Watch this….
Mark Antonitis, President and GM for KRON4 in San Francisco and VJ Pioneer writes to me to tell me about the new Panasonic HDV camera:
I just took around the new Panasonic AVCHD camera for a tour of the
> station. It is literally smaller than a reporter’s notebook. It’s
> about the size of a can of 12 ounce soda. Works on one standard
> consumer memory chip. I love it!
That’s the camera, pictured above.
That’s my watch in the shot.
Just below it, a traditional broadcast quality Sony camera.
And also my watch.
See anything interesting here?
You are looking at more than just a cool, small camera that shoots in HD and costs around $2500 and weighs 1.1 pounds.
You are looking at the end of cameramen.
What must blacksmiths have felt when they stepped away from their forges, busy making horseshoes as the first automobiles chugged their way down the street. Did they see the end of their careers in those sputtering horseless carriages? Did they argue about the superior quality of horses to cars? Did they say that a car can’t nuzzle you when its cold, or eat an apple out of your hand? Probably.
Did it matter?
Nope.
See the photos above?
The camera technology just keeps getting better and better.
When the cameras were like the one on the bottom, you had to pay someone to schlep the camera around on their shoulder all day.
When the cameras are like the one on the top, what possible rationale is there for keeping the camera carrier employed?
Old time sake?
Tradition?
Lethargy?
Don’t bet your career on it.
Cameramen today have two options before them. They can either learn to create the content that stations and the web so desperately need, or they can try selling real estate.
Some blacksmiths got smart and opened Midas shops and made a fortune.
Others kept banging the same old anvil until the bank took the anvil away.
The choice… is yours.
