Photographed Latin Jazz singer Amanda Martinez at the brand spanking new Koerner Hall (opened about a month ago) on Fri. night. Beautiful soft latin jazz, the concert had a really nice spirit.
Here's a link to her site and the new CD. You can download a free song from it http://www.amandamartinez.ca/english/index.htm
As part of the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Koerner Hall is already renowned for it's accoustics. The sound in this place is fantastic. So I chose this concert to try out a gizmo I'm hoping will lead to better access to classical performances in the future.
Made by Matin (I believe they are a Korean manufacturer) this is listed as a weather protector, but rather than just the usual nylon covering Matin have also sewn in a fair amount of padding to suppress shutter noise, thus giving it a second, and frankly more unique, function.
You can see a picture of it from Vistek's site ($34.99 - www.vistek.ca) by copying and pasting this link http://www.vistek.ca/prodimg100/210914_100.jpg
You place the camera inside what is essentially a nylon bag with an extension to accomodate the lens - the diameter of the 150mm and 35-100mm lenses look to be close to the maximum size it will accomodate - then zip it up underneath the camera body. This allows you to use the tripod mount on the bottom of the camera while maintaining sound suppression. A draw cord seals it against the lens.
There is an access sleeve for your right hand, and an opening for the viewfinder to poke through at the back. The viewfinder opening is loose enough you can pull it back to get a peak at the LCD for image review, but in keeping with it's goal of making the photographer blend more into the background the LCD is still shielded from the audience's view when doing this.
How does it work?
Well it doesn't make your camera silent. However it does take that 'crunching pop can' top note out of the shutter sound leaving you with a more pleasant, and way more subtle, soft thunk. A definite improvement.
I was shooting right behind a row of people and had I timed it for just the louder moments (as you would during a classical concert) no one would have even known I was there.
As it was, shooting freely throughout the first three songs, the camera was barely noticeable.
There is one drawback to the design that is going to require a bit of customization.
While it was fine with the prime 150mm, it would be really awkward to operate a zoom ring as the only access is through the zippers located under the bottom of the camera.
And for the same reason use of the tripod mounting ring is a no-go as the bag won't stretch far enough forward. I was okay with using the camera body tripod mount for the monopod, since it was only three songs, but it's less than optimal to suspend a heavy lens from the camera body lens mount. This could be improved.
There is a business that does repairs to sporting goods around the corner, and I'm going to see if they can put a zipper underneath the lens extension at the front of the bag so it's possible to unzip, slip your hand in, and zoom the lens. This would also let you use the monopod connected to the tripod ring with longer, heavier lenses and hopefully won't let too much noise out.
I thought this might be of interest as it seems a lot of people like to shoot student productions or community plays. This inexpensive accessory can really make it easier for photographers to blend in when shooting in situations like that.
It does attract stares though. But oddly, it actually looks very professional.
As a rain cover I'll stick with the Optek covers I've been using up to now. The sealing around the viewfinder opening is not tight and would allow water onto the camera body. If you were stationary, shooting something like a soccer or football game (those are two separate sports in North America) with your jacket hood over the camera it would work, but walking around freely with it all out in the open while it was raining, the water would get in.
If I had a word of advise to Matin, I would recomend they lessen emphasis on rain protection (very few people want to shoot in the rain and there are cheaper, more effective products out there for doing that) and just concentrate on the sound suppression angle - which a lot of people have a need for. Beef up the padding some more, contour it better, and include the zipper under the lens extension section for zooming and you have a totally unique product. Not quite a sound blimp, but much more affordable.
BTW: Amanda was shot with the Digital Zuiko 150mm f2 lens (300mm f2 equivalent) with 1.4 teleconverter making it the equivalent of a 400mm 2.8 lens, wide open @ 1600 ISO, no post processing noise removal.
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