Subject: Re: Video Cameras for Birding
Date: Oct 30 11:34:13 1995
From: Don Baccus - donb at Rational.COM
Stuart:
>Any thoughts, opinions ???
Of course! :)
Video is in many ways easier to deal with than still work. Since
the CCD chip is much tinier than 35mm film, smaller optics are needed
for equivalent magnification. This means the equivalent of a hunkin'
big 600 lens works out to something like 150/200mm, as I recall. Video
is low resolution in comparison to film, so this also lowers the demands
on the lens designer. You'll note that video zooms frequently run in
the 1:10 range, i.e. where a 35mm zoom often is in (say) the range of
perhaps 35-105mm (1:3), a video zoom may run more like 15-150mm. This
is due to the fact that the lens needn't resolve as well as a 35mm
lens since there are relatively few scan lines on a TV, and also
linear distortion ("pincushion" and "barrel") isn't as big a problem
since screens are sometimes curved, sometimes not so lines can't be
straight on all of them anyway.
Of course, Canon does make a professional-qualify 35-350mm zoom for
their 35mm camera line, so this isn't an absolute. Note that they
also make 1:45 or 1:50 zooms for the TV networks which is why they
can do the zoom from showing the entire stadium down to an individual
football or whatever without switching between cameras!
If you want a fun toy, Stuart, you might at least check out the new
Canon camcorder which incorporates their new image stabilization
technology. I've played with binoculars containing this, and it
works. It means that you can dispense with a tripod and still get
sharp images. Since you want to look for them taking food items
from the sand, it might be difficult to get sufficient resolution
hand-holding a normal camcorder. I have no idea how expensive this
new toy is, but I know the technology works.
Anyway, bottom line is that a "long enough" lens is much more
affordable than in 35mm. Also, Canon makes a camcorder that takes
EOS lenses but it's kinda expensive because it's really a professional
quality thing - met a guy in Florida shooting under contract for PBS
with one last year, for instance. But since you've expressed an
interest in perhaps buying an EOS telephoto, thought I'd mention
it...
- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>