Shooting in St Tropez with the C300

I’m currently shooting another event for Harley-Davidson in the French riviera. I’ve shot this event a few times before but this is the first time Ive used the C300 for a rally so it’s proving to be a new challenge for me and the camera. I’m about to head out for another days shooting but I just wanted to post a quick update as to my progress and how the C300 was coping with the role of event coverage.

In terms of usability the camera’s working really well, I’ve been using the 17-55 IS most of the time just because I find I need the wide end a lot for these events. I have used the Tokina 11-16 a little too but I find it restrictive being stuck that wide when walking around shooting. I don’t like swapping lenses outside if I can help it at all so I’ve tended to pop back to my apartment in order to swap lenses so as to keep the dust inside the camera to a minimum.

When I popped back to swap lenses yesterday however I did notice that there were three spots of white debris behind the IR glass inside the C300’s body. I thought this area was sealed as it contains the ND filters and the sensor itself so I was a little shocked to see that stuff inside. There’s no way for me to clean it either so the camera will have to go back to canon when I get home next week.

Anyway, I have to run as it’s time for another day’s shooting but I’ll leave you with a few screen grabs, these are all unedited VLC grabs from the footage straight from the camera. It’s taken me a while and a lot of experimenting with various custom picture settings but I think I’ve finally made one which is ideal for providing a nice natural look with faithful colours and contrast straight from the camera.