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Panasonic P2 Camera Drives Coverage of EcoFuel World Tour
August 14, 2007
Source: Panasonic
Panasonic's
AG-HVX200E P2 HD handheld camera was used by cameraman Falk
Gunold to document the six-month EcoFuel World Tour, in which
a Volkswagen running on natural gas was driven 45,788 kilometres
through 40 countries on five continents.
The Panasonic camera's compact design and solid-state technology
allowed Gunold to shoot comfortably from the car and easily
download daily footage from P2 cards directly to the drive
on an editing platform.
"The HVX200 was appropriate for this journey because
it requires little space, is easily managed within a small
vehicle, and is far less conspicuous and cumbersome than large
shoulder-mount cameras," said Gunold, an integral member
of the team who documented the journey for broadcasters and
sponsors. "With its permanent lens, the camera is not
susceptible to dirt, humidity, or fluctuations in temperature.
Because key functional controls are located much as they are
on other familiar camera models, I needed only to adjust to
the light weight of the camera. We encountered a wide range
of environments, and the performance of the HVX200 was outstanding
— just fabulous."
The intention of the EcoFuel World Tour, led by Rainer Zietlow,
was to show that this alternative fuel concept is a feasible
and globally available technology. This journey around the
world was undertaken to demonstrate that natural gas as a
fuel constitutes a full substitute and ecological alternative
for petrol and diesel.
Throughout the tour, Gunold shot in DVCPro 50, using six 4-GB
P2 cards to capture 48 minutes of broadcast-quality footage
each day. A microphone bracket on the camera allowed him to
attach a Sennheiser ME 66 professional shot gun microphone
head for audio, as well as a top-light. Each night, in the
car or at the hotel, he downloaded data from the P2 cards
to a Panasonic Toughbook CF73 equipped with an AVID editing
platform. He then stored daily footage to individual folders
on two separate drives and, after each segment of the tour,
used the data within the editing platform to create an Internet
clip, stored on a CompactFlash® card. In this way, Gunold
preserved all his daily footage on external drives, provided
material for satellite feeds and updates on the project's
Internet site, and recycled space on the editing system for
each new stage of the journey.
Panasonic's AG-HVX200 cameras represent the first P2 camera-recorder
series. As P2-based products, they provide superior reliability
with solid-state memory that is inherently resistant to impact,
vibration, and temperature change. AG-HVX200 cameras offer
a variable frame-rate function that responds well to slow-
and fast-paced action. True 25p/50p progressive video, along
with cine-like gamma curves and colour matrix, enables operators
such as Gunold to get a film-like feel while shooting with
a flexible, rugged, and highly portable P2-based camera-recorder.
The AG-HVX200 features a cam-driven manual zoom, focus ring,
and aperture dial. The camera supports up to four channels
of uncompressed digital audio, accepting XLR audio inputs
and outputting via a D4 terminal or FireWire®/USB2.0 PC
interface.
More information on this and any other Panasonic product is
available at www.panasonic-broadcast.com
or by phone at +49 611 235 410.
About the EcoFuel World Tour
During the EcoFuel World Tour, Rainer Zietlow and his expedition
team drove around the world in a Volkswagen Caddy EcoFuel
running on natural gas. Their journey around the world, the
ultimate test for vehicles, was intended to prove that this
alternative fuel, natural gas, constitutes a full substitute
and ecological alternative for petrol and diesel. During a
six-month period, the team drove a distance of 45,000 kilometres
across five continents.
The record tour started on 23 October, 2006, in Hanover, Germany,
and took the team to 75 cities in 40 countries all over the
world. The EcoFuel World Tour officially finished in Leipzig,
Germany, on 13 April, 2007, at the AMI trade fair, the motor
show for Central Europe. More information is available at
www.ecofuel-world-tour.com.
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