WINSTON-SALEM, NC - Last fall, executive producer Robert Van
Camp and his Wide Eye Productions crew traveled throughout North America,
filming in 15 US states - from New Hampshire to Alaska, as well as Canada - all
for PBS's popular Great Scenic Railway Journeys. The series, set to resume in June, profiles some of the world's most
historic and scenic tourist railways.
Van Camp (pictured) is also the primary DP on the show and has received
four Emmy awards for his camera work on the series. This season, he took
advantage of the lightweight and compact design of Fujinon's HA16X6.3ERM HD
ENG/EFP, which allowed him to shoot HD on moving trains with reduced vibration.
The lightweight lens also allowed him to shoot pacing shots, done from the back
of one train shooting at another, something that wasn't possible with a heavier
lens in the past.
The HA16X6.3ERM combines wide angle and high magnification (16X zoom ratio),
enabling production crews to carry just one lens for a range of shooting
environments. It has a wide angle of 6.3mm and a telephoto focal length of
202mm with the 2X extender.
Van Camp, a Sony
HD HDW-750 user, also called on Fujinon's HA20x7.8B-10 Cine Style zoom
while shooting Great Scenic Railway Journeys. It has a 20X magnification and a 7.8mm focal length at the wide end
making it versatile enough to cover most applications from wide angle to
telephoto.
At one point while filming in Alaska, he had to shoot approximately two miles
across a canyon to get a shot of the train being profiled at the time.
"By flicking the 2x extender I was able to do a
nice pullout shot to show how big the scene was and how far away we really
were."