::Emanon Entertainment::

So I didn’t have a tripod prior to owning my GH1, so that was easily my first purchase. I looked all over amazon searching for the cheapest thing possible. Just something to hold it up and have a bubble level. I came across the Targus TG-5060TR. 6 bucks plus 5 shipping, Couldn’t go wrong! So I bought two!!

They have a decently okay quick release, plastic but it works for now. The main reason for getting two was to have one to take apart. I want a head for other things I’m planning on building, as well as turning one into a cheap steadycam. To describe the tripod bluntly, you get what you pay for. They’re nice, but made of cheap light aluminum. I pretty much have to do a 2 second timer on everything or its fuzzy from pressing the shutter. But, for video, its nice. Not the most fluid going from side to side, but its a screw on plastic..ha! Anyways, just thought I’d do a quick review on them. Well worth the money for a cheap tripod!

Since I got my Gh1 I’ve been trying every which way to make something with it. As you probably see from my past videos I’m into shooting skate videos for friends, so on saturday my friend Johnny Berg and I headed to Tonasket to break the ice with my new camera! We get to tonasket and the skatepark is froze over still from winter..So we found a manny pad near by! Here’s the footage I shot. Hope you enjoy!

So, on the 18th, UPS arrived with my Gh1. I honestly couldn’t have been more excited!! Un-boxing everything, attach lens, card, battery, boot it up and start looking around. Mind you before ordering the camera I called the owner of the eBay listing I was going to buy from and asked, “What is the first 4 serial numbers of the Gh1″ they gave me “WE9″ so I said “Sold”. Fast forward back to me playing with it, I look on the bottom and BOOM its “WE0″………..I couldn’t have been more disappointed.

Over the past few days toying with it, I have come to terms with not being able to hack the firmware, and now, I LOVE IT! I am so pleased with the features of this camera its amazing! So crisp, the 50mm lens gives AMAZING DoF for closeups. Only thing I’m struggling now with is taking non-grainy low light videos.

I’m learning more and more about Vegas again, seeing as how I was forced by Adobe Premiere and its limitations to importing .mts files. But that’s fine, I was used to Vegas a while back with my Zi8. Fiddling with twixtor and some skate footage I shot on saturday I realized how to change shutter speed to help with twixtor and motion blur.

Here are some shorts we shot over this weekend (still working on throwing together the skate footy)

And here’s the Braided Bandit, one we shot Friday night.

All in all I LOVE the Gh1 and I couldn’t be happier. Stay tuned for plenty more to come!!

So, my insanely gracious boss Jerrid Duncan was able to swipe my Panasonic Lumix GH1 body off eBay for a super cheap $540.00!! Grabbed that, a FD to M43 adapter for $21.00, and the Canon FD 50mm f1.8 S.C for only $35.00!!

The next day we look at the tracking, and we just so happen to order the adapter from a eBay store in china! HA! Estimated arrival 17-21 days later. NO THANKS, so we just ordered one off of amazon for $27.95! Along with a class 10 Trancend 8GB card, seeing as how I have terrible ones.

Hopefully my mother will ship the books my brother bought me, great information, I can’t wait to get back into it ! Seems like its been so long since I had an actual camera, let alone an amazing quality camcorder. I used to use the Kodak Zi8 to shoot skate videos! Ha I feel like a poser..I still have so, so much to learn, and I’m more excited than ever!

Here is a sample video from a vimeo user with the GH1 and a 50mm!

So, after a lot of scouring the internet, I have found the DSLR that I will call my first. The Panasonic Lumix Gh1, why you may ask? Seeing as how my budget was cut short, here’s why

Since the release of the Sony a55, I’ve been hunting the internet for a good demostration of what the camera can actually do. None of this “hey i’m gonna aim this new camera right hurr” or with terribly shaky hands. Then I came across this!

Without a doubt made my decision on choosing the Sony a55 over the Canon T2i.

So I came across this video on vimeo, which I believe will unleash the true beast behind the a55. All credit to the person, but the more search engine hits the more people will realize the a55 has the biggest bang for the buck.

YAY! I’ve got to share it with all world! I made an awesome discovery. When I set camera to “A” mode(Aperture priority), I was able to apply settings I selected for stills to the ViDEO mode, and even MORE – I can hit “AV” button DURING shooting video in low light – and I can adjust Exposure Compensation level on the fly, using that dial/wheel under the main shutter button !!!! This is really awesome! Considering that this video was shot with limited room light and extra light provided by incandescent tabletop lamp. This capability is opening SO many doors of opportunities in creativity, so it is even hard to describe… I can only say … WOW!

That’s where Canon T2i and all following models failed, and Sony A55 succeeded. I’m totally trilled! And here is a proof of that, this clip.

PS: I discovered this on “A” setting, but later on confirmed that on all custom settings, “P/A/S/M”. whatever is setup for still pictures will be used for VIDEO. FINALLY! oh, I’m so happy. I wish that Sony dudes mentioned clearly this somewhere in manual, or, so called “professional” reviewers mentioned this super important ability of this camera. But, no … they all bla-bla about all kind of obvious things/features, and failed to mention this really exciting part of the A55. I’m finally happy! And now I have no excuse to take that perfect video – best of my life clip, or two … or more. :]

REFLECTION: … COULD IT BE, THAT ONLY THIS (read above) CAPABILITY MAKES A55 MOST DESIRABLE DSLR ON THE PLANET…? Will see.

PS: Speaking of creativity, I tested one of my thoughts, to use A55 external microphone jack connection, and connect it to my iPhone, playing (whatever) music. IT WORKED as a background soundtrack! If you are too sensitive about the audio while shooting HD video clips and are fully aware of how disgusting A55 build in internal microphones are – you can use your iPhone or any cell phone/media player and male to male stereo audio cable to hook it up with camera – and voila – you got instant “soundtrack on the fly” of your choice. Just keep it in mind, that A55 mic jack is designed to much smaller voltage than your media player, so please do not abuse it! and set playback volume to lowest acceptable level… This is not good for long term, so you need to invest to real time external microphone to cover all your audio needs. Still, that idea of instant background music is doable, but is a little bit of MacGuyver style :]

PPS: For this clip I used basic prime – Sony 35F1.8 lens. In my opinion – very decent optics for cheap, plastic body lens for only $174! Good job, Sony. I like it!