Well first things first. Exposure is a video and photography trade show that happens in a few Canadian cites and of course I attended the one here in Toronto.
I've been to this show before. Trades like this are a great place to see a lot of different gear, and the vendors, under one roof. There are addresses and demo's and new products .. oh my!
It really is a great opportunity to try out new gear, demoed by company reps who are often of course more informed than some high school grade working for a percentage in some retail store. I got a demo of the Steadicam Merlin, a small camera stabilizer well outside my price range but oh oh oh oh so beautiful and liquid and cam-glidey ...
Sorry, I may need a moment.
Anyway ... I do often buy stuff at these shows. On average, on new products, you can save between 30 and 50 bucks. There are often used and open box deals at better rates and many tables filled with the crap the store hasn't sold in 5 years for a few bucks.
This show is video as well as photo so I often go shopping for Collette as well as myself.
Which leads us to the explaination of this post. Collette's shopping list for this show included some new photo editing software, a remote control shutter release, maybe some picture frames. Well she got some of that ... and a bit more
Collette has had her beloved Nikon D80 for many years ago and lately has been bumping up against some limitations as she becomes more serious about her photography. I always try to keep an eye open for a new camera for her, one with more up to date bells and whistles.
I have also been curious about exploring video creation on a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera; I appreciate the image quality of these cams but have had some issues with things like media storage, audio, clip limitations etc. Many folks sing the praises of certain Canon models and I own a Canon dedicated video cam but Collette has several high quality Nikon lenses so that was something I need to consider ...
The Nikon D7000 is a camera that addresses both Collette and mine's needs ... and they happened to be on sale at the show. So I bought one, along with a big fat memory card for the video and a 1.8 50 mm fixed focal lens, one of the few that Collette does not already own.
It features a larger sensor than the D90, two card slots, a wider range of focus zones, ability to write in more versions of RAW and a huge range of new photo features. On my side, it shoots in full 1080p HD video at 24 fps as well as three other video settings, an external audio input, ability to shoot video in autofocus and many others.
As to the audio issue, the one thing I know about DSLRs is that you don't want to use their built in mics for much so I took advantage on the deals at the show and bought a Rode shotgun mic. I've worked with several audio pro's and it seems that every one of them had a Rode somethingorother in their kits so that's a good enough reccomendation for me
Damn, the mic looks enormous in that pic. Is that a black dirigible in your pocket or are you just excited to see me...
Anyway.
Here's the deal on all of this. Collette needed a new camera. She knows she wants to take advantages of all the new and improved features. I'm curious about shooting video with a DSLR but haven't been convinced enough to buy one for myself. So this is Collette's camera and I'm going to use it as well.
So Collette is going to share this with me ..
Collette .. sharing ...
I should be afraid, very afraid.
OK now it's time for a little distraction. I took my palmcorder to the show, I shot a little video, so let's not waste it, here's a very quick video of the show, complete with cheesy effects.
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