Скачать или смотреть Railfirst CF class triple pulling a sweet set of QUBE grain wagons - Illawarra - June 15, 2022

TIme for something different for me. Shooting from a station platform. The things that pop up are that you are much closer to the tracks. This is good for a front on approach but not great for seeing the train as it passes.

Ok, on to the subject of the day.

A Rail First Asset Management CF class trio hauling a very tidy and uniform set of QUBE branded grain wagons that seem to be pretty new at a decent pace. The locomotives are CF4412, 4410 and 4404 and they are each 2010-2012 UGL Broadmeadow built GE C44aci units rated at 4350 Hp (GE V16s) and weighing 134 t.

I'll see if I can make sense on this a bit.

It's a QUBE train with leased RFAM CM Locomotives on a regular run to the Port Kembla grain terminal from the grain plains of NSW. Two other trains go to Newcastle.

The SGMY wagons were unloaded from China, at the Port of Newcastle in early 2022, so I'd call that new in the world of NSW grain wagons. Diesel Dave Trains has a very comprehensive insight into the wagons and this can be seen here    • SGMY new Qube hopper walk Tottenham NSW.  ...  

So back to the video capture here. It was my first time trackside with my pretty new to me EF 11-24mm ultra wide lens. This lens was tripod mounted on a full frame Canon 6D2 and I wanted to fill the frame with a lot of train. Off platform and adjacent to the used track will do this even more. It's likely to be too much for anything going fast. Much better for anything crawling past for the best detail.

The other camera was a cropped sensor Canon 70D and one of my favourite lenses - the EF 100-400mm. On the 70D this is a 160-560mm 35mm equivalent lens. That means super zoom.

I LEFT THE SECOND TRIPOD IN THE CAR BECAUSE I'M NOT VERY SMART.

So it was bad hand held footage. I only kept it for the transition in the video and because it could be awhile before I see this QUBE setup like this again.

I won't do handheld again. Any future DSLR video capture will be tripod only. At close to 3 kg the camera/lens combos are nearly impossible to keep steady for video but surprisingly, perfectly OK for still photography.

The transition stretched my meagre Premier Pro skills. I had to align the clips on the same frame at a set time or train location. I then used one audio track for both clips once they were aligned. The 6D2 uses satellite time and the 70D is manually set if the GPS is not attached. It was 8 minutes out. So the alignment was done manually. I'm happy with the outcome for my first dual DSLR video catch.

Plenty of room for improvement but that’s one of the things that is a good challenge for me. Testing myself technically and learning how to achieve new things.

Kit: Canon 70D with EF 100-400mm handheld, Canon 6D2 with EF 11-24mm on tripod.

Lessons learnt from this video - Always use a tripod for DSLR video. The Premiere Pro transition between the two clips sharing an audio track from the 6D2.

Things I’m happy about - It's an ok first dual DSLR attempt. I shot another train not long before and will post it soon. I'm happy with the Pr edit. I had to look a lot of things up but got there in the end. I like a good self directed lesson. I could get used to station platform shooting but I think I prefer to be away from the public and more non-urban if possible. Industrial or country are my forte I feel.

Things I would like to improve - Not shoot so close and with fast trains at dusk due to a lack of detail and increased blur. The long lens work of course. A tripod will solve most of it. Camera positioning could be better as could preparation.

DW0022

Copyright - Dave Williams photographer 2022

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