So a producer friend bought a 350. I can have access to it from time to time, and would like to take a day to play with it and familiarize myself.

Anybody have any camera specific tips? Things to definitely try? Things to definitely avoid? Timesavers?

Thanks,
Joe

Anybody have any camera specific tips? Things to definitely try? Things to definitely avoid? Timesavers?

Yeah, I've got one. Avoid giving him back the camera any sooner than you have to. (big grin)

Seriously, there are lots of things to know and you should go back through this forum to see some of the info that has passed back and forth over the last year. The great thing about this type of recording media (re-usable) is that you can experiment a lot with the only penalty being the advancement of the hours meter on the camera.

-gb-

Things to do:
Use the camera. And you WILL use it! The XDCAM is the only camera I've ever had where it is actually addictive to use!

Things to avoid:
As Greg says, don't give the camera back!

One minute it's one of the very best timelapse cameras available, the next moment it's the perfect news camera.

Check out this clip from yesterday:
http://www.ingenioustv.com/clips/tucsoncrash3.mov
The first clip is timelapse of a desert monsoon racing north from Tucson. The haboob reduced visibility to almost 0 on Interstate 10 with the resulting crash.

Another cameraman I was traveling with was shooting with a Z1. He got some good footage, but LOTS of drop-outs caused by the very fine dust. I had no drop outs or other issues.

Great stuff Alister

cheers

Morton

was anyone injured in that crash?

No one was killed but there were some serious injuries. The crash happened just 10 cars in front of us which, a couple of seconds earlier and it could have been us.