I can see your point but I'd like to chip in on this a tiny bit.
Just like skiers love to progress themselves and get the coolest newest trick out there, so do some videographers with the field that they are in. With skiing, you can't come into it and expect to get a double around your first year at it, same goes with getting around to a wicked camera. Unless you had some cheater way to get around to it, you tend to need to put in some work via your skill or networking in the field to be able to come around to a high end camera, be it the Epic or the FS 700. I know Finbow and Lederer both have put in some serious time to get to where they are and they have both done great jobs at it. I had to rent the FS 700 for this shoot simply because I am not yet able to full out purchase it yet. But I did it because I wanted to shoot the best footage I could. Regardless of what you all think, I ended up really being proud of a couple shots in my edit...just as the skiers were that pulled up super rad tricks at this shoot.
The video guys all present there for West Coast love skiing...I don't think anyone involved in there had a mindset to bring skiing down shooting that week. If any of us were in it for the fame and glory we would stick far away from living in the road house and eating the (delicious) meals of the Windells campus every morning at 7:30.
It's a bit harsh to criticize anyone who had a "nice" camera for what's wrong with skiing. Fuck, I've been doing this video stuff for about 10 years now and started out on a piece of shit Canon ZR65, stepped up to the GL-2 and had it on my display rack until last year when I blew it up with a shotgun...and shot it with an Epic...it was awesome. In fact, the last time I actually shot with the GL -2 was like 4-5 years ago at the West Coast Session at Ski Bowl...the camera ended up fucking me hardcore due to dirty heads and cost me 2 days of awesome footage from there that I won't ever be able to showcase to people. I spent $900 to get it back but ended up getting fucked. As nostalgic and awesome as those old cameras are, you can't beat the reliability of the new cameras recording to memory cards.
Think of it like someone doing a kosack at a big air contest, old school is fucking rad and you are going to get a ton of hoots and hollers for it. Most of the competitors however, are probably going to be pulling out the big tricks such as their doubles..simply because it's the most relevant thing to be doing at that point in the game, they care how they stack up to the highest level of the game... and so do we as videographers.
The take away lesson that Shane gave everybody is one that always gets talked about and is an extremely valid, it's not about what gear you use, but how you use it right? Again, same goes for skiing...not about what exact tricks, but how you throw them to make you stick out. This could definitely be a lesson for everyone else there, just because you have the option of shooting at 300fps doesn't necessarily mean you have to do it....but it sure makes the skiing look phenomenal! Honestly, thats why I shot so much slow motion, it was just an attempt to pay homage to the skiers and make other people appreciate the finesse they put into their skiing. Go look at McChessneys 9 Cuban...he holds that stuff to the knuckle, Ware's 180 on the jump was motionless up to the last second...it's like the classic photos you used to see from Hood jumps back in the day, but they are moving now and in that way it is nostalgic for me to be able to compare the stuff that I get to shoot to what I grew up on admiring and putting up on my walls. Huge amount of kudos to Shane for crushing it with the stuff he had and we all think he did a great job. But also try to recognize that some filmers are just like skiers and want to progress with the general flow of the newest and coolest out there and at the bottom of it all, we just want to make skiing look as awesome as possible in our eyes...different strokes for different folks.
/end rant.
