In November and December of 2005, DP Steve McCarthy spent three weeks abusing the Zylight Z50 on the tallest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest.

Here are some excerpts from Steve’s Mt. Everest trip report:

“In late November 2005 I joined Alpinist/Cinematographer David Breashears on a trip to Nepal to shoot a documentary about events on Mt Everest in 1996."

"I took the Z50s to Kathmandu and onward to Everest Base Camp in the Khumbu Valley as part of a single lighting kit consisting of Arri 200w pocket par, 2x mini KinoFlo, Arri 150 fresnel, and two Zylight Z50s. The first order of business was interviews with Sherpas from the 1996 Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness expeditions in a cramped Kathmandu apartment. Fitted with an extra set of Pepper barn doors, the Z50 made a great accent light for the daylight balanced interviews and I was able to use it in either DC or [220v] AC depending on power limitations."

"Leaving Kathmandu for the 10-day trek to EBC we jettisoned everything but the bare essentials. Once we landed at Lukla everything would be carried by either man or yak. What's more, as we traveled from Lukla at 12,000ft to Base Camp at 17,000ft various bits of high tech equipment including MP3 players and laptops simply stopped functioning because of the low air pressure. Our battery charging options also narrowed significantly after day six. I took a gamble and held onto only the Z50 for the duration of the trip and I'm happy to say my faith was rewarded when it performed faultlessly, filling in for the light of a Primus compressed gas lantern for some dusk shots of a tent at the base of the Khumbu Ice Fall. As attested to by the photos, the light can hold its own in the glare of the noon light at 17,000 ft. - some of the brightest daylight one can experience with their feet planted on the earth!"

"Looking forward to abusing this thing some more. I've got the light itself packed in a Pelican cell phone container and the whole kit packs into my favorite padded thermal lunchbox! If this trend continues I'll be able to fit my entire kit in overhead baggage!"

Here are Steve's comments from the "re-creation scenes" shot about a month later in the Utah mountains:

“Just got back from Utah. Used the Z50 as a hand-held fill light in various real and created mountain wind-storms for Everest recreations. Everyone and especially my gaffer (who owns an LED 'panel' light) was in love with the Zylight. Used it in daylight mode with barn doors to fill in scenes lit solely with 1200 PAR HMIs flown high atop distant cranes."

"We were using 6' diameter wind machines to create 70 mph winds for night storm scenes. Gelling the light was not an option. The gaffer stood beside the hand-held camera clutching the Z50 in his gloved hand. Zero problems at zero degrees and a very subtle quality of fill light given the circumstances. Also used it as a work light in the camera tent. Kept it running for at least six hours and only went down one bar on the A/B dionic's fuel gauge."

Thank you, Steve, for giving the Z50 some good abuse!

Read more about the making of this upcoming documentary here.

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