Why Blog About Hybrid Photography?

I chose to start blogging and posting videos and still images as I work on the HDSLR format (digital single lens reflex that shoots HD content). I'm currently on assignment in Sarasota, Fla., covering the Baltimore Orioles spring training 2011. Packed with the equipment are a Nikon D3S (720p HD) and a Sony HDR-SR7 camcorder (hard drive based consumer HD camcorder) as well as a Nikon D3. Along with these posts, I'll try adding reviews about gear I've had, as long as it pertains with the type of work that I'm doing, which is shooting still images for a newspaper and website, and also shooting and editing short clips for my newspaper's website.

My first sports action short has been edited and posted today. Here it is, in the Baltimore Sun. It was shot with the Nikon D3S hybrid camera at 720p (and downrezzed to 480p). The lenses were the Nikon 400mm 2.8 AFS vers. I non-VR lens (some with a 1.7x converter) and also the Nikon 28-300mm VR f/ 3.5-5.6 lenses. Vibration reduction was used. The camera was either used on monopod (400mm) or handheld (28-300mm). When the short is moved at the end of the month, I'll upload the clip to keep here.

But why write about work? There's a boatload of gear and accessories available right now as manufacturers and individuals try to develop the golden bullet in needed gear for a journalism field that's growing and evolving faster than the equipment that gets released. And let's face it: most of the gear is way overpriced, duplicated, or simply not that great. You can purchase a system that you feel is terrific, yet is far too expensive and tech-driven, than someone else's rig that's a fraction of the cost. I'm simply trying to weed through all of this myself. Hopefully, we can all help each other by sharing our experiences with shoots and equipment to find a central place where we can access information to make more informed choices that will help us in the field.

Feedback: Sony HDR-SR7 Camcorder

It's been a couple years since we were issued the Sony HDR-SR7 hard drive-based HD camcorder. It served its purpose. But it was one of those cameras that could have been better. It's definitely not for the hybrid shooter, even though the SR7 captures both still and video. I say, "video," because it looks like video. It captures interlaced frames only; you have to use MPEG Streamclip to be able to output the 480p .mpg files as .mov files and produce in Final Cut Pro. And MPEG Streamclip is definitely a free app worth keeping. It's a valuable application that can analyze your video files and export in a host of different formats, at all kinds of bit rates. Get this (for Macintosh and Windows) before you edit another shoot.

The SR7 has a built-in microphone. Don't bother using it too often. Get two different microphones (if you want to buy the camera): The ECM-HGZ1 Shotgun Microphone and the ECMHW1 Bluetooth Wireless Microphones were in our arsenal. Both accessories are proprietary. The shotgun is better than the stock, but it still doesn't isolate with quality sound. The bluetooth is nice, but Sony now has released the ECM-AW3 Wireless Microphone Set which can be used with any camera that has a mini jack input so get this, instead of the ECMHW1. Either set will extend you to up to 150 feet from your subject. 

We love the ease and simplicity of the Bluetooth technology. The sound seems much warmer than the shotgun mic. Be aware though, that each AW3 unit holds a single AAA battery, so size can be an issue since the microphone is larger than that. The lavaliere mics are easily hidden, if you need that, but are you ready to plunk down $500 for a simple wireless set? And the other drawback is that the AAA power lasts perhaps three hours. Either invest in rechargeables, or prepare to spend lots of money on replacement batteries. 

The still images taken with the SR7 are only barely adequate. They look jaggedy and the color doesn't look deep. You can only capture three images as you're recording video, before the buffer fills. The camera shoots in several different resolutions, WVGA (854x480) and 1080i (1440x1080 interlaced). Because it shoots high definition in AVCHD, Final Cut Pro has to be used to extract the streams as clips. So there was a compatibility issue. And it also hurts that you need the camera's base plate to extract from the hard drive. Why, oh why, didn't Sony simply put a USB port on the camera? 

And the widest the camera can get simply isn't wide enough for me, so I got a wide angle converter (not the Sony proprietary one, its sharpness lacked. I also wound up getting a 3X teleconverter to screw onto the front of the SR7 because I couldn't reach as far as I would have liked in telephoto.

The image quality on Auto setting doesn't cut it with me. Auto white balance seemed too blue, the images seemed too light, and the tonal range between white and dark seemed too limited. The image quality truly suffers in dark settings too. But it sure keeps you on a low profile if you're working for a media organization. 

Feedback: The Panasonic AG-HVX200

The HVX200 was a groundbreaking camera, seizing the moment to shoot HD in multiple formats on removable media, using variable frame rates. This was our first camcorder since an old tape-driven Canon made in the 1990's, and I was issued one to learn, partly because it finally  offered removable media (expensive P2 cards) for tapeless shooting. But there were lurking problems with the HVX which made it a big problem with news-gathering while also shooting with a DSLR. 

It's size was large enough to make carrying it difficult. Hand-held shooting couldn't be maintained because of the weight factor on the arm and wrist. It had no interchangeable lenses, so there was little we could do to shoot ultra-wide or extremely long. Adding accessories like microphones helped make it even more cumbersome. The depth of field factor was too great for me. Footage still tended to resemble video. It was very expensive. And complicated to operate (for a still photographer). With the downturn in the economy, a $6,000 camera was the last thing that we wanted to continue purchasing. 

Which brought us to outfitting everyone with the  Sony HDR-SR7 camcorder, a consumer model not really designed for daily news-gathering. And the cameras slowly but surely failed. My camcorder's built-in hard drive seized up when I  mounted it onto the cable of a demolition crane. But I didn't dare put the HVX anywhere near that crane. Although I created some nice shots using the slow motion and time lapse, I knew that the days had ended with our attempt at using two completely different camera formats. The HVX might have been a fine camera for second unit shooting for news stations but not for newspapers.