I dip the wing to the left and close my eyes as she makes the sharp turn. I will have to pull back hard on this one if I want to stay dry. I have mastered the Victoria Falls feeling the spray on my feet.

Flying the Falls' currently in postproduction and due for release in Easter 2007, this remarkable video was filmed in the new Sony HDV High Definition format and tells the tale of our trip through the contrasting wetlands of Northern Namibia. From the Etosha Pan, along the Caprivi Strip to the Victoria Falls. Here the wildlife roams free and is captured on video from both the air and from the water on footage rarely seen before.

This is the second in the series the first being ‘Flying The Fish’ a documentary style film, and a visual feast soaring over rarely seen geography and geology of Southern Africa and its vast uninhabited areas. It tested the bonds of friendship that team faced the dangers associated with unpredictable weather, solving unanticipated mechanical problems, and sleeping and surviving in the great open spaces of Africa.

‘Flying the fish’ was shot with a Sony PD-170 along with three Sony Pencil Cameras. This was technically easier to do as the cameras are physically small and therefore easy to both wing mount and power, along with being able to switch between camera in flight for the various angles and have an and in ‘cockpit’ screen to be able to see what one was filming. There is not a great deal of difference between the Sony PD150 & PD170, just smoothed of a few rough edges.

This was our fist exposure of the robustness of Sony’s equipment. The camera’s were exposed daily to excessive vibration, extreme temperature fluctuations and strong wind.

You have to imagine its like travelling down a dirt road in a go-cart with no windscreen with camera being directly exposed to excessive vibration and the elements. After take off apart from continuous 80-km/hour of airflow the camera is directly exposed temperature continual in flight temperature changes. In some cases from 30 degrees on the ground down to about –2/5 degrees at 1200 feet about the dessert all in about 15 minutes.

‘flying the falls’ on the other hand was more difficult as the entire camera needed to be mounted out on the wing and triggered remotely with a 10 meter LAN-C cable from the ‘cockpit’ so to speak.

If I think back we decided to go HDV without a clear technical understanding of what it was a never having seen any actual HDV footage. We knew that we would never be able to go back and recapture our experiences again so we better capture it on as high resolution as possible the first time.

On our return now having a months experience with the camera equipment and another editing the footage there is no way would ever go back to SD. For the low budget film maker it is a dream come true. The image quality is amazing, who ever has seen a preview two just wants to go our there experience it for themselves, the image quality is just that captivating.

We chose the Sony HVR Z1 over the Sony HVR FX1 for the sound inputs options and Sony’s legendary low light performance. We where not disappointment, many of the sequences were filmed from sunset onwards and the camera performed exceptionally well.

The camera is really well balanced from a cameraman’s perspective with the controls being greatly improved upon from the PD170, the zoom/focus rings, sound level controls and status check just to mention a few.

The Sony ECM-674 Microphone though costly proved to be worth its weight in gold for capturing the distant sounds of the elephants, lions and hippos.

We chose the Sony HVR A1 as with auxiliary bits stripped of it only weighs 600 grams and has a LAN-C support, making it excellent for mounting on the wing and control bar. Also with it XLR sound inputs and sun hood it made for a good back up camera when we go separated from our ground support vehicle for a few days.