Steve, thank you so much, this is fantastic advice! A couple quick questions if you don't mind...
Consider what microphones you will use and are you planning to just record audio on the camera for the time being?
I've been wondering about the best audio solutions. I plan on purchasing a Sony PCM-D1 audio recorder, but that is more just to record pure nature sounds and not necessarily time-coded to my video. Do you know anything about this unit? It's relatively small and light and hopefully excellent quality.
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10013/pcmd1.shtml As for time-coded audio with the EX1, what would you recommend for taking it in the backcountry and doing on-the-spot narration as well as decent nature sounds recording?
You will need a good notebook computer with a big hard drive to transfer video to in the field - maybe two if you want to go with better data security.
I've been looking at notebooks and thankfully some of them come in small/light sizes. I just need it for the dumping my SxS cards in the backcountry. Any recommendations? Instead of hauling around two notebooks for a backup, I was considering a small USB harddrive. Any thoughts?
With the shooting you are considering get a quality rain cover that gives you access to your camera controls and . Maybe also look into a waterproof housing for river shots. What lights are you going to use for night shoots?
Do you have any personal preferences for rain covers? I will be doing lots of shooting in harsh beach environments (such as California's Lost Coast) so I want protection from rain, salty spray, and wind driven sand. Also lots of backpacking in rainy/snowy conditions. For underwater shots I was thinking that's where my Sony HC9 will get more use because I'm not ready to spend a gazillion $$ on full underwater housing for my EX1 (I don't do enough underwater stuff to justify it at this point), but I was thinking of getting an Ewa-Marine underwater 'case' (they're more like thick plastic baggies) for my HC9 (I don't want to risk my EX1 with water... yet, ha!). For night shoots I'll just use a small amount of footage from the Sony HC9's Super NightShot, as I don't think I'll do much "real" night shooting in the wilderness. At least with the Nightshot feature I might be able to get some decent shaky Bigfoot footage if he comes close enough to my camp. :^D
I wasn't familiar with Anton Bauer's site, thanks for the heads up! I'm gobbling up every post and recommendation from you guys, thanks so much!
