Europe
Professional Video
Content creation & presentation
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Aerial acrobatics with the GY-HM700 camcorder
PlanesTV is a specialist aviation production company, set up in 1989, that specialises in filming air shows around the UK and abroad. The company uses the JVC GY-HM700
camcorder to capture the latest aerial exploits, including filming the famous Vulcan XH558.
Adrian Campbell, Marketing Director at PlanesTV, explains
more. “When I founded the company, originally called Aviation Action, we were already using JVC equipment,” he says. “We would go to air shows, record the often-spectacular
footage, and then sell the air show footage in a wellproduced video, DVD or Blu-ray package for the enthusiasts. Now, with online TV as our primary tool of growth, we needed a
camcorder to match the fast turnaround times required, but with the high quality pictures of aircraft in flight that our subscribers have come to expect.
“The JVC GY-HM700 offered the perfect solution, as it combined fantastic pictures with tapeless recording – it
is a very effective way of working. We can also use the powerful lenses we already owned, using JVC’s adaptor to convert 1/2" to 1/3", which gives us additional telephoto power."
Adrian and his crew film air shows from a platform on top of their PlanesTV vehicle. “It’s often hard to find a fast-moving plane in the sky, as it just appears as a tiny dot in
the distance when you’re looking through the viewfinder,” he adds. “However, we’ve found the colour viewfinder on the GY-HM700 to be as good as a high quality black and
white one, which makes this tricky task much easier. There are big advantages
to filming using a colour viewfinder too, as you can check white balance and you just generally have more confidence in your footage.”
Adrian was also impressed with the camera’s flip-out LCD screen. “We mainly use the viewfinder for filming the flying but, at the extremes of the pan when your body cannot contort
any more, the open flipscreen can be useful for the last few seconds of the shot, as it’s very clear, big and bright.”
“We have been more than impressed with the battery life of these cameras; we film continuously for 6-8 hours a day using just two batteries. This also means we get through media
cards very quickly; we often use twelve 8GB cards a day, but as they are SDHC cards it doesn’t cost a fortune. We record in .MP4 format, ready to take straight into Adobe Premier
CS5 for editing.”
Adrian concludes, “Our company has continued to grow, despite the recession. With the relatively low cost of both the GY-HM700 camera and editing system, together with the
efficiency of the workflow, we have been able to improve the quality of our productions with quick turnaround times. The GY-HM700 has played a major part in our progress; it has
performed fantastically and surpassed our expectations.”
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