And you thought YOU had your hands full…

One-man bands have a hard life, it’s true.  Thinking about composition, color, lighting, audio, content, and whether you are going to get your car towed from the illegal parking spot can really wear on a shooter.  However, other folks are the real overachievers here.  My buddy Mark Suzsko Suszko (sorry dude) sent me this link of a guy that simultaneously - and singlehandedly - sails a 24’ sailboat (in pretty high winds) while flying a kite with a video camera attached!

If you can forgive the egregious overuse of the Enya music, it is a pretty amazing clip.  Have a look.

What’s the craziest shot YOU ever got?  Post it in the comments!

Focus Enhancements FSH-200 Solid State DTE Recorder

Isn’t tape dead yet?  The tenacity of the recording medium that first recorded video in the mid-1950’s is pretty impressive, especially lately.  Almost a dozen hard-drive and solid-state recording devices have come to life since the turn of the century.  The assets these formats bring to the table are formidable – most have no or many fewer moving parts than a tape drive, and all offer almost instantaneous access to footage.  However, all of these challengers to the crown share one huge negative attribute – they are, on a minute-by-minute basis, from a dozen to a hundred times more expensive than recording on a tape.  And how do you archive with them?  A field tape is its own archiving solution.  Still, the appeal of the upsides of non-tape recording are pushing more and more production companies into hard-drive and solid-state recording.

Monsterpod: Stick Your (small) Camera Almost Anywhere

I love gadgets, especially useful ones.  That love is doubled when the device is reasonably priced.  And gadgets that are useful, reasonably priced and related to video put me over the top.  So you can imagine my interest when a fellow member of a video discussion list turned me on to the MonsterPod, which fills all three categories well.

At first glance, the MonsterPod looks like an orange and black nylon-mesh suction cup, with a 1/4” tripod screw mounted in the middle.  It’s once you flip it over that you find the magic ingredient - a large blob of what looks like orange Silly Putty, what the MonsterPod makers call “PodGoo.” You wouldn’t think something this seemingly simple could stick to just about any surface - but you would be wrong. 

Basically, applying the MonsterPod involves shaping and bending the cup and PodGoo to conform to the rough contours of the surface you want to stick your camera to.  And the list isn’t limited to just flat surfaces - the MonsterPod sticks to poles, rocks, dashboards, cement, you name it.  As long as the surface isn’t wet, made of fabric, too greasy or too dirty, it’s a good bet that MonsterPod will adhere to it, at least for a while.  A good firm press - even on vertical surfaces or upside down - will fasten the MonsterPod in place.  The makers recommend a maximum 10 minutes of attachment at a time, but as long as it isn’t overloaded I can see the hold lasting longer.

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