Lensmith
Member
I got the call yesterday to come in early to the office from my Chief. "It's Christmas" he told me.
I had an inkling of what to expect. Our station is in the middle of transitioning to the Sony XD/HD cams...but I couldn't help my feelings of deja vu.
When I first started shooting news, it was on a wind up little Scoopic then my first "excitement" at getting assigned one of only two CP-16s at the little Texas CBS affiliate where I started this crazy career so long ago. After a short year of euphoria and getting to know the "film" world of change bags and keeping the gate clean, I was told change was coming again. Video tape! And I was assigned three twenty minute cassettes by my thrifty chief engineer which were supposed to last me "forever" as long as I didn't lose them in his mind.
Cumbersome...you've all heard the stories of hauling those boat-anchors of a record deck on one shoulder while balancing a less than comfortable table sized camera on the other. I won't bore you with more of those stories other than to say this and many more "transitions" to come were the beginning of a basic life lesson for me as a television news photographer.
Change is constant.
See, most of us think what counts is pretty pictures. Why would anyone choose a camera system to replace an old one which didn't produce a better picture? Why change something so it could deliver a lesser end product?
The answer is the quality of the picture is not what counts in the end when it comes to shooting daily news. It's the delivery system. Quality will always take a second chair to something that will get the images on air, to the viewer, faster rather than "beauty" in a frame.
Film to tape. Then the various tape changes from 3/4 to Betacam to DVC Pro. I shook my head as they took away my long loved Ikigami HL79D, which shot the best image I've ever seen. Replacing it with a Betacam. I was happy to lose the heavy record deck but the purist in me still couldn't help but lament the loss in picture quality. Sure, it got better...a little...as the technology tried to eek up the visually image. Then I went from Beta to DVC Pro. Pathetic. Another step back when it came to a quality image. All you have to do is stick a Betacam image up next to a DVC Pro image and the difference is obvious. But, as usual, that's not the priority. Why spend so much money buying Betacam when you can get so many more cameras with the DVC Pro format? Bean-counting logic always wins out...sadly...or is it really that sad? Maybe not. Maybe it's just one more step in a never ending series of steps. DUH! Change is constant!
Yesterday I was handed my brand new, out-of-the-box Sony PDW-F350 HD/XD camera.
Once again I've got that little kid feeling in me. Once again I'm reading a manual on my days off. Cramming as much new information in my head so that come Monday, I won't embarrass myself when I actually have to shoot this camera and come back with usable product which will enhance, not insult, my personal reputation as a news photog.
Is this the best HD cam in the world? Probably not but it's one of the reasons I made the big change in my life to leave the freelance world and rejoin the crazy world of staff news photogs. To keep up with the changes. To stay current and continue to do the job I've loved for so long. Plus...to experience that feeling one gets with a new toy that's been put in your hands and gives you the chance to be creative with the latest technology. In short, to be a news photog just one more day with, hopefully, many more days to follow.
Hey?!?!? Where did that video tape go!?!?! Oh right...it's "gone".
Now, back to my reading...while I still feel "young".
I had an inkling of what to expect. Our station is in the middle of transitioning to the Sony XD/HD cams...but I couldn't help my feelings of deja vu.
When I first started shooting news, it was on a wind up little Scoopic then my first "excitement" at getting assigned one of only two CP-16s at the little Texas CBS affiliate where I started this crazy career so long ago. After a short year of euphoria and getting to know the "film" world of change bags and keeping the gate clean, I was told change was coming again. Video tape! And I was assigned three twenty minute cassettes by my thrifty chief engineer which were supposed to last me "forever" as long as I didn't lose them in his mind.
Cumbersome...you've all heard the stories of hauling those boat-anchors of a record deck on one shoulder while balancing a less than comfortable table sized camera on the other. I won't bore you with more of those stories other than to say this and many more "transitions" to come were the beginning of a basic life lesson for me as a television news photographer.
Change is constant.
See, most of us think what counts is pretty pictures. Why would anyone choose a camera system to replace an old one which didn't produce a better picture? Why change something so it could deliver a lesser end product?
The answer is the quality of the picture is not what counts in the end when it comes to shooting daily news. It's the delivery system. Quality will always take a second chair to something that will get the images on air, to the viewer, faster rather than "beauty" in a frame.
Film to tape. Then the various tape changes from 3/4 to Betacam to DVC Pro. I shook my head as they took away my long loved Ikigami HL79D, which shot the best image I've ever seen. Replacing it with a Betacam. I was happy to lose the heavy record deck but the purist in me still couldn't help but lament the loss in picture quality. Sure, it got better...a little...as the technology tried to eek up the visually image. Then I went from Beta to DVC Pro. Pathetic. Another step back when it came to a quality image. All you have to do is stick a Betacam image up next to a DVC Pro image and the difference is obvious. But, as usual, that's not the priority. Why spend so much money buying Betacam when you can get so many more cameras with the DVC Pro format? Bean-counting logic always wins out...sadly...or is it really that sad? Maybe not. Maybe it's just one more step in a never ending series of steps. DUH! Change is constant!
Yesterday I was handed my brand new, out-of-the-box Sony PDW-F350 HD/XD camera.
Once again I've got that little kid feeling in me. Once again I'm reading a manual on my days off. Cramming as much new information in my head so that come Monday, I won't embarrass myself when I actually have to shoot this camera and come back with usable product which will enhance, not insult, my personal reputation as a news photog.
Is this the best HD cam in the world? Probably not but it's one of the reasons I made the big change in my life to leave the freelance world and rejoin the crazy world of staff news photogs. To keep up with the changes. To stay current and continue to do the job I've loved for so long. Plus...to experience that feeling one gets with a new toy that's been put in your hands and gives you the chance to be creative with the latest technology. In short, to be a news photog just one more day with, hopefully, many more days to follow.
Hey?!?!? Where did that video tape go!?!?! Oh right...it's "gone".
Now, back to my reading...while I still feel "young".
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