Press Release from SONY
When Queensland-based Marine Biologist and filmmaker Dr. Dean Miller was approached to shoot one of the most remote places on earth with the new Sony PMW-200 HD camera his reaction was a justifiable mix of excitement and trepidation.
Miller explained, “Heard Island in the Australian Sub-Antarctic is extremely hard to get to and only very few people have ever seen it let alone stood on it. When you get an invitation to take part in an expedition to visit somewhere as special and untouched as this, you simply say, yes please and what’s involved?”
The assignment, one Miller describes as his “hardest to date”, involved a 10,000km open ocean voyage through the notorious Southern Ocean to get to the tiny island and a three-day window to explore, research and shoot when they got there.
Miller continued, “I only had three days to get as much usable footage as I could to tell the Heard Island story. In fact the shoot ended up being much harder than we first thought it might be. After sixteen days at sea in ferocious conditions we finally arrived but could not get anywhere near the island. Blizzards held the ship off the coast and we got only the smallest of glimpses of Heard for thirty hours, which meant thirty hours less time I had to shoot. Once the storm cleared we had a nine hour window before the next storm was forecast, so we landed and while also covering over 10km on foot, shot as much as I possibly could. The day after it was back to blizzards, and with just one day remaining things were getting tight. We managed to get back on the island for another four hours and somehow shot enough footage for the rest of the story. Without doubt the greatest moment on the island was when the weather cleared giving us beautiful blue skies and revealing Big Ben, Australia’s highest peak, only active volcano and birthplace of our glaciers. It is something I will never forget and was one of the most stunning scenes I have ever witnessed. Everything I thought I knew about cameras, filming, wildlife and the weather all had to come together for those 13 little hours.”
Accompanying Miller on his expedition into the unknown was the latest Sony PMW-200, the much-anticipated upgrade for the PMW-EX1, a camera that Miller had used extensively all over the world.
Miller added, “I know the EX1 back to front and was excited beyond belief to test drive the PMW-200. I took one camera and one camera only so it had to work first time every time. My guess was that if the PMW-200 was anything like my old EX1 it would be the perfect tool for the job – super high quality, reliable, versatile, excellent on batteries, compact and tough against the conditions. It was. I knew we were onto a winner as soon as I saw the PMW-200 was small enough to be carried along with my survival equipment, but large and powerful enough to shoot the amazing HD footage that the broadcasters required.”
Sony’s PMW-200 supports the 50 Mbps MPEG HD422 codec and MXF recording and with its three 1/2-inch Full HD Exmor CMOS sensors (1920×1280), the PMW-200 is able to achieve high resolution (1000 TVl), high sensitivity (F11@2000 lx), low noise (56 dB), and wide dynamic range.
Dr. Miller concluded, “The PMW-200 does it all in my opinion – great lens, great range, fast and slow motion and an awesome time-lapse function with plenty of options. This camera can pull off wildlife shooting with ease because it is so easy to setup and very simple to use. On Heard Island the PMW-200 performed flawlessly. The higher 50 Mbps bit rate is a real bonus and is one of many winning features of the PMW-200. The screen has been improved which is great and it was super easy to navigate menus and buttons, just like the EX1. The camera is also very intuitive and very easy to simply pick up and shoot with, another bonus especially if you don’t like reading manuals. It’s hard to fault the PMW-200 and if you think you got great results with an EX1 then wait until you try this camera as it takes things to a whole new level.”