Panasonic Ag-Dvx100b - How do you prevent dust from getting on the camera?

TruEsTaR

TruEsTaR

I was wondering how you all take care of your camera's.
Do you use some type of cloth or wash to keep the dust off of it, or do you wrap it in something before putting it away, like newspaper?

I can't keep the dust off of mine.

Also, is it bad to leave a mini-dV tape in the video camera for too long?
Do you ever leave your batteries on if you are going to use the camera early in the next morning?

thanks,

TS
 
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I'd love to see the look on a client's face when you whack out your camera covered in old newspaper :D

Best way to keep it safe is a specially designed camera bag or flight case if it's really going to be chucked around (e.g. in the back of a lorry or hold of a plane). Most camera bags will have pockets for chargers, batteries, memory cards/tapes etc.

I can't imagine leaving a MiniDV tape in it would do much harm, but why would you anyway? I haven't shot on tape for a while, but as soon as I was done it'd go into a labelled case. It takes all of about 20 seconds to stick a new tape in when you need it.

On as in charging? I charge batteries overnight all the time… I wouldn't leave them in the camera if I wasn't going to be using it for months, but I wouldn't bother taking them out of the camera for the sake of a night.
 
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Mmmm.. Camera care. This is one of those things will vary from owner to owner and is directly proportional to the degree of OCD exhibited by the owner. :lol:

I like to use a very soft 1-2" paint brush (which has never been used for anything else) to clean camera bodies and such.

Lots of people use canned air to blow dust off lenses and viewfinders. Personally I've never figured out how to use those effectively without bursts of frozen moisture going everywhere. I have an older style bulb blower that is sufficient for clearing the dust from a lens before actually cleaning it. Always use air or a lens brush (love my lens pen, but there are a couple of DPs for whom I work who I won't use it near. Their way or the highway. ;) ) to get the chunks off your glass before hitting it with a cloth.

Lessie. Lots of case options out there, and depending on your location, hard cases/flight cases/etc that are a good size for a DVX are probably easy and cheap to find second hand.

I would never leave a tape in overnight. That's a personal preference thing. It's probably fine to do so from a technical standpoint (no clue honestly), but logistically it sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. What if you were watching footage on it at the end of the day, and wound back to the middle of that day's shooting. Then in a rush the next morning just started rolling without checking to see if the tape was queued to the right spot.

Suddenly you're overwriting yesterday's work. Sure, you could try to keep track, but better to take it out, make sure it is labeled, hit the copy protection and put it away for safe keeping.

Similar for batteries, personal preference. I like to take them off at the end of the day, but not everyone is a stickler for this. I also like my batteries numbered and dated (date new), but I'm pretty OCD/anal. ;)
 
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David.rhsc said:
Mmmm.. Camera care. This is one of those things will vary from owner to owner and is directly proportional to the degree of OCD exhibited by the owner. :lol:

I like to use a very soft 1-2" paint brush (which has never been used for anything else) to clean camera bodies and such.

Lots of people use canned air to blow dust off lenses and viewfinders. Personally I've never figured out how to use those effectively without bursts of frozen moisture going everywhere. I have an older style bulb blower that is sufficient for clearing the dust from a lens before actually cleaning it. Always use air or a lens brush (love my lens pen, but there are a couple of DPs for whom I work who I won't use it near. Their way or the highway. ;) ) to get the chunks off your glass before hitting it with a cloth.

Lessie. Lots of case options out there, and depending on your location, hard cases/flight cases/etc that are a good size for a DVX are probably easy and cheap to find second hand.

I would never leave a tape in overnight. That's a personal preference thing. It's probably fine to do so from a technical standpoint (no clue honestly), but logistically it sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. What if you were watching footage on it at the end of the day, and wound back to the middle of that day's shooting. Then in a rush the next morning just started rolling without checking to see if the tape was queued to the right spot.

Suddenly you're overwriting yesterday's work. Sure, you could try to keep track, but better to take it out, make sure it is labeled, hit the copy protection and put it away for safe keeping.

Similar for batteries, personal preference. I like to take them off at the end of the day, but not everyone is a stickler for this. I also like my batteries numbered and dated (date new), but I'm pretty OCD/anal. ;)
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thanks guys, and i'll definitely try out the paint brush. an original and smart idea david. kudos to you.
 
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Not original - at least not mine - learned it on the job from a guy who probably learned it shooting tv shows years ago from someone who probably learned it from someone else years before that. :lol:

Edit: This probably goes without saying, but don't use it on the front element of the lens. :)
 
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