I figured today I’ll just yak about Jacobson sound blimps. These are those lunch box-looking black boxes with tubes on it. Many times folks on set would come up to inqury on these. Well, these are basically to block my ass from being kicked by the sound guys. Yup, everytime I snap a picture it goes click – even the digital ones and the sound guy’s got some top-notch equipment that can hear that. Imagine watching a romantic moment between the two actors and all you hear is click…..click….click
Yup, nothing kills sound more than planes, trains, automobiles and me taking pictures so Irving Jacobson was smart enough to patent a box with a tube in it that can muffled the sound. It’s not 100% guaranteed to stop the clicking but it knocks it down so sound folks won’t get up in a huff.
Usually I have two of these bad boys. Why ? Simple, I don’t want to take time to change lens because if I do, I need to un-snap the box, unhook the cord, pull out the camera, change the lens, reconnect the cord, stuff it back in the foam-lined container and resnap on the snaps. whew ! Oh, I rather not expose the sensor to the outside world if possible too.
This one is for a 28-70 lens and my other tube is made for 70-200 lens.
Two latches on top snap up to allow the back to open. You can see the inside is basically foam. There’s a removable part of the foam in case you have a grip on your body. Just take out the removable foam and slide the body in. And that cord ?
That cord is basically a remote Canon RS-80N3. It runs to the front of the blimp where there’s a small button.
Just hold down to focus and push all the way to take the photo.
These are actually refitted. When I first decided to go into production stills, I knew it was better to own my own equipment. These babies…are you ready ?... run $875 bodies just for the blimp, not including the lens tube. That will run you another $250-$300. So expect to pay about $1,175 per set-up….and I have two of these suckers ! Quick calculation and for what I have, it would cost me $2,650 brand new !
Really, I got lucky. I knew a photographer who didn’t really shoot stills anymore so he had two blimps + three tubes to sell. I got it at a steal though I needed to change the connections. See, he shot film back in the late 80s/early 90s so the connectors were made for the older style Canon EOS-1ns.
I’ve been kicking around the photo industry for about a decade so I knew enough folks who could easily do this for me at a reasonable cost. I bought the RS-80N3s from the web, and paid a local camera tech guy to retrofit it for Canon digital. Done !
They’re big and bulky and kinda difficult to operate but once you get a hang of it, it isn’t that bad.
I tend to have three Canon bodies with me – two in blimps and one outside for quick grabs without having to going through opening the box. Lens I usually use are zoom lens – 28-70 L, 70-200 L.
On set I also bring along a laptop and external hard drives so I can double backup the images. Always back-up !
For my own lighting kit, I prefer Profotos and Dynalites and depending on the production may bring enough equipment to set up a studio shot if necessary.