KevinL
Flashlight Enthusiast
Wow......a masterpiece of engineering indeed.
I found myself on an unusual assignment - 'designated shooter' (photographer) at a rock concert. This meant the privilege of up-close-and-in-your-face access, and also the ability to stand right in front of the speakers and get my ears blasted into the next reality
Interestingly, just a couple of weeks ago I was reading about the Surefire EP3's on CPF and thinking that they might be useful where I was headed. I am generally not subjected to such noise levels and have never really taken notice of Surefire's EarPro acquisition even though I am a big fan of their lights (but you folks didn't need me to tell you that right, me and my collection of a dozen?)
I am used to the conventional kinds of earplugs, in fact I really like the soft foam kind for letting me get a good night's sleep when the environment absolutely won't (I won't get into examples here but let's just say people cause Problems(tm)). I've found some that are cheap and really good.
The problem is, when not sleeping, you generally want to hear some sounds. The foam plugs are great but they deaden sound across the entire range. It was impossible to have a conversation without shouting when they were on, and the music was reduced to a bunch of thumps and bumps - the bass that you could feel.
Taking off the plugs to hear the music was not an option either, I could barely stand the sound for more than 1-2 seconds before it became painful. I was close enough that you could actually feel the sound pounding on your back and chest.
The magic of the EP3's is that you can still hear the music. It's almost as if you simply turned the volume down. I could talk to the crew and others almost as if I was wearing nothing at all. In fact, before it started, I was having a conversation with someone while wearing the plugs, and I had no problems at all hearing him.
Normally if you told me that you had a device capable of attenuating everything over 80dB down to a flat 80dB while letting softer sounds through, I would assume it is electronic - using a CPU to assess which sounds to attenuate. That the EP3 is passive is a wonderful thing - no electronics to fail, no batteries to give way, low cost, comfortable to wear, and I think I enjoyed the performance a whole lot better than with the foam plugs. And they let me focus on 'getting the shot' with the 5DMk2 and 70-200 rather than worrying about hearing damage.
I am truly impressed with what they've come up with....and I think the EP3's are going to be a permanent addition to my gear bag for use whenever I need them the ability to stand there with near-total impunity over a combined total of nearly ten hours of exposure, then to be able to take the plugs off after the event is over and have NO impairment or after effects whatsoever.. now that is a GOOD THING!!
I found myself on an unusual assignment - 'designated shooter' (photographer) at a rock concert. This meant the privilege of up-close-and-in-your-face access, and also the ability to stand right in front of the speakers and get my ears blasted into the next reality
Interestingly, just a couple of weeks ago I was reading about the Surefire EP3's on CPF and thinking that they might be useful where I was headed. I am generally not subjected to such noise levels and have never really taken notice of Surefire's EarPro acquisition even though I am a big fan of their lights (but you folks didn't need me to tell you that right, me and my collection of a dozen?)
I am used to the conventional kinds of earplugs, in fact I really like the soft foam kind for letting me get a good night's sleep when the environment absolutely won't (I won't get into examples here but let's just say people cause Problems(tm)). I've found some that are cheap and really good.
The problem is, when not sleeping, you generally want to hear some sounds. The foam plugs are great but they deaden sound across the entire range. It was impossible to have a conversation without shouting when they were on, and the music was reduced to a bunch of thumps and bumps - the bass that you could feel.
Taking off the plugs to hear the music was not an option either, I could barely stand the sound for more than 1-2 seconds before it became painful. I was close enough that you could actually feel the sound pounding on your back and chest.
The magic of the EP3's is that you can still hear the music. It's almost as if you simply turned the volume down. I could talk to the crew and others almost as if I was wearing nothing at all. In fact, before it started, I was having a conversation with someone while wearing the plugs, and I had no problems at all hearing him.
Normally if you told me that you had a device capable of attenuating everything over 80dB down to a flat 80dB while letting softer sounds through, I would assume it is electronic - using a CPU to assess which sounds to attenuate. That the EP3 is passive is a wonderful thing - no electronics to fail, no batteries to give way, low cost, comfortable to wear, and I think I enjoyed the performance a whole lot better than with the foam plugs. And they let me focus on 'getting the shot' with the 5DMk2 and 70-200 rather than worrying about hearing damage.
I am truly impressed with what they've come up with....and I think the EP3's are going to be a permanent addition to my gear bag for use whenever I need them
the ability to stand there with near-total impunity over a combined total of nearly ten hours of exposure, then to be able to take the plugs off after the event is over and have NO impairment or after effects whatsoever.. now that is a GOOD THING!!
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