While using my Sony 550 (Sony MC50 without the mic and 2 year warranty) at the tail end of last year I used Sony’s ECM-HGZ1 a small gun mic that uses the Active Interface Shoe, quite frankly the Sony mic is less than useless, all treble, very unnatural.

Earlier this year after some “Googling” the words Sony’s Active Interface Shoe (AIS) I got a company who sold a “NORMAL” hot shoe that fits on top of the AIF shoe, with this accessory I was able to buy a normal camcorder gun mic in fact I chose the RODE VideoMic Pro.

I already own the RODE NTG-1 short shotgun mic which I am delighted with so I was happy to part with my £150 cash knowing the mic has a good pedigree.

Let me start by saying that the quality of the mic itself is very good indeed with a 2 step high pass filter and a 3 step level control built in, the “Dead cat” is a promotion that is sent to you in the post when you register the video mic, I have not yet received mine yet after a month !

I was less than impressed with the thickness of the audio lead that attaches to a 3.5 stereo mini jack, it’s far too flimsy for professional use and is a disaster waiting to happen the first time the cable gets pulled.

The 9v battery compartment is not well thought out it took me an age to get it back on after deciphering how to get it off in the first place.

I also bought the handle (Shown above) as I could envisage using the mic in an interview situation, the first job was interviewing a football interpreter called Dan Brennan for the Footy Blog.net, my sons blog and we had the mic on a one meter extension cable going into a Sony 550 camcorder.

Unfortunately due to lack of pro features like XLR and balanced phantoming the mic which was on a remote tripod picked up Dans mobile phone interference a few times, luckily the second camera an MC-50 did not suffer from this and we were able to switch to the MC-50s sound now and again.

It certainly sounds as good as a Pro mic but the design could be better, just as well you get a 10 year warranty though you do wonder if the flimsy mic lead is part of the warranty as this is by far the microphones achilles heal !

If you can’t be bothered to watch the video review then my conclusions are as follows…

The Z5 performs exceptionally well in fact equal to the Sony EX-3 as long as it is set to 0dB and your lens is not wide open. The 20x “G” lens is good but does loose about 1.5 stops from wide to tight so be aware of this as you are zooming in on a subject. You also have -3dB available via the menu.

The HVR-MRC1K memory recorder is optional costing around £578. The compact flash card minimum speed is 133x but Sony recommend a 300x card. I have noted that the biggest cards available in the UK at 300x speed are 16gig CF cards. There is a bracket supplied allowing you mount the recorder else where freeing up the battery compartment which was one of my concerns on the review and runs off a separate Lion battery.

Having 1/3″ chips has only compromised this camera when you start adding gain and it holds it’s own along side the EX-3 a camera twice it’s price. Going down to 25% direct light was more than a surprise to me and only the next stage 25% reflected light did we start to see a slightly blurry picture due to the lens being wide open. This phenomenon is common to most lenses even broadcast lenses they are just not sharp when wide open and is only curable by spending £6000 or more on a full spec HD lens but as we know the Z5 has a fixed lens. 

Conclusions…This is a cracking piece of kit, if you treat it with respect, keeping it to -3dB/0dB and the lens around f5.6-f8 it will produce superb pictures via the inbuilt HDV mini tape recorder. Adding a CF recorder gives you piece of mind that you are recording onto card but you can use the mini HDV tape as an archive. Also remembering the CF card is taken into your computer at 4x normal speed saving you a load of time transferring your material.

The camera costs £3737 UK price including 15% vat at www.videokit.co.uk

The video review link is   http://exposureroom.com/members/dvwarrior.aspx/assets/6dea5994e6354802af2cab0cd9f867aa/

It’s a bit like a big boy’s Meccano set when you take it out of the box, you look at it for a while trying various parts to see if they fit, then when you get the courage to build the beast you find out that 2 people are needed when presenting it to the tripod otherwise you are in serious danger of losing a finger or two!

A Jib arm takes a fair bit of practice.  Alistair, Angela and myself were filming at Barr’s soft drinks just outside Glasgow, part of the shoot involved filming the bottle conveyer line so we assembled the Jib arm, mounting it on a tripod (this needs 2 people) with the tripod on dolly wheels (locked in position). We did various shots in the factory, one of the better ones looking straight down on a macro shot at the bottle tops traveling through shot.

Outside the factory we got one of the employees to walk into shot towards the front revolving door while we did a vertical crane shot from the grass to about 10 feet in the air. Crane shots need 2 people, one to pull the weights at the back and someone to hold the front handle and watch the shot in the LCD viewfinder (Sony EX-1).

The HAGUE PRO – JIB K14 does not come with a carry bag as part of the kit but you are strongly advised to buy one as you will soon lose the bits if you don’t. The up-to-date prices for the Jib are as follows…

• HAGUE PRO – JIB K14 = £499.95 (Fits 100mm/75mm bowl)
• Weights = £39.95
• Padded Transit Bag for Pro-Jib with space for accessories. Size 19 x 22 x 162cm = £149.95

All in a total of £689.85 and you still need tripod legs and dolly wheels !

Was it worth the expense…?  There are some jobs where you need to bring out all the “metal” — it adds that je ne sais quai to certain productions and helps to build up the cost as well.

Find out more at www.b-hague.co.uk

I bought this just after purchasing my Sony EX-1 to allow my clients to see what I was filming and to give me peace of mind that my colour balance was correct. It runs of a 12v power supply that slips onto the back using a V connection.

I bought two 14.4 volt Lion batteries and a charger which seem to run the monitor all day. It has various connections…  Composite (BNC), S-Video, component (3 x BNCs) and HD-SDI (BNC). I was a bit miffed at the 4:3 screen but if you are inserting footage into an older 4:3 edit you do have the option to view it. I have not filmed or edited 4:3 for over two years now and the screen shows 16:9 with the press of a button.

So why did I go for the 9050 when most cameramen plum for the 9030?  Practicality and better screen resolution; I needed to view the HD-SDI signal coming out of the camera.  Before I bought this monitor I used an LCD monitor using the cameras component-out lead and, take it from me, that’s a messy way to monitor your pictures. The camera takes an SDI lead out of the HD-SDI BNC into the HD-SDI input of the 9050 which is the only one of three models to have this input, the other reason was the screen resolution — 1024 x 768 — the 9030 being 640 x 480.

The top-of-the-line LMD-9050 further provides a variety of digital progressive SD and HD formats through its HD-SDI interface. These include 480/60P and 576/50P and high-definition 1080/60i, 1080/50i, 720/50P, 720/60P as well as 1080/24PsF. You can buy the Sony LMD-9050 from Preston Media for £2242 (Tell John the HD Warrior sent you and you will get a further discount) www.videokit.co.uk