Two sides of the coin

With the press days at the Los Angeles Auto Show and the San Francisco International Auto Show just past, there’s a lot that’s been on my mind in terms of hardware, on the show floor yes, but more importantly in our own hands.

The Canon I used all through Australia and at last year’s events having disappeared when under the care of another, our backup film SLR definitely brought back a nostalgic feeling. Instead of swapping memory cards when full and dumping to my laptop, I was rewinding, reloading, and sorting film. Instead of reviewing the pictures on the spot I had to take care to set up the shot in the best way possible, and trust that the camera was steady enough with four cups of coffee coursing through my veins when I didn’t have space for a tripod. And manual flash metering – that was actually kind of fun as it allowed me to set it up exactly as I saw fit, though there was certainly no way to verify a picture until we were taken. All that manual fiddling and mental footwork helped make this past week more interesting, and I definitely felt more on point without the aid of more modern technology.

Video-wise, it was a much different story – using a Panasonic HDV handycam, the same one that we tromped through Australia with, we were able to capture HD-quality footage on tape in a tiny form factor. Which is important when there are a hundred other members of the press all jostling for the same space. With this tiny handheld, we were able to get shots otherwise not possible with our larger Sony HD camera, and during the production process, there’s no problem matching color spaces between cameras. Quite a world of difference from the photography aspect; challenging, yet greatly rewarding.