turns 3 and 4 for the 6 lap Handicap Main Event. I stayed with the 2 American champs as they worked there way up from the very back (they started from 60 yards behind the start gate (Handicap!), and the guy in the black and yellow helmet won (another camera shot all the laps wide). So far, under these tough conditions, I feel that the purchase and early testing of the A65 is the right move. This is a short clip of one of the laps from many different race heats. Edited in Adobe Premiere 5.0 with auto-color and unsharp mask added. Speed slowed to 20%. Non of my previous cameras that I have owned would have done this well (yes I am well aware of the "flying flares" in this clip!). By the way, we used the A65 for a corporate greenscreen shoot last month with excellent results. Here is the link to a short excerpt from the greenscreen clip: http://vimeo.com/38865778

• published: 21 Mar 2012
• views: 0