Filming in the Garden with the Canon VC-50 Pro

Had to get away for a short vacation – the last one was around May of 2012, so you could say I was due – and because I was taking the early train to Ottawa (6:40 am), it meant cabbing, which in turn meant there was no need to worry about lugging a tube camera on the subway.

Have taxi cab, can definitely travel mit heavy camera.

So I opted to use the occasion – visiting family friends who have a spectacular garden – to show what the Canon VC-50 Pro can do in ideal lighting and colourful surroundings.

It’s no accident cinematographers like to test cameras in gardens: you have details, unusual patters, vivid colours, and wind which creates various levels of movement within a shot.

Packing the camera wasn’t really a problem – it fit quite well in this old suitcase.

 

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And the rest of the gear was placed in another bag to balance weight. I also brought along my old tripod from high school because it’s light and has a greased tripod head which makes panning movements more clean.

Spent Tuesday afternoon setting up shots with the Canon – a 1985 consumer / lower prosumer grade video camera – in the garden, and was very delighted to find a few plants which could exploit the native pastel colours of Saticon video tubes.

The following shots are of the camera prepped for filming, and I used a polarizer filter to knock down some of the harsh contrasts which can blow out details and colours. (Eventually I’ll craft a short featurette which illustrates the options you have when adjusting the aperture in bright light situations.)

The lens adapters are the same Canon wide (C-8 wide attachment 67) and telephoto (C-8 tele converter 1.4 x 67) lenses I’ve written about in prior blogs. Both were extensively used to get detailed wide shots and flatten depth of field, respectively, and were designed to be used with this camera model (among many others) and Canon’s early eighties Super 8mm film cameras. (In fact, the wide angle also works with the 8mm-80mm lens designed for the JVC BY-110U video camera.)

 

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Canon VC-50 Pro Saticon video camera, circa 1985, outfitted with a Canon C-8 wide attachment 67.
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Canon VC-50 Pro Saticon video camera, circa 1985, outfitted with a Canon C-8 wide attachment 67. Recording device is a Sony GV-D1000 miniDV recorder.
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Canon VC-50 Pro Saticon video camera, circa 1985, outfitted with a Canon C-8 wide attachment 67. Note cable for Canon zoom remote control – a very handy gizmo.
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Canon VC-50 Pro Saticon video camera, circa 1985, outfitted with a Canon C-8 wide attachment 67.
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Canon VC-50 Pro Saticon video camera, circa 1985, outfitted with a Canon C-8 wide attachment 67.
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Canon VC-50 Pro Saticon video camera, circa 1985, outfitted with a Canon C-8 wide attachment 67.
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Canon VC-50 Pro Saticon video camera, circa 1985, outfitted with a Canon C-8 wide attachment 67. Recording device is a Sony GV-D1000 miniDV recorder.

 

With almost an hour of footage, there’s enough to edit at least a 10 minute montage. I’m taking advantage of the longer summer days and lovely light to capture what I can before fall sets in and winter transforms Toronto into the land of icy cold blah.

The final short will be tied to BSV 1172, my video store doc, to demonstrate what can be crafted using the same camera and lenses under ideal filming conditions.

Well, minus the cloud of mosquitos and flies that hovered around my head during most of the shoot. Amazing what one can tolerate and suppress when Getting the Shot is the most important goal.

Cheers,

 

 

 

Mark R. Hasan, Editor
Big Head Amusements

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