[3D Roundabout]
Amarjargal, a ten-year-old Mongolian boy, sits proudly atop his powerful horse and stares curiously at my camera like it was some kind of alien creature from another planet. Although there is a plethora of newly-released 3D cams flooding the marketplace, the presence of a 3D camera in any remote geographical area is indeed unique.
My WalleCam, as I affectionately call my Panasonic AG-3DA1, stares back steadfastly at the boy. The AG-3DA1 is the ideal indie/travel 3D camera for an efficient crew of two: my wife Bee and me. It allows me to work in delicate and intimate environments that would otherwise not be feasible with a big 3D camera rig and a large crew. Added to that is the Convergent Design, NanoFlash 3D external recorder for recording raw XDCAM at 180Mb/s in order to ensure broadcast quality.
I am somewhere on the endless plains of the Nadach Province to record the ancient Naadam Festival of Mongolia. …
Shooting the race
In the moments of anticipation and tension before the race commences, Amarjargal seems fearless as we strap the 3D camera harness around him. Amarjargal’s ‘horsecam’, a GoPro 3D Hero, will have to operate over a gruelling 30km horse race, so I check the camera, press record and we are rolling. I mount the Panasonic AG-3DA1 on my shoulder mount, and now both cameras are rolling. …
Amarjargal comes in 10th and he too is a winner because not only has he photographed the first ever Naadam horse race in 3D using a unique 3D horsecam, as a ten year old Mongolian boy, he is also the youngest cameraman! …
Epilogue
We were on location for 7 days. The GoPro provided the only challenge. While the ‘cool’ factor was good, the quality of the camera is not really what is advertised or what I have seen in the test footage. Of course, shooting a ten-year-old riding bareback on a horse at full run is a lot to ask of the camera. While the format says .mp4, it is really .mov in an .mp4 wrapper which did not make for the smoothest playback, even though it was set for 720/60p. Ultimately, I had to transcode to real .mp4 and slow it down drastically in order to use it.
The Panasonic camera was a workhorse. It delivered every time with no problems. I have ‘lived’ with this camera for quite some time and I understand the capabilities. I did have reservations about the GoPro as mentioned. But, that said, it does fill a need for POV 3D.
As far as what could be improved, I would say better lensing on the GoPro and a more flexible codec. On the Panasonic, the idea for controlling the exposure and convergence with one control with a switch is the worst design flaw of the camera. No built-in ND filter is the next worst. I have recently added the Panasonic VZ Pro-PZFI-3D Varizoom Camera Remote and it gives all controls at your finger tips – an excellent product. I have also added a RedRock Micro Matte box and rails with an excellent ND filter. That has solved both problems. The last thing is that the native recording bandwidth on the Panasonic is too low. I have solved that by adding the Convergent Design, NanoFlash 3D. With it, I am shooting 180Mbps, .mxf XDCAM raw codec, 10-bit 4:2:2 sampling. …
Where can the footage be seen?
I shot this film for a travel series called Explore 3D Travel, and I hope that it will be picked up by one or more of the 3D channels around the world. …
Read the full story here: http://3droundabout.com/2011/09/4858/tales-from-the-3d-road-the-naadam-festival-of-mongolia.html
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