When working in crowded or bright environments I like using my Canon C300 with the monitor assembly removed but still using the top handle to carry the camera around. If you want to record basic audio in this configuration though you have to use the 3.5mm mic jack on the side using something like a Rode Videomic Pro.

The problem though is that the cold shoe placement on C300′s handle makes the handle unusable when a mic is fitted to it, it ends up looking something like this…

What we really need is the mic to be fitted to the front cold shoe, but that’s a vertical shoe so the mic would be pointing in totally the wrong direction and would just look silly. Something like this mockup I made would be better, I’m sure Rode would produce a much more elegant solution than my feeble hack job though.

That way the handle can still be used and the mic is out of the way above the lens. It would be nice if it was smaller though. Something more compact would be great, maybe even a stereo mic?

So there you go manufacturers, a small shoe mounted mic for the C300 would be really useful, oh and remember where you got the idea when it comes to field testing your wonderful creations! ;)

The post production for the event I shot for Harley-Davidson in St Tropez is now completed so I thought I’d share my thoughts on using the Canon EOS C300 on an event shoot for the first time. Previous to this event I’ve been using a Sony EX1 and Canon 5D mkII combination which have produced some nice results. The EX1 has been my main camera for event work over the last few years and even though I’ve felt the results from the 5D2 have been better at times the functionality and ease of use that the EX1 provided meant that it was just a better all around camera for my needs.

My shooting days at these events involve a lot of walking, I’m generally out shooting from 10am until the early hours of the morning for three or four days in a row so it can be very hard on the feet and becomes tiring after a few days. Because of this I tend to try and avoid carrying too much kit around with me and certainly didn’t like carrying both the EX1 and the 5D at the same time with all the batteries and lenses that go with them. My preferred method was to head out for a few hours with the 5D and my Glidetrack grabbing some more stylised material and then head back and swap over to the EX1. This worked well most of the time but invariably there would be times with the 5D that I missed the EX1′s over cranking feature and shooting aids, likewise when using the EX1 I’d really miss the ability to shoot really wide and have more control over the depth of field of my shots.

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I picked up the Canon EFs 17-55 f/2.8 IS recently because I wanted a wide zoom that would compliment my 24-105 IS and 70-200 IS lenses. I’ve been shooting with the 17-55 for around a week now and started noticing light falloff on the left and right edges of my shots when shooting at 17mm as well as darkened corners from 17-28mm. When the image stabiliser is active on the lens the vignetting becomes a lot more noticeable as the stabiliser function causes the vignetting to move around in the shot.

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