BBC World News from New Broadcasting House

This is fascinating. So could it perhaps be improved by changing the lens / zoom on the camera? I take it they're just taking one of the normal cams off it's ped rather than having a special camera just for that purpose. How easy is it to change the lenses on big studio cams or does it require faffing about with racking and all that jazz?

Also does anyone else not care for Ros Atkins as a presenter? He always seems like he's making up his scripts on the spot and forgets what he's saying. The incredibly clumsy + longwinded intro into that Hillary interview is a rather nice example of this. Is he better on radio?

Also is his tablet attached to his hand with a velcro glove? It's a bit Dimblebot-esq the way he holds it.

I know Martin Stanford prefers to use his that way on Sky, he's then free to use both hand to point at the wall.

Precisely. You need to forget about the zoom demand on the camera and stay wide and then zoom with your feet.

C

They are Fuji.

C

Actually I doubt they would remove a camera from a ped for that purpose, the process of removing the autocue alone is lengthy, not to mention the hothead gear some of the cameras appear to have. No doubt they do actually have 1 camera as handheld, either a studio camera or running the output from a standard ENG camera to the gallery though the studio (sounds complicated, but still easier than take a camera off a ped)

In terms of lens weight, the shots shown in the clip on the other page are very poor. As Noggin said they're working at the long end (zoomed) of the lens which will magnify operator movements. But the easy remedy is simply stand closer and be less tight on the lens, but again from the clip, they're trying to keep crew/kit out of the wide shot after the titles.

As to changing lens, it's about a 5 second move, all modern ENG style cameras have a "Sony B4 Bayonet" mount (Google it) which is very easy to change and swap lenses. Assuming they've been pre backfocused, but even that is a quick enough thing to do with a decent chart.

In short terms it looks like a lousy camera operator whose presumably more used to ped cameras than ENG

(Sorry if you're reading this) But yay for the geekout.

Edit: More geekery, Pete, racking is all to do with the picture the camera outputs, colour, luminance etc so match shots. The lens (other than focus and backfocus) isn't part of that.

Do you know which ones? Out of curiosity?

indeed, moar of this please, less rotas.

I'm posting this purely to make Noggin laugh, I know I did.

http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/60D-b4-MTF.jpg

Wow Bail! That's amazing!

Wow. I looked at this thread early this morning and felt it was on the brink - what with suggestions of YouTube staff training.

Surprisingly, it’s turned out to be really fascinating, and I didn’t even consider that TopGear use (and Big Breakfast used to use) a handheld style. I guess when it’s done well it doesn’t actually interfere with your viewing of the show. I’ve nothing technical to add, but thanks to those sharing their knowledge.


That must be incredibly satisfying for an operator when they are able to do this.

Yep - suspect the remotes are the biggest issue. Autocue doesn't have to be a problem if its rigged to allow for quick break-down, and you can also run with both a mono(cular) viewfinder and a ped mounted viewfinder if you need to.

Usually, though, you'd have a hot-spare camera available (as a standby in case one of your main cameras goes down) and it would probably make sense to rig this as the handheld rather than breaking down a ped.

Running an ENG camera in a studio is always pretty nasty - you end up with no external (so can't see what's going on), and usually aren't rackable (not always - but usually)


Yep - keeping out of that wideshot is causing them problems...


Think 5" is a bit optimistic - but 30" definitely feasible.



Yep - think lousy is a bit harsh. They're obviously not experienced handheld operators - but they may well be good in other circumstances (like remotely controlling 5 cameras and lighting and racking all at once...)



Racking does usually control the lens aperture as well. (And Focus on the new SuperHiVision 8k system, as viewfinders on the cameras aren't sharp enough!)

Good handheld shouldn't look obviously handheld - but it is a really skilled job and not something you can learn without doing a lot of it...

The problem is, if you don't do it a lot, you don't learn how to do it. And if you don't learn with people who know how to do it, you don't learn to do it properly.