Equipment Quality Categories
There is much talk about equipment and tape formats using the terms consumer quality, industrial quality, and broadcast quality. These terms are bandied about frequently on many websites and in magazines dealing with videography. There are no fast and hard rules for the use of the terms which means that the terms are sometimes quite confusing. Consumer level is generally understood to mean the performance and quality level associated with equipment available in most small photo and video equipment stores and that is likely to be bought by the general public or hobbyist. Prices for consumer level camcorders are generally below $2,000. Industrial (or prosumer as some people say) quality level implies higher cost and better quality. The name comes from the original use of this type of equipment for non-broadcast uses like corporate videos and wedding videography. Typical industrial level camcorders cost from $2,000 to over $10,000. Broadcast quality level implies a significant price increase, with camera/recorder combinations typically starting at well over $15,000. With the advent of high quality and low cost digital equipment some of these boundaries are getting blurred. Also, with cost becoming a great concern, there has been a trend toward the use of lower cost industrial level equipment at some local stations. Keep in mind that occasionally even footage taken with consumer level equipment makes it to the air!
Camcorders, Cameras, and VTRs
Originally when the first field video tape recordings were made, the units consisted of two pieces: a camera connected to a portable VTR (video tape recorder). This set up was generally heavy and cumbersome, but is still available even today and may even have some advantages over smaller units in special cases. Over time, units were developed that mated the camera side with the VTR side into a single piece or two piece camcorder (camera plus recorder = camcorder). In all consumer and many industrial units the matings were permanent and the resulting one piece units were comparatively small and lightweight. In professional units there has been a tendency to keep the camera and VTR as separate but integrated units that can be docked together. Dockable VTRs are mated to camera heads using a strong coupling. To the uninitiated, these units may appear to be a single unit. There are of course numerous advantages to the dockable VTR approach. For example as new tape formats come along you may be able to keep your old camera head.
CCDs, Single Chip, and Three Chips
Today all new cameras record the picture coming through the lens via one or more CCDs (charge-coupled devices). A CCD is a flat chip that occupies the same position as the film in a still photography camera. On most consumer level cameras there is one CCD. On better quality cameras there are three CCDs. Behind the lens in a three chip camera there is a prism system that separates the picture into three colour components. Each CCD thus receives the colour information from either the red, green, or blue channels, resulting in much better image quality. In general the larger the CCD the better but there has been a tendency to reduction in CCD size, so that now small 1/3 inch CCDs are common. It wasn't that long ago that cameras used tubes to record the picture. These were fragile, prone to smearing when a bright light was in the scene, and required frequent adjustments. The advent of CCDs was a boon to all videographers, but especially nature videographers dealing with harsh field conditions.
Interchangeability of Lenses
To still photographers used to lens interchangeability, the fixed nature of the lenses on all consumer camcorders and some industrial camcorders comes as a shock. Keep in mind that consumer camcorder lenses typically have a wide zoom range. The producers of these cameras undoubtedly feel that a zoom range of approximately 30 mm to 500 mm (in 35 mm still photography terms) plus macro capabilities is quite sufficient for most uses! Also the lenses are fully automatic, often with optical image stabilisation built in. This makes interchangeability more difficult. As nature videographers however, we consider lens interchangeability vital and we will emphasise this aspect when we talk about camcorders and cameras.
Most cameras or camcorders that have interchangeable lenses have three chips. This poses a bit of a problem as it increases the distance between the image plane and the lens mounting. In practice this means that your 35 mm lens that you were hoping to mount directly on your interchangeable lens camcorder won't be able to focus to infinity. It will work as though there were a macro tube between the lens and the camera. The same is not true if you try to mount a 35 mm lens on a 16 mm movie camera. The space between the lens mount and the 16 mm film plane is actually less than in most 35 mm cameras and there are many adaptors allowing you to put your 35 mm lenses on 16 mm cameras. Older 16 mm cameras typically have a so-called "C-mount". This is a simple screw mount and there are many C-mount adaptors for a variety of 35 mm makes.
Most three chip cameras or camcorders have one of two bayonet mounts: 1/2 inch or 2/3 inch (Note: the Sony mounts are slightly different from the mounts of other manufacturers). Some newer digital cameras with interchangeable lenses are using 1/3 inch mounts. These sizes refer to the chip size not specifically to the physical size of the lens mount. There are adaptors for putting a 2/3 inch lens on a 1/2 inch mount. One work-around for putting Nikon 35 mm mount lenses on 1/2 inch and 2/3 inch video cameras is a special optically compensated adaptor. This and other work-arounds will be discussed later. The Canon L1, L2, and XL1 camcorders are special cases. They have special adaptors for Canon 35 mm EOS lenses.