Formats change, but some things remain the same… Christina Fox
"For factual programming we will need small cameras. Unfortunately, you get a good camera and you get a good recorder, but you never get them in the same box. It's pointless building a camera with a low bit rate that you can't grade." He showed a slide of a composite Frankencamera (a Sony EX front end and a Panasonic back), which implied that the main manufacturers are nearly there with their low-budget offerings, but they each have weaknesses. I was training some people on the Sony EX3 last week, which can record in 13 formats, and they asked which was the best. It is hard to explain that, in a way, there is no 'best', just more appropriate. You either use what the commissioning editor will accept, or what gives you the look and feel you like. In general, progressive is better than interlaced, 1080 is better than 720, higher frame rates are better than lower frame rates, and higher bit rates are preferable to lower ones, but there are exceptions and compromises to be made. But if the commissioning editor says its fine, you shouldn't get into trouble…. One thing that does seem to still frighten people is tapeless. A while back I was asked to train someone on the Sony DSR450, an older tape-based model, because the production company felt they couldn't trust a tapeless camera to record on to flash memory. Tapeless hasn't had much time to prove itself, but memory cards can certainly survive situations that would destroy any tape, so an attitude like that is almost like hearing about a writer who uses a typewriter because they don't trust those new fangled computers and their hard drives (and memory cards are a lot less likely to fail than disk drives…). Lots of people ask our advice on what camera to buy, but it is getting harder to give a simple answer, especially as cameras are developing so rapidly. Luckily, microphones, lights and tripods don't advance in great leaps and bounds. They are not format specific. I have a Sennheiser 416 gun mic that I bought 12 years ago (it was secondhand), and it works as well now as it did then, and it has been used with all sorts of cameras, from a Digibeta to a tiny Sony A1. Lights are also a good investment. The main innovation in recent years has been the introduction of LEDs and people like Gekko and Litepanels are making great use of that technology, which uses less power and very long-lasting lamps. If you are a self shooter you'll be worried about size, weight and robustness. Back in the early 80s so was cameraman Dedo Weigert; so he designed the renowned Dedolight. He was at BVE 2009 and we had a long chat with him. Getting him to talk about his own products is a veritable lighting masterclass, as he is so enthusiastic about helping people to get the best out of their kit. Although all his tips relate to his own lights, there is a lot of good advice in our video below that can be applied to any lighting set up. The classic Dedolight is one of the most useful lights in the business – we own two as part of our lighting kit. It is fairly small, can be used as a spot or flood, the lamps are cheap and last for ages, and the fixture is very tough (Dedo showed us one that had been run over by a German Police van and it was still working). It is also weatherproof – as anyone who has ever seen Jonathan Harrison dunk one in water (whilst switched on) during his seminars will testify. The Dedolight range has expanded considerably over the years, with a nice range of softlights and a neat new LED on-camera spot/flood light. Like my Sennheiser I'm sure they'll easily outlast any camera format I buy into. Christina Fox www.urbanfox.tv Dedo Weigert - A Lighting Masterclass |
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