Sony RX100 on the way...

Nice sober & sleek look. Love that focus ring already.

I've been hearing and seeing so many impressive things about this brandnew mighty-yet-pocketsized Sony camera that I decided I could not live without one ;-) We're talking a camera the size of a cigarette pack (who smokes these days anymore, we need to come up with a new comparison...) with a huge sensor, a manual focus ring!, manual controls, RAW, 1080P 50 in video mode, a very sweet Carl Zeiss zoom lens with an impressive 1.8 aperture on the wide end, some great functionality and a robust metal design.

I'm taking off for France with my wife and kids one of these days and all the tents, picknick tables and inflatable beds seem to be rounded up and ready to be stuffed in our stationwagen. Guess who'll be one Happy Camper with his new Sony toy this summer...

A bit of Sound Advice (on location)

MIC PLACEMENT: WHAT OPTIONS ARE THERE..?

For the last 8 months I've been working on a documentary doing camera, sound and I've even been doing the interviews the last few occasions. It's a bit much for one person but considering the budget and the advantages of being one-on-one with your subject, bringing in a soundperson has not been an option.
But obviously there is a compromise in sound quality when you're working without a dedicated soundperson. One of the biggest challenges is the placement of the microphone, in my case a wireless Sennheiser mic (MKE-2). Either it is visible and distracting on a person's chest or hidden behind clothing with the risk of the microphone rubbing against garment, thereby creating unwanted noise.
The people from Location Sound Corp have written a nice piece on lavalier microphones and the problems you may run into. They also have a few very good tricks to fix some of these problems: