A few months ago I bought an inexpensive solid state video camera to just leave in the car and capture random subjects with. The image quality isn't too great (the sound is particularly inadequate), but its not bad for the price. It won't cut it for the occasional Weather Channel broadcast video, but its so small that you can get away with shots you wouldn't want to attempt with something more expensive.

While shooting the sunset from the Duke Raleigh Hospital parking garage on Wake Forest Road for the recent March photo series, I set the video camera up to record the scene while I took photographs. This video is about 1 hour reduced to 25 seconds.

Notice the Wake Forest Road I-440 beltline exit traffic.

Now what is a scenario where you might not want to risk an expensive piece of equipment? A 250,000 pound train locomotive running over top of the equipment might qualify.

A note on the recent train "themed" subjects: My wife's Dad is a locomotive engineer for Norfolk Southern and is 2 months away from 34 years with the railroad. If you ask him, he'll tell you (to the day) how many days he has left until retirement. That being said, Beth and I thought we'd capture him in action while we still have the opportunity.