GH3 shoots Antarctica video at -40˚C!

Welcome to Union Glacier from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

Temujin Doran sent me a link to his latest video. It’s a documentary shot with the Panasonic GH3 in Antarctica. This is his brief report for 43rumors:

In 2013 I was the filmmaker attached to the Scott Expedition – the journey that completed Captain Scott’s final, ill-fated expedition from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back again. Our team passed through Union Glacier Camp on route to the starting point of Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans, but after becoming stranded at the camp and working with the staff there; I decided to make this documentary. The whole film was shot on a Panasonic GH3, with some additional shots done with a GoPro.

From a technical side of things – I’ve been working with m43 Panasonic cameras and lenses in the Arctic and Antarctic for several years now. Whilst all camera’s suffer in the cold, these have never given me problems whilst filming and have been used in temperatures as low as -40˚C. Battery life is somewhat diminished, but I carry lots of spares and have close to my body to keep them warm.

During the making of this documentary I never once put the camera in it’s bag. If I wasn’t using it, I just left it in my tent., which isn’t that much warmer than outside. The same went for the lenses – I used the Lumix 12-35mm F2.8, the 35-100mm F2.8 and the 100-300mm F4.0-5.6. For sound I used a Rode Stereo VideoMic Pro with a Dead Kitten in an attempt to block most of the wind. Most of the shots were on a Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod.

I’m currently working on the Scott Expedition documentary. The two members of the team each took with them a Panasonic GX7 with a Lumix 14mm F2.5 lens for capturing photos, video diaries and footage from the ice. During the expedition, the batteries were charged via solar panels,

If you’re interested, you can see all the short films I made for the Scott Expedition here – http://studiocanoe.com/expeditions/

As this is a camera blog – I’m almost certain that someone is going to say that I’ll have to go back and do it again, because it wasn’t shot in 4K. :)