Note: All these pictures were shot with my cell phone. Just wanted to try out a new blog photo acquisition method. Never again!

I get to work on one of the best hd television trucks working in the business today, in my humble opinion of course. National Mobile Television’s HD6 OB mobile production unit. We get to use this truck in Boston to cover the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics.

As a sports camera operator, it is a pleasure to work with the camera compliment that rolls with HD6. These are real hard cameras, not buildups in expander “super sleds”. We have actual hand helds and one piece sleek hard cameras on HD6, but this truck would not be able to do an entertainment show with ten shoulder mounted cameras without a hefty rental bill. I say, SO WHAT. We are shooting sports where heavy long lenses bring the action and emotion into a viewer’s living room. The cameras on HD6 are all Sony 900 series and they are a joy to operate. Easy to balance, no surprises during precision telephoto shooting and rock solid. One stormy day the rain cover blew off one of our Sony hard cameras and it was naked under a heavy torrent for twenty minutes. It survived because of its one piece design (and our fast thinking to power it down). I will blog on these cameras another day in a quite lengthy post. For now, you can watch a video that I shot explaining the Sony HDC-910 hard camera at “My Office”.
Click to Watch!

Today, I am going to complain. My goal for this blog is to reach someone who cares and perhaps even someone who can make a difference. I am not going to complain about HD6. I love the gear and the personnel who run the truck. I am going to express my dissatisfaction (as a camera operator) with a camera that currently rolls on National Mobile Television’s HD11 OB truck.

The LDK6000 Worldcam Multiformat HD Camera ( 1080i/720p 24p capable) made by Philips Thompson Grass Valley is the worst camera I have ever operated. I’m not sure what company actually makes it, but they are all apart of it somehow. Grass Valley is stamped on the side in silver raised lettering. Philips has made some terribly designed cameras in the past so I’m not surprised. In my ten years as a sports and entertainment camera guy I have stood behind Sony, Ikegami, Phillips, JVC, Hitachi, Panasonic and other cameras. This Grass Valley system has major problems.

There are ten of these LDK abominations on HD11 and they are all hand held cameras in form factor. The new design for a mobile production truck today, either built for sports or entertainment, is to have a modular camera system. What this means is this truck can do either ten hard tripod mounted cameras with big lenses or ten shoulder mounted hand held cameras with ENG lenses. That is great, and I understand why a mobile tv truck company would want this. Some clients demand many handhelds and/or hard cameras and the vendor can satisfy the demands. But it stinks for the actual camera guys who have to set these things up and then run them.

So why did we get stuck with HD11 for just one day when HD6 is the permanent truck for Boston Sports? Not sure. All I know is that when I arrived on site and found out we had LDK cameras, I instantly felt sick to my stomach.

Once I got the larger-than-HD6 camera cases up to my high left camera position I was relieved to see that I had a Vinten Vector 70 pan head. This is the best pan head ever made (again in my opinion) and the fact that this fluid head was going to support the Franken Cam made me feel a little better. If I was stuck with any other pan head, I would have been better off just going home.

The LDK6000 camera is a handheld, so a superXpander LDK4488 was required to hold the large lens to the front of the camera’s lens mount. This expander or super sled is bulky and with an enormous black and white CRT viewfinder on top, it is very top heavy. The sled itself is much taller than a normal hard camera so that makes it very difficult to balance on the pan head. The center of gravity has changed so much, in fact, the “perfect balance” knob on the Vector 70 is maxed out. This is still not enough to counter balance the weight of this pig and makes the camera very hard to control when operating it. I fought this thing all night and if I tilted up or down too much, the camera would dive and my shot would be ruined. I hate these unexpected surprises when running a hard camera. I simply lose control and must change the way I shoot (no more tight anything…).

These LDK 6000’s run off copper triax, not fiber optic cable like I am accustomed to with the Sony 900 series. With the many faults and difficulties I have had with fiber optic camera cable over the years, I would stick with a Sony camera running fiber over any camera running triax. The biggest benefit to a camera operator who uses (working) fiber is the fact that the return video coming back to the camera from the truck is high definition and in the proper aspect. When I hit the return button on my Sony HDC-910 camera, I see a perfect program image. Sometimes, when I am on the air and I hit return… nothing happens. Or at least it appears that way. Not a shift in picture or a change in aspect or a drop in resolution. The image is returned to me as light down a glass strand. The LDK6000 Grass Valley could care less what the return program feed looks like. I was so disgusted by the quality of the LDK return and the crappy processing that was taking place on that copper triax to get it back up to me that I avoided using it. When did press the return button, the image was less than standard definition, heavily compressed, not the right aspect ratio and it caused the viewfinder to wig-out and go out of sync. This abrupt change made me nauseous. I usually use return to keep an eye on my framing when graphics are posted. I also use return to see what the other guys are shooting so I don’t “steal shots”. This time I just hoped the framing was good and I was in the right place because the LDK6000 return was useless.

The lens I usually use off HD6 is a Canon 75x at f1.7 with a range of 9.3mm to 700mm. This Canon lens is perfect in many ways. It is sharp, the zoom is super smooth and it holds f1.7 even at or near the end of the zoom (at 700mm). It also has a good optical image stabilizer.

Today, I got a 101x lens with an extende and optical stabilizer. This lens is made by Fujinon and it is capable of shooting at f1.7 in full range of 8.9mm to 900mm. At least that is what it said on the side of the lens. I did not agree. This Fuji 101 has a few problems. First of all, the zoom is sticky and slows as it approaches about 600mm. This lens is almost brand new! This is frustrating because without a consistent speed, you can rely on muscle memory in your fingers to stop when you want to stop the zoom. Another BIG problem is the fact that the lens closes way down at about 800mm. What I mean is that the picture gets muddy, soft and dark as I near the end of my zoom range. This occurs in many different lighting conditions, including under bright stadium light. So I ask this logical question… why make a 101 when you cannot use the entire zoom range! I do have to say that the 8.9mm back end of the lens is quite wide and I was able to set my zoom stop so that I did not hit the 900mm light loss.

I was able to speak to my director and I told him of my concerns and my fears about the direction that trucking companies where headed in to make a truck capable of running all hand held. I told him that many of the other camera operators shared my concerns about the superXpander sleds and the buildup camera systems. I explained to him that these cameras defeat the purpose of having a good pan head since they are top heavy and difficult to control. He agreed with me and assured me that when the time comes to upgrade the Red Sox truck or equipment, that he would make push for Sony cameras and try to avoid super sleds.

At least he said Sony… Even though I can’t stand modular hard cameras, I would rather run a Sony handheld in a sled, than a Ikegami or the dreaded Grass Valley in the superXpander.

One last thing… I use to work a lot of Network sports broadcasts with ESPN, ABC, CBS, FOX and others. One of my reasons for getting off their lists and staying local is because many of the trucks they use have these LDK cameras. I hope that someday these trucks re-upgrade to Sony branded equipment. I am certain that I am not the only camera guy who feels this way!