Candid about cameras

Ted Taylor assesses a new generation of digital cameras, which are matching traditional kit on quality and beating it on portability and - above all - on price

We've all known for some time that digital news acquisition equipment was coming which would challenge the dominance of Betacam SP. Many had assumed that the proven ruggedness of the half inch tape transport and head assemblies would ensure that the new generation of digital field equipment would also be based upon half inch tape technology.

And so it is - in the guise of Betacam SX from Sony and Digital S from JVC. Both these products, like their analogue forebears, perform well and deliver many of the expected advantages of digital equipment: very stable reliable electronics, little or no routine alignment, consistent high quality performance and lots of whizzy features at a cost roughly half that of Betacam SP. And let's not forget perhaps the greatest benefit of all - the ability to stop worrying about tape generations during the editing and copying process.

However, the half inch tape-based camcorders have done little to address the weight and bulk issues which are of perennial concern to cameramen and women the world over. This is never more true than in the hazardous situations illustrated so graphically and often tragically in the work submitted to the Rory Peck Turst for consideration for its awards. In these situations, maximum mobility coupled with minimum visibility can save the situation from getting out of hand.

Perhaps then it is no surprise that the new digital camcorders which are currently creating so much interest are those based around the super compact 6mm cassettes.

These 6mm products are available from a number of manufacturers in a number of variants. On the professional front there is the Panasonic DVC Pro range with compatible camcorders also manufactured by Ikegami, Philips and Hitachi. From Sony there is the DV Cam range of 6mm professional products, but beware! There are some format differences which prevent DV Cam machines from replaying DVC Pro cassettes but, interestingly, not vice versa.

Various models of DVC Pro camcorders are available with both half inch and two thirds inch CCDS and wide screen 16 by 9 options. All the two thirds inch models easily meet the Independent Television Commission's 'code of practice' performance criteria, with the half inch models very close. Maximum recording time is usually 63 minutes although models exist which take the larger two-hour cassette.

The 6mm camcorders are noticeably smaller and lighter than their half inch tape counterparts and are very competitively priced, but the format has a further key advantage - both DVC Pro and DV Cam VTRs can replay the mini DV cassettes from the 'consumer' camcorders such as Sony's VX1000 and Panasonic's EZ1.

These so called consumer camcorders offer incredible value for money in terms of near broadcast performance at a cost of less than £3,000. Both the VX1000 and the EZ1 are physically more like a domestic Hi 8 and weigh in at around 1 kilogram. They also record 60 minutes of material on a tiny cassette measuring only 66 mm by 48 mm by 12.2 mm and weighing only a few grams - just think where you could hide those when passing through border check points!

These mini DV camcorders are not a universal replacement for the workhorse ENG camcorder but can clearly offer advantages in physically restricted spaces or when running to keep up with the action or when trying to hide the equipment and look inconspicuous. They make an ideal second camera or maybe for occasional use by journalists, but perhaps I should not dwell on that use here!

The subjective quality these mini DV camcorders produce, while falling short of traditional broadcast measured standards, is nevertheless extremely good, providing they are used sensibly and with regard to their obvious limitations.

The main limitation is the integral lens which has clearly been designed to a price. But in good light they produce results which mainstream news organisations, such as ITN, are happy to transmit - in fact there are times when we are hard pressed to spot the mini DV pictures among all the rest.

It is generally agreed that the Sony VX1000 consistently outperforms the rest of the currently available consumer products. The VX1000 also does 16 x 9 at the flick of a switch, has a really excellent optical image stabiliser and a remarkable minimum focus distance which is ideal when shooting in very confined spaces.

It is this ability to run a mixed economy of professional and consumer 6mm products, with all the advantages of only requiring one type of VTR replay and editing equipment, which has tipped the balance with a number of the world's leading news gatherers and broadcasters. Currently NBC, CBS, ITN , BBC and Reuters have all committed to 6mm formats as well as many local news stations. Others are bound to follow suit.

But there is yet more good news. If you need to undertake clandestine shooting or masquerade as a typical tourist, then there are a couple of really tiny mini DV camcorders now on the market - the GRDV1 from JVC and the PD1 from Sony.

These are even smaller than current domestic 'palm cameras', weighing in at around 500 grams, yet still retain the ability to record a 63 minute cassette. Performance is remarkable for their size but inevitably the physical constraints have led to lens compromises which begin to limit the quality noticeably, as does the introduction of electronic zooms of up to 100 to 1!

Nevertheless these 'micro' cameras are a huge leap forward in quality compared with similar analogue systems and will enable broadcast-able pictures to be shot in situations that would have been otherwise impossible.

Priced around £1,500, I suspect they will soon be regarded as every cameraman's essential accessory.

But this revolution is not only about small camcorders, it is also being driven by new innovative lightweight and compact editing equipment.

A product generating a lot of interest is the Panasonic LT75 laptop editor which is an entire edit suite in a briefcase. It has two tape transports, an edit controller and two 6 inch flat screen monitors which can be powered from camera batteries if required. The weight is around 12 kg - just think how much air freight is saved compared with a traditional Betacam SP edit pack - and the purchase price is under £25,000.

At that price it is within reach of many freelance cameramen and women enabling them to offer clients an end-to-end service by producing edited stories instead of only piles of rushes. But the advantages are more than just financial. Because it is not classed as freight it can be hand carried on flights (assuming usual airline co-operation) and therefore one can be first off the plane editing the first rushes while the guy with the traditional edit pack is still at the airport waiting for the freight to be off-loaded and looking for a van.

Also, with a device like the LT75, you have the convenience of not being stuck at some fixed location but can easily keep the editing close to the shooting action. Carrying the LT75 to the feed point is no problem but other lightweight compact field VTR's are available at sensible costs which probably mean machines can be left at strategic locations.

To be absolutely fair Sony have exceeded expectations and produced a very similar briefcase editor for their half inch Betacam SX format (the A220) which is broadly the same weight, size and price as Panasonic's LT75 - a remarkable achievement considering the disparity in physical cassette sizes.

Another innovative piece of post production equipment from the Panasonic 6mm stable is the Quickcutter non-linear edit system. Essentially, this is a Pentium desktop PC running well designed non-linear editing software but with a four times normal speed DVC Pro transport built into the PC.

The system is therefore 'complete' and requires no additional equipment or cabling to enable it to accept DVC Pro cassette rushes and finally dump results back onto a cassette for transmission.

Not only is downloading and uploading done at four times normal speed but the system can multi-task, allowing editing to be carried out while downloading from tape.

And finally, as we tend to say at ITN, a word about technical quality issues. I have heard doubts expressed in some quarters that the picture quality of the 6mm professional products - let alone the consumer products - has been significantly compromised by limitations in the digital compression process. No, the 6mm systems are not 4:2:2 sampled and while some compromises have clearly been made these do not appear to adversely affect the subjective performance and are more than offset by the other benefits of having a digital system.

I suggest you do not get too hung up about bit rates, sampling rates and coding processes but look at the pictures instead. For news use there is absolutely no quality reason not to choose 6mm professional products.

Perhaps, therefore, it is not too surprising, when all these factors are considered, that the 6mm digital revolution looks set to challenge the previous dominance of half inch cassette systems.

Finally, speaking of freelancers - operating in taxing situations worldwide, thinking on their feet, needing to be quick and confident - equipment suppliers are their natural bedfellows and therefore should support the Rory Peck Award and Trust in every possible way.

Ted Taylor is director of technology for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 news provider, ITN