Sony Crap

I am toying with an investment in a new Sony Pro Camcorder.    Sony has some great-looking video products but I am seriously concerned about build quality.

Why?

Because over the last month, I have had two “professional grade”  Sony items break way too easily.  The first was a pair of headphones.  These “pro” headphones had a slider mechanism to allow a user to adjust where the cups sat on the ears.  With too little effort, one of these sliders suddenly stopped locking in place.  Looking more closely at the flimsy plastic casing around the slider mechanism, it was clear to see excessive flexibility in the materials.  I broke the casing open along the seam lines and found a tiny (TINY) piece of bent metal that was, apparently, meant to act as a cam, holding the slider in place when the required adjustment had been made.  This piece of metal, made of material softer than that of a paperclip, was loose and bent beyond its original design.  I tried fixing it, and putting it all back together, but the plastic case was not going to stay back together for any length of time.  Nearly $100 in the trash.

Beware of vulnerable and difficult to repair antennae.

And yesterday, I found that my URX-P1 wireless mic receiver had bent one of its antennae.  Gently trying to bend it back in to position, the post broke.  This is when I found out that the antennae on these units are not easily replaceable.  On previous wireless mic packs I have owned, the antenna could easily be clipped on and off with a twist lock device.  This Sony unit would need a replacement $60 antenna plus soldering.  Pathetic.

So be warned.  Sony is a solid brand name but, as with Toyota’s car recalls, there is no guarantee that brand recognition = sustainable quality.

Getting in to Sound

It is a whole new experience, taking sound seriously.  For years I have been mostly concerned about visual elements in a photograph.  The corporate video that I shot did not offer much in the way of creative latitude so it is only now, when I am transitioning from still photojournalism to documentary video, that the impact of sound is being realized.

I was in New Orleans, a few weeks ago, and left my hotel in the heart of the French Quarter, taking with me only a handheld field recorder, the Marantz PMD620.  I didn’t even take a camera with me.  This was going to be a sound-gathering experience!

As the evening progressed, the decibel level rose.  One bar after another announced live bands, or opportunities for corporate revellers to play “American Idol” with the help of a karaoke machine.   As I walked up and down Bourbon Street, headphones on, a small Audio Technica condenser mic plugged in to the PMD620, I started to mentally edit the multimedia production I would put together, based on the sounds being recorded.  The murmur of an excited, inebriated audience followed by the opening bars of an old favorite rock song – a great fit for opening titles and intro.  An African-American man in a long-tailed jacket, flat cap, vest, cord pants, and crocodile skin boots, encouraging groups of giggling guys to come and sample his selection of scantily clad women, many of which were parading around on balconies.  Two men standing with a cross in the middle of Bourbon Street, praying for everybody’s salvation and trying to hand out leaflets about The Lord.  As I listened, I began to piece together the flow of the photographs I had taken beforehand, layering sound and commentary to a 3 – 4 minute review of a still-recovering New Orleans.

The Marantz PMD620, which I purchased from B&H Photovideo, is a very easy to use piece of professional equipment.  With an easy to read display, user-configurable presets, recording to SD cards, AA battery power, built-in stereo mics, and a very easy to navigate menu, I learned to use the PMD620 very quickly and was soon experimenting with different recording settings, recording via a wireless lav mic, and appreciating its fast start-up time.

The price of this unit has already come down from when I bought it, possibly a sign that Marantz is about to release a new model.  Marantz is a well known brand in the recording industry and their products can be trusted for their build quality and performance.  As of today, you can buy one for $322 from B&H.

It used to be that I never went anywhere without a set of camera gear.  Now I never go anywhere without my small video camera and Marantz PMD620.

Advice on Audio from the New York Times

A short video featuring Amy O’Leary, multmedia producer for the New York Times with many very valuable tips for capturing good audio.

Advice on Audio from Amy O’Leary at the New York Times

Transition to Video Journalism – Update April 2009

It has certainly been an interesting few weeks in my transition from still journalism, to video journalism and documentary film-making.  There is a lot to learn and many decisions to be made.  There are so many different resources for information and advice, with quite a lot of contradictory content to deal with.  But as I have persisted in exploring the best on-line guidance for my situation, there is one source that continues to rise above the rest.

Ken Kobre heads the photojournalism program at San Francisco State University, in California.  His book, Photojournalism: The Professional’s Approach, is in its sixth edition.  This book is widely regarded as a must-have for budding photojournalists and reference for more seasoned photographers.

Ken has become a leading force in guiding photographers in to the world of video journalism and his collaboration with Dirck Halstead, www.digitaljournalist.org, has resulted in several valuable posts on this subject.  One that should be particularly noted is “10 Tips for Dramatically Improving Your Video Journalism Stories”,

Another very useful source is our good friends at B&H Photo Video in New York.  The newsletter “What’s In The Bag” gives a very good overview about the essential equipment for a documentary videographer.

One of the most important things I have learned and experienced is the recording of good sound.  It is similar to the joy of getting a really excellent photograph – to hear perfect sound coming through your headphones, especially when using wireless equipment to capture audio from a distance, is a wonderful thing.  Years of working on the capturing of good images is now being extended to the capture of good audio.  So the B&H video “Anatomy of an Audio Bag” is a great place to start picking up the basics.

I have been upgrading my hard drive storage to faster drives, and more of them, in a rack-mounted configuration.  I like G-Tech drives but the configurations from OWC seem to be very capable of the hard drive performance I need to edit video.

More to come on equipment selection, use, and the status of my projects.

Anatomy of an Audio Bag from B&H Photo Video

This is one of a series of very informative instructional videos from the pros at B&H Photo Video: