I am a Wildlife Cameraman working for the last 10 years on a variety of Wildlife documentaries see link below for more info

Many years back I worked with the guys at Magic Lantern to create a add on to allow a Canon camera to be woken up from sleep and triggered to start recording all through the shutter release cable. We got some really great results on BBC’s Planet Earth II for Snow Leopards allowing us to capture never before seen footage and the camera being able to last about 2 months on a set of External batteries.

Times have changed since then and now we need high end 4K or even 6k in the camera traps. My question is anyone interested in developing an android app to sit on Sony Alpha Cameras to be able for it to be used as a camera trap inside the camera.

We would need the following:

Wake up camera from external trigger. Start recording 4K video for a set amount of time (determined in the camera). Any other signal from the external trigger is ignored until the set amount of time has been completed, after this time it’s counter of time will be reset to add an extra X amount of time.

Then the auto sleep can turn off the camera ready for another trigger

Thanks All the best

Duncan www.duncanparker.co.uk

Snow leopard shots Captured by the Magic Lantern firmware from BBC PE II are on site to watch.

I thought I'd share the results as a good lavalier is essential for any solo dslr shooter and produces much better quality than an onboard shotgun and it's really hard to tell what's better from youtube tests given their crappy compressed audio.

First, a general note -- the RODEs, tram and saken all completely spanked the me-2, which should not be a surprise, though it was surprising just how much better they sounded. The ME-2 was just soo thin sounding. So, knowing I was going to walk out of there with a new lav of some sort, I started comparing them, side by side, in different sound environments for the next two hours (all tests were done with a sound devices mixer and sony studio headphones). Here are the results:

BEST SOUND QUALITY

Sanken COS11 -- no suprise, it's the most expensive as well. There's a reason it is used by high end documentaries and most television and film. But is it good for a solo DSLR shooter? If time and money are no issue, then yes, but if they are, here are a few drawbacks:

• Higher Handling Noise. It takes careful mounting to conceal this lav and tape down the wire since both the microphone and the wire are very sensitive to handling noise. If you got the time, or you are mainly doing sit-down interviews, you'll be rewarded, but if you need a lav (as I mainly do) for filming moving subjects solo, it may not be the best choice.

• Costly aftermarket adaptors. Okay, not that costly, but you're looking at $30 - $50 to modify it for use with a g3, and another $140 if you want to then plug that into an xlr for sit-down interviews.

INTERESTING, BUT NOT PERFECT

RODE Pin Mic -- recently released from RODE this mic is meant to be hidden in plain sight (the capsule pins through clothing. I could see this being very useful for event shooters and live broadcast, particularly if you didn't want to spend a lot of time mounting it. But the sound quality, while better than the me-2, felt a little lacking at the low end, and the fact that the mic faces out (even though it's an omni) did seem to mean a little more of the room was picked up. If you do a lot of weddings and other events though, you might want to consider it. About $250.

AN OLD STANDBY

Which led to the TRAM TR50, the flat, small lav that many of you will recognize from your sound recordists bag if you haven't already used (or owned) yourself. Easy to conceal and sounded much better than the pin mic. Far less handing noise than the COS11, and cheaper too ($250) although requires the same modifications and adaptors to use with G3 as the COS11. The downside was it came in pretty quiet -- even at 0b from the transmitter you still had to crank up the mixer more than 3/4 of the way to get have the audio peak in the the 0 - +6 db range and that added a small but noticeable bit of noise. So you could record it lower and let post deal with it if you need to crank it later, but that's a little complicated. Which led to:

THE EVENTUAL WINNER

(For me at least) The RODE lavalier. Also $250. Rich, full sound -- not quite as good as the COS11, but about the same size (which is to say quite small) and far more impervious to handling noise -- put it on my undershirt and moved around a bit and even without moleskin had no noise off the overshirt (which was soft cotton, granted, but still, not bad for a very quick and dirty mounting job). Best of all, only required a $30 G3 adaptor and a $50 XLR adaptor, so ended up saving me $150 over the tram and nearly $300 over the COS11. And bizarrely for a lav at least, comes with a five year warranty.

So there you have it. As always, I'd encourage you to try to test out these options in person and pick the combination that is right for how you use it most (and realize that ultimately, many people have at least two different kinds of lavs in their bag because there is no perfect choice). But if you, like me, were frustrated by the lack of controls (eg different receivers) and compression found on most internet tests, hopefully this feedback helps in narrowing down your decision. Sorry, no audio to post -- I really should have recorded it all -- but I will post a me-2 v. RODE comparison when I get a moment to pull it off.

Price: about $250

Available at:

• http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=Stereo+VideoMic+Pro&_sacat=0 (ebay is cheaper)
• http://www.amazon.com/Rode-Stereo-VideoMic-Camera-Micrphone/dp/B007HYVMY0/

More info: http://www.rodemic.com/mics/stereovideomicpro

Cheap $99 carbon boom pole

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Feet-Carbon-Fiber-Microphone-Boom-Pole-Professional-Audio-/160998554506?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257c42fb8a

AT9946CM - shotgun + stereo mike

AT9947CM - just shotgun

Via: http://www.audio-technica.co.jp/release/release_detail.php?releaseId=63

So we're looking into other strategies. I like the idea of getting lapel mikes, having the actors wear smartphones or recorders, and syncing the tracks up in post. Good aspects; cheap, simple, easily expandable to any number of performers.

Someone suggested that we get a system where the mikes send wireless signals to a central recorder. I'm not keen on this, because it may be expensive, it may be difficult to balance the sounds afterward, and the number of mikes may be limited. But I don't know, so I agreed to ask around for such a system.

We're shooting with DSLRs (mostly GH2's), so that may be a factor here.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/659062-REG/Pearstone_9111930_OLM_10_Omnidirectional_Lavalier_Microphone.html

• Three-position gain switch
• Bass roll-off (high-pass filter)
• Standard hot shoe mount
• Up to 500 hours per AAA battery
• Integrated foam windscreen

More Info: http://www.mxlmics.com/microphones/field-recording/FR-310/

Available for about $129 at:

• http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p4340.m570.l1313&_nkw=MXL+FR310+&_sacat=0
• http://www.amazon.com/Marshall-Electronics-FR-310-Shotgun-Microphone/dp/B0083HTJJ0/

http://www.rodemic.com/news/announcing-the-videomic-hd-the-worlds-first-digital-recorder-video-microphone

But they have also good previous systems.

Sad thing is that they don't have models with mobile reciever.

Featuring 24-bit precision for a full frequency response of 10Hz to 20kHz and a wide dynamic range of up to 120dB (A weighted), the signal from an XD-V75 digital wireless system is so clear and strong that it sounds and performs as if you’re using a wired microphone.

Unlike analog wireless systems, XD-V75 digital wireless systems never use signal companding to compress and expand the signal, so you always have full dynamic range. XD-V wireless systems allow you to convey every nuance of your performance to the audience in the most natural way, with crystal clarity.

XD-V75 systems operate in the 2.4GHz ISM band, which is free from interference due to TV broadcasts, white space devices, cell phone towers and other transmitting devices.

Line 6 digital wireless systems use exclusive digital technologies to protect their signals from interference that can wreak havoc on analog wireless systems. Encoded DCL™ (Digital Channel Lock) technology distinguishes XD-V75 digital audio from any other third-party signal, including Wi-Fi, thus preventing reception of audio interference from other 2.4GHz devices.

More info: http://line6.com/xd-v75/features