KitPlus | Articles

With Polecam to the Antarctic

Whale Wars is a documentary-style reality television series that airs on Animal Planet, and follows the activities of the eco-activist group, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Last year, I was aboard Sea Shepherd’s flagship, “Steve Irwin” as Director of Photography and, along with a 5-man camera team, documented the “war” between the Japanese whal...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

Adventure between two Oceans 2009

The route of this year’s Dakar Rally went through South America, subjecting participants and equipment to very extreme conditions. Bikers and quad pilots as well as teams in cars and trucks participated in this 31st rally of its kind in South America. Cameraman Len Jansen and his team DakarPress from the Netherlands were also there. They have been...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009

From little acorns....

So what do we do? We have done little for television – our market place is much more modest. Parafotos has its origins in the early sixties when I started filming free fall parachuting– having to cope with a Bolex H16 strapped to the side of my helmet during the opening of the parachute was an interesting experience which no doubt accounted for an...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009

Ask the Experts with True Lens Services

Why should I have a lens serviced?A camera lens is not actually a sealed unit, though it may look as though it is. When you pull focus or zoom the lens, cells of glass within it start to move which results in pressure being created on one side of the cell and a partial vacuum on the other. This vacuum will suck in the surrounding air and any airbor...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 April 2009

The future of Audio

Total audio has been around for 12 years now and I worked for the BBC for 13 years prior to that, I resigned in 1996 as a senior sound supervisor based at Pebble Mill. I firmly believe that sound is only noticed twice, the first time it was distorted and the second time it wasn’t there. When it all goes swimmingly it’s rarely mentioned. In the last...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

Audio Technology Spotlight

In the ever changing world of TV technology, formats, standards and delivery, it’s always been reassuring to think that audio equipment for sound gathering on location hasn’t changed too much. That is, until the last couple of years when the emergence of the now widely used digital solid state recorders, digital transmission radio mic systems, high...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

The morality of meltdown

Apologies for breaking away from my usual broadcast-orientated comments but, when looking at the micro of our own world, sometimes big macro economic tsunamis crash in – and can have hugely damaging effects on our own small, flat, micro economic island. I’m writing this over the weekend when the US Congress is deciding whether it should bail out th...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

Lighting and Grip.

Lighting and Grip are often spoken as if they are one item, inseparable and complete. However the clue is in the phrase lighting AND grip. So let’s start by separating them. Lighting covers the instruments that provide the light. Grip covers the instruments we use to hold and control the light. LightingThere is a huge range of lights, luminaires, p...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

New developments in mobile HD production

When widescreen HDTV was first demonstrated back in the 1980s, the pictures were great but the size and price of the kit left much to be desired. Two decades on, broadcast-quality 1080i/720p HD cameras and recorders have reached levels of compactness and affordability that would have seemed impossible in those early days. When I designed the origin...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

SOOM under the Senegal sun

No power – inconceivable for Europeans, but normal for the African village Ndelle. Situated six hours from Dakar, it is attainable only by dusty, sandy fields. However the approximate 800 village inhabitants have reason for joy: The company Solar 23 is building a solar plant in Ndelle. The German cameraman Jrgen Killenberger captured this project i...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

London to Capetown, by bike Part 2

Continuing Frank’s journey after leaving Nigeria….. I arrived in Cameroun at the beginning of the wet season and it had been raining constantly for a week before I got there. The road was in a horrendous state. It was a two hundred kilometre long mudbath, in some places the mudholes were two metres below the normal road height. My bike fully loaded...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Screen and Music Travel

What do Screen and Music Travel do?Screen and Music Travel are specialist travel agents to the television and film industries. We move film crews (many of whom are probably your readers) to destinations all over the world. We have many deals in place with a number of airlines, for discounts on excess baggage charges, for passengers travelling with...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Insurance in a muddy field

There can be few subjects which provide a wider insight into life than Insurance. Don’t let anyone convince you that it is boring. Over the years I have been involved in covering risks as diverse as insuring a belly dancers belly against injury, whilst dancing at a top London Turkish restaurant, to covering the Polish Chamber Orchestra and the Pope...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2008

A hidden beauty

The lifestyle of the Wildlife cameraman (and woman) you’d have thought, and I was hoping, was all exotic locations and beautiful scenery. Except for me the reality was a murky, water filled quarry during a very cold winter and early spring of 2006- 07. But to come face to face with a real homegrown legend I was more than ready to take the plunge. T...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2008

The Benefits of Lens Add-ons

Zoom lenses on broadcast and professional video camcorders are wonderful tools for the videographer, allowing quick and easy focal length change. But ultimately, a zoom lens is limited on both the wide and telephoto end of its zoom range. On higher-end camcorders there is generally a choice of lenses, and thus zoom range, when the camera is purchas...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2008