For the first time in a long time this morning I was back behind a camera filming a short piece-to-camera with some Italian star or other (for those of you who don't know me, I used to be a professional cameraman in an early incarnation).
They needed the tape on Beta SP, a format that is all but moribund. But filming on Beta SP involves lugging two tons of equipment along with you. The batteries alone are larger than an average camcorder - and the quality of Beta SP is not even as good as DV, the format used by modern camcorders.
Some ad agencies still use the quaint 'hiband' format, which should have gone to its grave in the early eighties. In fact, why use tape at all ? In five years' time we'll laugh at the concept.
Ita always amazes me how long it takes for redundant technologies to die. And therein lies a lesson - there's always room for defunct and interim technologies.
I was the person, after all, who said that Netflix would never catch on... Ho hum
They needed the tape on Beta SP, a format that is all but moribund. But filming on Beta SP involves lugging two tons of equipment along with you. The batteries alone are larger than an average camcorder - and the quality of Beta SP is not even as good as DV, the format used by modern camcorders.
Some ad agencies still use the quaint 'hiband' format, which should have gone to its grave in the early eighties. In fact, why use tape at all ? In five years' time we'll laugh at the concept.
Ita always amazes me how long it takes for redundant technologies to die. And therein lies a lesson - there's always room for defunct and interim technologies.
I was the person, after all, who said that Netflix would never catch on... Ho hum
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