When teenagers are uploading clips to YouTube that look nearly as polished as those that appear on your local television news Web site, you have to ask just how sophisticated your equipment needs to be to produce quality video for your own site.
There's no denying that high-definition equipment has raised the bar for image quality, but amateur video sites have largely conditioned the online video audience to forgive a less-than-perfect picture so long as the content is compelling.
Several newspaper companies have made the leap to high-definition equipment, even if those newspapers are not broadcasting in high-def online.
HD PROS
- Quality: The overall video taken from this camera is generally very crisp.
- Recordings on higher-end cameras are of such high quality, individual frames can be used as still photographs online or in print.
CONS
- Expense: Low-end HD cameras start around $600.
- Memory Hogs: Users of high-end units will have to invest in (often pricey) additional memory cards, or will need to "dump" captured video on external hard drives, potentially missing valuable scenes.
The entire newspaper online video world is not HD, however, and several newspapers are producing video with standard-definition cameras and even some point-and-shoot digital cameras.
Learn much more about the pros and cons of both high-definition and standard-definition cameras in "Spending Money: A Guide to Purchasing Cameras
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PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT
Lighting: While Filmmakers at the artistic end of the spectrum spend a fair amount of time playing with lighting, but news reporters and photographers news gatherers have to be more pragmatic about it the subject. More often than not, tight deadlines and unexpected video opportunities mean that most newspaper sites are going to be relying on natural light. However, nearly two-thirds of newspapers that responded to the NAA online video survey reported owning lights.
If at all possible, Pertel says, newspapers should have two tiers of camera operators: Several who use tripods and know how to light an interview with portable light kits, and others news gatherers who rely on available light alone.
Microphones: Recording clear sound is extremely important when it comes to video - audiences might forgive poor video quality so long as they can make out what someone is saying. Yet, there is no need to surpass that simple benchmark, either. While you can spend thousands on microphones alone, all you really need are a shotgun mic, and wireless mic and a boom mic pole.
Learn more about this and other peripheral equipment, plus advice on what to remember when shopping for equipment in "Spending Money: A Guide to Purchasing Peripherals."
Also, please leave your equipment advice here in the wiki.
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It's kind of disappointing that while you did talk about tape vs memory, you completely ignored hard drive based cameras. We're buying HD hard drive cameras that can recording up to 40, 60 or 80 GB of video without buying $1,200 memory cards that can only record 30 minutes at a time (according to your article).
Hi,
You're right -- we should have addressed that. We had our writer go back and look into this. Here's what he returned:
Hard-Drive Cameras
There is a third option: cameras that record video on a tiny internal hard drive (ranging from about 60 GB to 120 GB in capacity) similar to the one in your personal computer. These models can quickly transfer video to a computer via FireWire connections. Videographers will not have to bring along spare video tapes or memory cards, though some models can accept external memory cards when hard-drive space runs out. Some popular high-definition models, such as the Sony HDR-SR12 and the Panasonic HDC-HS9, cost $1,000 or more.
For those not using extra memory cards, this all-in-one design imposes limitations on any operation that shares its video equipment among several news gatherers. Since video is stored on an internal drive, the entire camera must be returned to the newsroom long enough to transfer the data, whereas MiniDV tapes and flash-memory cards can be ejected and ferried back to the office, leaving the videographer free to continue shooting at the scene. Downloading video to a DVD-burning laptop in the field is a good workaround if budgets allow, but the camera operator must still wait for all of the camera's video to be downloaded before room for more can be made. This can take several minutes and increases the chances of missing that all important shot.
While hard drives in general have made great strides in their reliability and overall longevity since their introduction many years ago, they still fail. If you encounter a bad MiniDV tape or memory card, you can quickly swap it out for a spare and avoid missing a key shot. If the hard drive in your video camera goes bad, back to the store it must go, and odds are that you will not recover the video footage quickly (if at all).