Canon VL-3 - Worth Having

[Earon Kavanagh]

Hi Folks,
Just wondering if there is any value at all in having a Canon VL-3 on camera light. It costs about $60.00 USF up here in Vancouver.

Looking forward to responses.
Earon

[Rob Lohman]

I went to the search feature (button in upper right corner),
entered "VL-3" (without the quotes) and selected search in
title only and found the following hits:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=32715
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=32304
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=29105
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=27631
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=11142
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=10943
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=9227

If that doesn't answer your question you will have to give us more
information (since these things are highly personal) like what
camera, what kind of shooting you do (it's probably useless for
fictional work etc.).

[Earon Kavanagh]

Thansk Rob,
I also performed a search using "Vl-3", and "Canon onboard light" and found nothing.

I have some reservations of using onboard lights and have reviewed most exchanges here on the topic. I'm currently using Optura XI but will upgrade to DVX 100a or Sony P170.
Chris Hurd seemed to recommend the VL-3 and I wanted to know his thinking behind that. I have emailed Chris.

Low light performance is very important to me as well as run and shoot. I'll be doing docs, interviews, (and a short film at the moment).

Thanks again,
Earon

[Rob Lohman]

How are any of these run and gun? Interviews and especially
short films will benefit much from proper lighting. Documentaries
usually aren't run and gun either but carefully planned and shot.

[Earon Kavanagh]

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : How are any of these run and gun? Interviews and especially
short films will benefit much from proper lighting. Documentaries
usually aren't run and gun either but carefully planned and shot. -->>>

Rob,

Sorry for the mislead. Yes, I've discovered that interviews benefit greatly from lighting enhancement. But I work in part as a therapist, and although I some folks I work with consent to helping me make training videos or shooting for quality control issues, many find the light somewhat unsettling. They experience lights as setting up a sense of formality. I also use the camera in some other contexts where people are less threatened by lights, but I'm still very invested in having people feel comfortable. I have done interviews for about 15 years. I've found that if folks are comfortable a lot of great interaction occurs.


I recently did some doc shooting of a local art festival. The goal in part was documenting, but there was also a desire to explore artists impressions of "who gets to decide how and where art is placed in public spaces", and social dramas/conflicts which emerged in the process of putting on the festival (I am finishing a PhD related to these ideas).

Part of my bias is that I didn't want any formality (associated with putting people under lights) and I wanted to include the interviewer on camera. The lighting problems resulted in poor footage (which I'm trying to improve in vegas 5).

I'm pretty new to this and need to learn the basics of lighting and camera work. And I'm trying to figure out ways of doing using a camera without having to set up lighting (if possible), or using as little lighting as possible.

My Optura XI is not so good in low light, so I have been investigating cameras that could peform well in low light (DVX100a and most recently Sony PD 170). I haven't tried any of these yet, though, but the concensus seems to be the Sony for lowlight (yet I love what I've seen from the DVX100a). My quest may be an impossible task.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or am I dreaming too far out in left field.

I appreciate any insights.

Earon,
Vancouver

[Rob Lohman]

I thought the VX2000/2100 where good camera's for low light,
but I may be mistaken. If you are looking for the "best" low light
camera I would suggest you do a search (limit it to our open
discussion forum) and/or post a new thread for a low light
camera (do explain there as well that you can't always add light).

If lights are a problem I'm not to sure how an added light to the
camera can help. But since it isn't too expensive it might be a good
thing to have in your inventory anyway?