If you are in the video field for a while, and you used to
like to surf in the natures place and capture natural images which catch your Heart out, more than you could ever ring or blow. And if you are newbie to this profession, the foam of fancy features can leave you treading water, wondering which way is land.
1. Select a format from, "Betacam SP" and "Sony DVCAM",
"Betacam SX","Panasonic DVCPRO" and JVC "Digital-S" record the best pictures, but the machines cost $6,000 approximatly.DVCPRO andDVCAM are swiftly overtakingBetacam SP and will soon be the most popular formats for professionals.
The next step down is Digital8, DV, Hi8 and SVHS, with professional models costing 3 kilobucks. The Digital8 and DV formats are digital, yielding 500 lines of resolution (very sharp picture) and tapes copied digitally are virtual clones of each other, showing no degradation. SVHS and Hi8 are good for about three generations of editing or copying, but nothing can stop you from shooting in these formats and editing in some better format.
And what about 3/4U? It's a dinasaur. Wear out what you have
(SP models are as good as SVHS and Hi8 professional models), then move to another format.
2. Three chips are better than one. Like in a Mexican
restaurant, the more chips you get, the better. One-chip cameras sense all the colors on one CCD; fuzzy, but small, light, cheap, and very sensitive in dim light.
Two-chip cameras split the light (weakening it, incidentally),
sending some to the color-sensing chip and some to the
luminance-sensing chip. As the colors end up purer (though are still
fuzzy), and the luminance (the sharpness-carrying black-and-white aspects of the picture) is quite sharp.
Best, (and most expensive) are the three-chip cameras. The light splits into three primary colors (yes, reducing its brightness), and one chip is totally dedicated to each color. Here, the colors stay sharp and pure; luminance resolution is excellent.
3. Check for low light sensitivity. Lighting in the field is
hard to control. The more sensitive the camera, the better.
Microlens technology (very small insect-eye lenses which is connected to CCD chip) which improves sensitivity by concentrating light on the
right parts of the CCD's, wasting little on the connecting wires
in between. Low noise circuits allow the gain (image brightness
and contrast) to be boosted maybe 3-18 dB while adding little
grain to the picture.
Light sensitivity is measured in lux. The lower the number of
lux in the spec, the more sensitive the camera. For example, a 3 lux camera can shoot in less light than a 10 lux camera.
Don't trust the specs on consumer and prosumer cameras unless they measure them by the "ANSI" method. Some manufacturers don't adhere to established standards of measurement. Also check that the specs are given with the same amount of gain boost; one camera can shoot in 2 lux with +18 dB gain boost letting such a thing that makes a fairly grainy picture, while another with only a +6 dB gain boost (a smoother picture).
4. The higher resolution is the better. Higher resolution
means sharper pictures. TheProsumer cameras start from about 400 lines with horizontal resolution, professional models reach 700.
Even if your recorder can reproduce only 400 lines of resolution
(such as SVHS and Hi8), the extra resolution from the camera is not wasted. A 700 line camera will make a better SVHS picture than a 450 line camera.
5. The Smear is vertical stripe you see running
through the bright lights (i.e. headlights mostly at night) in your picture.
The better chips (Hyper HAD, consider here) contadicts this
abberation.
6. Shoot for the highest S/N (signal-to-noise ) ratio.
You want a pure, smooth picture with lots of signal and little
noise (grain). The S/N ratio is hard to measure yourself
. Here is
where you have to trust the specs.
In any case, the more light (is this starting to sound familiar?)
you throw into your shot, the smoother the image will look.
7. Look for automatic controls with overrides. The automatic
controls gets shooting quickly (while you dive into the ditch
as a tornado whirls by) and save you while from twiddling knobs that work as hanging from a parachute or skulking as around in the dark. They also allow you to concentrate on your shooting, unfettered with the mechanics of focusing, white balance, etc. They also allow amateurs to get good shots.
On the other hand, overrides allow you to take manual control of the focus , iris (to brighten up in the dark, to heck with the blue sky background), white balance (yellowish tint), etc.
8. Consider Digital Signal Processing, such cameras are not as much better as, but DSP allows you to:
a) Set up the camera controls (black and white balance, etc.)
easily.
b) Make all your camera adjustments once for each shooting
situation, then store them to be retrieved at the touch of a
button.
c) Forget about "drifting" circuits and noisy or some of the troublesome
potentiometers and some simple switches. Digital means there are almost no moving parts to age or corrode.
d) Digitally it suppress the undesirable artifacts which are as such as dark color
noise.
9. Look for multiple-use flexibility. Can this camera be
configured for the studio and EFP? What does it cost more for the
extra parts to do so?
Dual-use cameras can serve two masters.
Is the camera dockable so that it can be used in the studio or
teamed with a VCR in the field? What does the docking adapter
cost (usually a pound of flesh).
Is the camera upgradable to HDTV? Some cameras can work in
today's 3:4 aspect ratio (the shape of a common TV screen) and make NTSC video signals, and then with the flip of a switch, change to 1080i or 720p DTV modes with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
10. Now, for the bells and whistles:
a) Time code generator built-in (to keep track of your shots
when editing)
b) Variable shutter speed (sets and freezes motion, or allows you to have computer screens in shot without seeing bars which run across
their CRTs)
c) Wide variety of lens options.
d) Good camera balance. How does it feel on your shoulder?
e) Quick start recording (to catch that tornado).
f) Low power consumption (to squeeze a full 40 minutes out of
your aging one-hour battery)
g) Four audio channels, rather than the usual two.
h) EIS - Electronic Image Stabilization on prosumer cameras
reduces the shakes when working sans tripod.
i) Colorviewfinder: View finders tell you mostly similar points about your focusing; the color view finders generally are relatively
fuzzy, and not truthful. Secondly, color viewfinders are very rarely
adjusted correctly and LCD types give low color accuracy, again, not very true.
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