We made a run down to the Seattle Cheese Festival this morning, which is held every year in the street along the Pike Place market. Diana has quite a thing for cheese, and given the beautiful day, it seemed like a pretty good idea to check it out.
I brought along my video-ized camera rig, with the recently acquired neutral density filters. Haven't looked at the results, but I suspect they were pretty decent. There are two recoverable issues with the rig, the first being that the handle would be better if it were angled. I think Redrock Micro makes one, or some kind of angle thingy to clamp on a rail to do it. The second is that the cheap Hoodman viewfinder is sketchy at best. It doesn't reliably stay where it should, and it's hard to get the entire viewfinder in focus. The eye cup is also too shallow. As others have reported, the only super solid solution remains the Zacuto Z-finder. It's pricy, but the anti-fog lens and the fact that it bolts to the camera makes it a pretty solid choice.
I've also thought about an alternate configuration, using the short rails with the camera mount and follow focus on the shoulder mount, with a monopod pinned to it. That takes the weight off of you completely, makes it convenient to carry and lets you get your right hand on the camera itself. I'm just not sure how well it would work with the tilting.
As it turns out, there wasn't that much interesting stuff to shoot. I mean, there might have been if I spent three hours there, but it was crowded, Simon was waking up and that's just our reality. I did get some shots of street musicians, which are most interesting in my mind anyway.
And yes, Diana did get some cheese. :)
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