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!

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.

A Little More Space On The Shoe

Whenever I review hard-disk video recorders (and I do a LOT of those reviews) my first two questions always are:

How do you power it?

and

How do you mount it?

I remember one review of a unit that was essentially functionally useless, but had a new feature:  A shoe-mount, so it could ride on top of the camera.  At the time this puzzled me, because I had a shotgun mic up there.  What to do?

A hold-over from still cameras, the shoe-mount remains quite popular.  Shotguns, wireless receivers, lights, field monitors, teleprompters, and many other devices all fight for this valuable piece of camera real estate, which is actually less than 1” square.  The good folks at K-Tek are looking to resolve some of these land wars with the release of the K-Tek Shoe Bridge, which elevates all the accessories 4” above the camera and creates a mounting rail 6.5” long.  That ought to make space for almost any accessory, although a smart shooter would watch out for weight & balance issues - the shoe is only so strong, y’know.  Check out the K-Tek Shoe Bridge at www.ktekbooms.com .

Live From NAB: The SkyDolly

Another aerial-themed post:  As Jim Feeley and I walked past the Silicon Imaging booth, I couldn’t miss the 3-foot fan mounted to the back of what looked like a race car seat.  Upon further inspection, it turns out that this is the cockpit for a powered parachute operated by Norm Bercerra, founder of SkyDolly.  Basically, the powered parachute frame has a hand-made weatherproof camera case mounted to it, but what makes it special is that the camera is actually controlled by radio control from the ground by another operator.  This leaves the pilot able to concentrate on flying the chute.  Early shoots have used the Silicon Optics Mini 2K camera (which shot “Slumdog Millionaire,” 2008’s Best Movie Oscar winner.)  I love the inventiveness involved in this product!  Learn more at their website.

Live From NAB:  A Video Helicopter For $300?

I love the odd finds at NAB.  You can get highly sophisticated massage chairs, straps that keep your spine straight, a brain massager fetchingly named “The Tingler” and more, but at least the DigitTronics video helicopter might conceivably qualify as a video tool.  The one on sale here features counter-rotating lift blades (no tail rotor), 2.4Ghz wireless control, and a tiny wireless video camera that has a claimed range of 1000 feet (best practice:  divide that by 10.)  Still, for a show special price of $299, it had a long line of potential pilots pulling out the plastic.

I’ve been flying radio-controlled fixed-wing planes for quite a while, and the one piece of wisdom I can offer is this:

“You can trim a plane to fly itself, but a copter is always trying to kill you.”

But give it a shot.  I might.

PS:  Don’t hate me for the video - I shot it with a Canon still camera.

Live From NAB:  I Get To See The Inflatable Camera Bag!

Regular readers might remember this post a few weeks back about Kata announcing an inflatable camera bag, to protect your baby in the overhead compartment during commercial airline flights.  Well, today I got to see the prototype.  It looks a lot like the Michelin Man, and it does appear that it would do a great job of protecting a camera.  I can’t wait to see the production version.

UPDATE:  Did you notice?  I got my Kata’s and Petrols mixed up!  Sorry about that - today I’ll go look at the REAL Petrol inflatable bag!!  The Kata does look cool, though.

Live From NAB: The EX3 Gets A Shoulder Mount…

For all of the nice things that can be said about Sony’s PMW-EX3 camcorder, one of the primary gripes I hear is about is the form factor.  Shooters that are used to a camera that sits on their shoulder can have a very hard time adapting to the Canon XL-esque shape of the EX3.  Those moans have not gone unheard, apparently.  While walking through the Anton-Bauer booth here at NAB 2009, I stumbled across the DM-Accessories EX3-Shoulder.  It is a shoulder mount that is built of very stout aluminum parts, with comfy foam padding underneath.  The reason it was being shown at Anton-Bauer was that it had an A/B Dionic battery mounted on the rear.  When I put the EX3 on my shoulder, it still felt a bit nose-heavy, but then the salesman flipped open the back plate, moving the battery back and balancing the center of gravity almost perfectly. 

It may look a little funny, but it really works.  DM-Accessories sells the EX3 Shoulder and other cool stuff through their website.

Live From NAB: Get A Handle On Your Camera

There aren’t too many cameras out there that make everyone happy right out of the box.  Sometimes you have to adjust things to make the camera feel like it is “your own.”  A Danish company called Ugrip has come up with a very cool system of plates and handles for just about every camera in use today.  Once installed, the systems allow many places to mount handles, accessories or even mounting boxes for devices like Firestore drives.  The handles are particularly clever; by loosening an Allen screw in their base you can gimbal the padded handle through a large range of motion.  Ugrip parts can be purchased ala carte, or in pre-packaged kits for specific cameras.  You can learn more at the Ugrip website, or at B&H Photo/Video’s website.

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