27 years ago my partner (in business and life) and I did a tree change before it was the thing to do. We left Sydney and settled in a rural centre in NW Victoria. We both had extensive experience in the visual field having studied and worked in photography and film in London and Sydney. Well here we are after all those years and we love working in the near ‘outback’ producing programs promoting agriculture & horticulture both at home and overseas, mining, OH&S, training, educational, TVCs, docos, tourism etc........
In the ‘good old days’ we used a huge camera connected by thick cable to a very heavy portapack using ¾ inch tape. Carrying this up hill in a National Park in temperatures of 40c was a killer. Then came the Betacam camcorder followed by SP Betacam......Glory, glory DV cameras came next, lightweight plus great vision. Our next big step came in the form of the lovely, beautiful and clever EX1. I’ve already posted comments on this wonderful piece of technology. Ok it’s a bit fiddly compared to a full size broadcast camera but it’s only a fraction of the price! I’ve sorted out the problem using the flip out LCD in bright sunlight (see post) . Using the small viewfinder is horrible.
Recently we’ve been filming a wine grape harvest at dusk and a almond harvest showing all the high tech mechanisation in bright overhead sun, the EX1 produced great vision in both situations.
Graham

In the ‘good old days’ we used a huge camera connected by thick cable to a very heavy portapack using ¾ inch tape.Hah. Been there, done that! In my case it was a Panasonic 200CLE going to a Sony BVU-110. The cable was only six feet long, too short for an assistant to carry unless they were huddled right up next to you. Central Texas summers may or may not have been as warm as Australia, but I was glad to get shed of that rig when Hi-8 came along! Ah, memories... long live analog. Welcome aboard,