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Hey all, I'm curious to hear if anyone is willing to share their experience if they've been on long camping/working trip where they were to shoot on a small boat going down a river...here are the conditions :

 

- on a small chase boat going down a river. The river has both calm segments and not so calm segments when going down a few canyons!

- weather temp: mild during the day and cooler at night/ water temp very cold

- camera: Sony fs7 + canon lenses + shape handles ... basic

- chasing a hand made canoe for 25 days , with one lunch stop and camping at night

- two camera crew + assistants + director + sound ( second camera and team in their own boat )

 

here are my questions:

- have you been in a situation like this where you worked for hours day in day out? what's your advice on being more efficient at work ?

- have you ever had to wear a drysuit for long hours? day in day out while shooting? do you have any advice on that? how do layer properly as we start in a cool morning and shoot the whole day under the sun and into the night?

- have you used a spray deflector on a handhold rig?

- how do you best go about keeping your gear and the camera on your shoulder dry?

 

thanks all!

 

 

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Two things come to mind straight away.. batteries/charging and going, or not, to the toilet .... you laugh now.... :).. shot in plenty of small boats.. but not for such a long time though.. its going to be tough for sure.. small boats and filming .. never a good combination really..

 

Minimal gear as you say.. only once used a spray deflector.. needs to be powered.. bit of a pain.. not sure I would be bothered .. sounds like you will get more than spray anyway..check it out before hand anyway I would just buy any of the storm coats for the Fs7 from a known brand.. eg Portabrace..

 

Obviously you want to keep lenses changes down to the absolute minimum.. what about the 2 light weight MK fujinons.zooms. should cover everything with only one lens change needed.. they are also very small and light .. and a protection filter on the front.. you will be wiping that alot..!.. life jacket and helmet when it gets hairy.. insure the camera :)

Edited by Robin R Probyn
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if you have to use a normal protection filter, it is much easier to get the water away from the surface if you use plenty of lens cleaning fluid first applied with lens tissue (changes the surface tension so that the water is easier to get away from the glass when it concentrates to small droplets) .

I tend to have a blower bulb with me at all times when shooting in the rain..using it to blow the water droplets away from the filter surfaces and aided with the fluid if needed.

 

Is it going to get very wet/lots of splashing so that you'll need the drysuit for also keeping warm during the shoot, not just for emergency situations?

If you have to have it on at all times you can water the outer surface of it regularly when it's starting to get too warm, it helps a lot with the heat (for a little while. you may need to keep it moistened at all times if its going to be a hot day)

 

If the drysuit is only for life saving situations and not for any diving or surface action etc. it might be easiest to just have lots of layers underneath which you can easily remove during the day when it get warmer. like fleece shirts and such which can be taken off if needed.

Another option would be a heating vest and lots of batteries, then you could just turn it off when its getting warmer and when really warm you can additionally moisten the suit outer surface

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I shot a number of fishing shows in Northern MN and Canada. One of the things we did was use a large marine battery to power the camera for hours. That was an older tape-based camera. On today's cameras, a large battery like that could last all day easy. You will need to be very careful doing this. Consult an engineer or even the rental house if renting. You'll need to recharge everything- solar panels? Offload footage and backup? Any stays at camping areas in between? AC recharge.

 

My two cents.

 

J Patnaude

Atlanta GA

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