Sunday, December 19, 2010

Videojournalism and David Dunkley Gyimah's camera

David in Egypt shooting on the JVC GY 100
My ode "Me and my camera" is buried somewhere in previous posts, but whilst your camera isn't everything, it can become something.

Often the wrong question is asked. What camera should I get?

I reply what do you want to do?  You make your cloth according to the party you're going to.

Of course the D50s have done a Dyson on the camera industy's hoovers.  You just can't be complacent.

But old timers, Uhum! and I straddle that grey zone will eulogise about the beasts and also the training that went into becominbg firstly an accomplishd camera wo/man and then director.

This Sky promo brings back some memories running around in the townships of South Africa. Yer gota know your filters from your white balance



No worries though, I converted to small cams in the mid 1990s. I have gone through a raft of the things - from the super VHS - yes I actually shot my BBC TV audition tape   on that and yes I got the job, to the Hi-8, Beta, digibeta, VX1000, the A1, and now JVC.

My first Mac book with FCP 1.0 and Sony VX1000

Over on Mac video the Canon XF 100 and XF300, with a little help from the 60D is cooking up a wee fuss.  I'll not be surprised if my good old friend Claudio Von Planta purchases one. Since owing the A1, he's shown an astute sense for choosing the right cameras for his gruelling jobs.


Claudio Von Planta pops by David's old pad to talk about the Sony A1

To broadcasters it's the fact a camcorder sized cam samples 422 and pushes video at 50mbit. For the techs it's all in the figures. If you're going online, the question remains, what do you want to do?

That said though, my hunch, the IPad is a stepping platform to personal cinema, so those codecs and high resolution will come in handy after all circa 2015, alongside the next mobile revolution of exclusive cloud-based media.
The monstrously superb digibeta, but at 50,000 UKP it was hard to justify when I turned to the web

So before I go DSR I'm sticking to my array of lenses for my JVC GY100 and its lens turret.

I like the feel, the balance, and centre of gravity is ergonomic plenty. You'll win no points for fast focus pulls - if you're not used to it, but apart from that avoid pointing the thing at nervous folk with side arms - you know what I mean.