PJD
Well-Known Member
I plan to attend this automotive event in about 10 days. It'll be my first time at a car race, so I'm not sure how successful I'll be capturing it (mostly on video), but in the meantime I'm having fun preparing my S5iiX kit. This will be a personal project, not a paying gig, but we're going to try our best to capture some great footage.
Info:
I'll be with my friend Sam again. He & I recently visited the Columbia River Gorge together, and he'll also bring his S5iiX to the drag race. Sam is a "car guy" who restores classic MOPAR cars, including his own 1972 'Cuda. He attends race events often, and is very familiar with the track in Woodburn, Oregon.
We'll be able to stand with our cameras & tripods within ~20' (~7 meters) of the start line, as well as more distant points along the length of the track. It's a several hour long event, with many different vehicles, so getting multiple different angles should be easy. And having two identical cameras will be great.
Sam tells me the cars will be insanely loud, so I'm putting effort into doing what I can (with a very limited budget) to get clean, undistorted, in-camera STEREO sound recording. I plan to use 2 small external mics with XLR connectors mounted on my camera in a XY stereo pickup pattern. They'll connect to my S5iiX via a Panasonic DMW-XLR1 which I plan to set to 24bit, 96Khz, and -20db input sensitivity so the preamps don't overload. I also have a pair of XLR inline switchable -15/-20/-25 db PADs I can additionally connect between each mic and the DMW-XLR1 if needed. The mics themselves are rated to handle relatively high SPLs, but given "insanely loud", well, it'll be a learning experience. Oh, and yes: I'll wear hearing-protecting ear plugs, AND over-the-ear headphones (for playback-only sound checks). Sam will bring his external audio recorder (set to 32bit) so we have another source for use in the video edit.
We plan to shoot 4K 60p (APS-C) ProRes 422 footage and use the S5iiX "car detect" tracking auto-focus for most shots. In Davinci Resolve we'll put the 60p footage in a 30p timeline so we can generate smooth slo-mo from any clip if we want. We did a test shoot yesterday using Sam's BIG, NOISEY diesel pickup truck as a puny stand-in for a dragster to test sound levels & video settings. One thing we found was exhaust smoke confuses the camera's AF, so we we'll be prepared to switch the lens to MF when needed. However, Sam says the dragsters generally only make smoke at a further distance from the start line before each race (when they prep their tires), and make very little smoke at the start line itself. So we can anticipate that, and adjust accordingly. We plan to be there for hours, so there'll be time to switch lenses. I'll mostly use my Lumix 20-60mm lens, but plan to record some shots using my old manual Nikkor 70-210mm lens. The latter will be a challenge, but fun.
I'll post pix of my camera & sound rig, and update this thread with more info soon. If you have related tips & advice, please chime in.
Info:
Woodburn Dragstrip on Instagram: "SAVE THE DATE! 39th Annual Mopar Nationals is scheduled for Sunday, August 4, 2024. Mopar Nationals is an all Mopar Drag Race with a Show-N-Shine and a Swap Meet. Tickets will be sold on 'theFOAT.com' in 2024.
59 likes, 0 comments - woodburndragstrip1 on December 14, 2023: "SAVE THE DATE! 39th Annual Mopar Nationals is scheduled for Sunday, August 4, 2024. Mopar Nationals is an all Mopar Drag Race with a Show-N-Shine and a Swap Meet. Tickets will be sold on 'theFOAT.com' in 2024. You can also...
www.instagram.com
I'll be with my friend Sam again. He & I recently visited the Columbia River Gorge together, and he'll also bring his S5iiX to the drag race. Sam is a "car guy" who restores classic MOPAR cars, including his own 1972 'Cuda. He attends race events often, and is very familiar with the track in Woodburn, Oregon.
We'll be able to stand with our cameras & tripods within ~20' (~7 meters) of the start line, as well as more distant points along the length of the track. It's a several hour long event, with many different vehicles, so getting multiple different angles should be easy. And having two identical cameras will be great.
Sam tells me the cars will be insanely loud, so I'm putting effort into doing what I can (with a very limited budget) to get clean, undistorted, in-camera STEREO sound recording. I plan to use 2 small external mics with XLR connectors mounted on my camera in a XY stereo pickup pattern. They'll connect to my S5iiX via a Panasonic DMW-XLR1 which I plan to set to 24bit, 96Khz, and -20db input sensitivity so the preamps don't overload. I also have a pair of XLR inline switchable -15/-20/-25 db PADs I can additionally connect between each mic and the DMW-XLR1 if needed. The mics themselves are rated to handle relatively high SPLs, but given "insanely loud", well, it'll be a learning experience. Oh, and yes: I'll wear hearing-protecting ear plugs, AND over-the-ear headphones (for playback-only sound checks). Sam will bring his external audio recorder (set to 32bit) so we have another source for use in the video edit.
We plan to shoot 4K 60p (APS-C) ProRes 422 footage and use the S5iiX "car detect" tracking auto-focus for most shots. In Davinci Resolve we'll put the 60p footage in a 30p timeline so we can generate smooth slo-mo from any clip if we want. We did a test shoot yesterday using Sam's BIG, NOISEY diesel pickup truck as a puny stand-in for a dragster to test sound levels & video settings. One thing we found was exhaust smoke confuses the camera's AF, so we we'll be prepared to switch the lens to MF when needed. However, Sam says the dragsters generally only make smoke at a further distance from the start line before each race (when they prep their tires), and make very little smoke at the start line itself. So we can anticipate that, and adjust accordingly. We plan to be there for hours, so there'll be time to switch lenses. I'll mostly use my Lumix 20-60mm lens, but plan to record some shots using my old manual Nikkor 70-210mm lens. The latter will be a challenge, but fun.
I'll post pix of my camera & sound rig, and update this thread with more info soon. If you have related tips & advice, please chime in.
Last edited: