Grizzly Creek Films of Bozeman, MT, selected Panasonic P2 HD camcorders to shoot a recently aired one-hour special for the National Geographic Channel (NGC) about a naturalist’s work with grizzly bears.

Winston and fellow producer Gaines decided to combine the HPX500 and HVX200, both cameras they had used together on previous productions. The HVX200 was used for the verité footage of Casey, and the HPX500 was used for the long lens and more classic natural history footage. The production was shot at 720/24pN to maximize P2 card capacity in the field.

The producers selected the HPX500 for a variety of reasons, including its ability to accept 2/3in ENG HD long lenses, which were necessary to film the bears from a safe distance and to avoid disrupting the creatures. According to Winston, the camera’s ability to over-crank at 60fps is also an important feature for any high-end natural history footage. A Fujinon 42x zoom with a range of 13.5-570mm was used with the camera.

The HVX200 was used to follow Casey handheld and recorded sound directly to camera. For a two-week window late in the shoot, the production team used an HPX3000 with a Fujinon 13 x 4.5 wide-angle HD lens.

Read entire article in Broadcast Engineering