Do You Pack a Personal Camera?

[Dave.B]

When you're in your personal car...some of us don't get station drive-home cars...do you pack your own video camera around "just in case"?

I've got a good Panasonic "Pro-sumer" camera that I'm thinking of loading up with me. There have been a few times when I would have had some great video if I'd had a camera with me.

Just wondering.

[NEWSSHOOTER3]

I always keep a digital, still, point and shoot, with video. Crappy, but captured...

[newsdude477]

I take a Nikon D70s and a cheap lens in the summertime. I don't in the winter because it's dark 2hrs into my shift. In the summer if I have a few extra minutes I take a few still shots now and them when I see something interesting.

[F4 Fan]

Sometimes I bring an extra along on shoots – but a still camera only. By the way I use a D70 as well –it’s been very dependable.

I work with a reporter who loves to blog and if possible he and the web side of things like to have still pix from an event to run along with his package. That means packing not only a digital SLR, but also a couple of lenses, perhaps a flash, plus a laptop to edit and transmit from the field on. When the iPhone was released I did live shots and shot b-roll for the network, and stills for the web. They were full days.

But normally, no I don’t pack my own video camera when I’m not working. Car wrecks and house fires don’t have much news value to us, especially when the local O & O has a chopper that they send EVEYWHERE.

As more and more people get cell phones with cameras you will see more and more citizen journalism.

[Land Rover]

I keep a small Canon SD 1000 digital camera with me. It shoots great stills, has a large screen on the back and will shoot video at 30 FPS if I ever needed it for that.

[pre-set]

Yes. See other post about "not shooting something"...

[David R. Busse]

I carry a Canon G7 with me in my briefcase. Fun camera, and it shoots nice little bursts of video as well as good stills.

Bought it new for $499, the week after I made $4300 selling junk piled in the garage on Ebay.

[Alaska cameradude]

I'm not a staff shooter anymore (thank God!) but when I was, I used to keep my PD-150 in my car for this reason. Saved my station from missing some big things a couple times. But, as I got older (and gained some perspective), I realized that I was using my personal gear on station time, rent free (for them). Basically decided that if they wanted me to get things like that they could give me take home gear, and when they called me to get stuff with my personal gear (because they were used to me doing it), I quoted them my 'day rate' for using my gear. That was the end of that!

[jeremycohn]

I keep my Canon S5 point and shoot and accessories with me.. I like to put away the news camera when I've shot enough, and take some stills when possible.

[code20photog]

When I'm off, I'm off. I don't even own a video camera, never have.

But I do keep my SD1000 in my poket at all times.

[Dave.B]

When I'm off, I'm off. I don't even own a video camera, never have.

But I do keep my SD1000 in my poket at all times.

I have a video camera...but never use it for personal stuff. Everyone I know always talks about how we must have TONS of family videos but grabbing a camera at home is usually the last thing I want to do.

[BluesCam]

I have a Canon 350D that a carry around these days. If I had a small video camera, I might take it. I remember the time I saw a UFO... but I digress... :>}

[Lenslinger]

I've packed a digital camera in my runbag for years. I find using it at boring news stories really spices up things and I come away with captured memories and visual blog fodder. Trouble is, I'm damn rough on it. After much jostling and an unfortunate sewer plummet (http://lenslinger.blogspot.com/2007/11/subterranean-fuji-blues.html), it's pretty much toast. Now I'm looking to replace it and call it Santa Claus. Can anyone reccommend a small, durable, workaday snaphot cam? I'm resigned to something all automatic as I'm usually using it while cradling an SX with my other hand. I can't drop more than 400 bones on it, but I'd love to find something a notch above some totally dumbed-down granny-cam. If I don't soon decide, Mrs. Lenslinger might be tempted to stroll by the Best Buy discount scanner, and I simple cannot whip out a pink Barnie digi-cam at some triple homicide press scrum. Fatal fire maybe, but not a homicide.

[Shocker]

I use the Canon A630. It's small enough to fit in my pocket and I can use it in manual mode or various degrees of automatic. The LCD screen flips out and rotates making it easy to get low angle and overhead shots.

[tresbeez]

i agree with the others that have said when i am off, i am off. our take-home cars were taken away a few years back. so, if it happens between 9:30 and 6:30 monday-friday, fine, send me to it in my station car with my station issued gear and i will shoot it to the best of my ability. but after that i really dont care what is happening, i am not on the clock.

[newsshooter]

I have a still camera I pack sometimes. I have a great 3 chip mini cam but would never shoot news on my day off with it. I'd probably want to shoot something I saw, then have my wife sell it to the other stations for exclusive rights. Make more money that way. My station would just want it.

[Tippster]

I carry a Canon G7 with me in my briefcase. Fun camera, and it shoots nice little bursts of video as well as good stills.

Bought it new for $499, the week after I made $4300 selling junk piled in the garage on Ebay.
I knew I liked you. After hauling around my trusty dusty Canon A85 with me for years I finally upgraded a few weeks ago and got the Canon G9. Sweeeet little camera, I must say.

[2gigch1]

I have the trusted old Sony Digital 8 velcroed to the dashboard of my company car; I roll pretty much the whole time I'm driving and I save the good stuff to my Powerbook via Final Cut. Someday, if i need a shot of being cut off, or someone running a red light, or that huge sheet of ice peeling off the top of the truck and bashing into my windshield (today on the way to work) I've got the shot. For all the times I have watched those police camera shows on Court TV and all the times stuff has happened in front of me, someday I might just get THE SHOT.

Ahat the hell, the camera is just collecting dust otherwise....

[punky cameraman]

i carry an old canon sd400 and a refurb sony mini dv.
both cheap, not disposable, but if they went missing
i would only whine a bit.

lenslinger, you should get a canon powershot sd 800 or sd 870.
why?
they are small (small enough to fit in a portabrace rain pouch with the raincoat on your camera) or your back pocket
both of these cameras have a wider than normal lens
lets face it, most shots you take with a point and shot you need a wider
lens more than a long lens.

both of these are in the $300 range

if size is not an issue the canon G9 is very cool ....
this is what i would love to get
but .......
i already have too many cameras

punky

links
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/460255-REG/Canon_1270B001_PowerShot_SD800_IS_Digital.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/518212-REG/Canon_2340B001_PowerShot_SD870_IS_Digital.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/518209-REG/Canon_2082B001_PowerShot_G9_Digital_Camera.html

[souplinkmf]

I have my trusty pea shooter Pentax Optio A20 10 mp great pics and video too !

[Tallinvegas]

I have my Sony DSC-F828 8 MP Digital Camera. It can also do video and has easy RCA cords out for in the field use. It can also do night vision that has come in handy for a few live shots where we could not use lights.