Prem Edpuganti

This post may be out of place but I would like add my two cents worth. When large sturctures are involved, safety becomes an important issue both for performers and crew. Recommend that the structure be designed, built and erected under the supervision of someone like a structural engineer.

I have used Minolta film cameras all my life, not because they are any better than Nikon or Canon but just happened to buy my first Minolta, then some accessories, and pretty soon was locked into that brand. I mostly shoot portraits and people, unannounced in their natural state. About an year ago I bought a D70. I liked the feel of Zoom and Focussing rings, the size and weight of the camera in my hands. Canon 20D was beyond my budget at that time. D70 Lens barrel does not rotate for focus or zoom. I thought it is important for graduated and ploarizing filters. I do not know about Canon. My largest enlargemetns were 8X10's but cropped may be by 1.5X. Quality seemed excellent. However, my D70 developed a problem within the warranty period. My friend who had a D70, on whose suggestion I bought mine, developed a different kind of problem around the end of warranty period. He replaced it with Canon 20D and seems to be very content. I have seen pictures out of this camera. Color saturation seemed to be little better than that of D70. Putting D70's 6 mega pixel vs. 20D's 8 megapixel in perspective, resolution of picture depends on the size and distance from which it is intended to be viewed, close up, hung on a wall etc. Surely, higher mega pixels cannot hurt. Of greater importance is reliability, it seems to me. Hardly two cameras that went bad is a good statistical sample but it appears either the complexity is so great or quality is so poor with digital cameras, no matter which brand one selects it is advisable to buy extended warranties because of the high repair / replacement cost of these cameras.

It seems there is more than a script invloved in producing a visual. A great actor can always fit into a character with great ease. It is done through body language, facial expressions, casual and natural movements in front of the camera while delivering a dialogue. Given the same script, I am sure there can be as many final versions of visual as there are actors. After the script is written and before the shooting, at what stage these things are finalized. During rehearsal? Who in particular is in charge of deciding, recommending, demostrating to the actors how the visual should look like. Whatever I am asking applies to the actresses, as well.

I am not sure who, Captain. But if your friend is looking for good price, he/she may wants to do it himself/herself. About 15 years ago I transferred my Super 8 movies to VHS tape using my Sankyo projector, a gismo by Gold Beam to focus the image on to CCD, and my camcorder. Considering it was analog, quality was decent enough for the times. But now I am thinking of hauling out the stuff again from my garage, and do it this time on digital. From there on, it is straight shot to DVD. Of course, your friend should be able to find a projector and the gismo to do it. The added advantage of doing it yourself is being able to edit, add titles, comments, voice overs etc.

Dear Alessandro: No matter what kind of batteries you use, you need to match the voltage and current requirements of your camera. You may have a label underneath the camera that shows this information. First, choose type of batteries that can deliver at least twice the milliamps your camera needs, the more the better, for technical reasons. Then decide how many batteries are required to build up to the voltage the camera needs. If your camera needs 9 Volts, you may want to start with 7 batteries and may be add one more after some experimentation. Better to start on the safe side. If your batter holder is designed to hold only 6, may be that is all you can use, unless you bring the conncection outside. All the storage batteries are rated at 1.2 Volts. Variations you hear are due to the slighltly higher voltage present right after the battery is charged, and under no-load conditions. But very soon, it will settle down at 1.2 Volts, under load. When the batteries are suppling rated voltage, milliamps are determined by the device, in this case the camera, not the other way round. It will draw whatever amount it needs. If you are using zoom while running the camera it will draw more milliamps. The more milliamps the battery is capable of supplying, the less the chance it will drop down in voltage. Some devices shut down if the voltage drops drown below a certain level, may be your camera as well. Coming to your choices, NiMH is the best, as it can supply relatively large amounts of milliamps at constant voltage for relatively long time, and as the batteries can be charged fast. Ni-Cad loses its voltage easily even when you are not using, runs out too soon, and takes much longer to charge. Alkaline rechargeables, in my opinion, are simply a myth. Solar charging, only if you are in a remote corner of the world where there is no electricity. In a bind, I sometimes use UPS as my power source, Uninterruptible Power Supply that is designed for computer use. Good luck.