Red Means Go; Photos to Audio

I'm not one to brag or promote that much one single brand, but I sort of do because it is what I know the most about, so I stick to it, and would rather do that, then sound like a complete moron when I talk about Nikon or Pentax that also have HD video capture, so I like to stick to Canon. There is the disclaimer, even if I read all sides.

Canon has four DSLR cameras that have the all mighty power to shoot in HD video, and they are the Digital Rebel T1i, 7D, 5D Mark II, and 1D Mark IV. Though the microphone on them isn't that great, at all, as you progress from basically anything other than the T1i, there are mini sockets for hot shoe mounted shotgun mics. The mic of the cameras looks like this....

canonrumors.com

Or there is what a shotgun mic looks like that will pick up much better quality audio....

bhphotovideo.com

Ok, so now that that brief little bit is out of the way, what does this mean for real world applications? Where does it play a role in journalism?

Simple answers.

Photography is great as it captures a single frame (get it?) in time, but being able to switch over when something big is happening and needs to have that extra punch that video has with audio and capturing the whole scene, then the role of a journalist has changed. There will always be the ones that carry around the broadcast cameras or miniDV cameras, but DSLRs that shoot HD video, that is the way of photojournalism. It is all photojournalism, still or moving, but with the ability to hold a camera that does both, it is a whole new ball game.

Nobody wants to fumble around with with cameras either. Imagine being out there with a DSLR and also having a video camera, but going back and forth. I've done it before, and it sucks. With the introduction of cameras like the 7D, that has gone out the window and there isn't a need to mess around going one to the other. For some, it is literally a press of a dedicated button and video is being shot. It is that easy. And photos can still be taken while capturing video, with a slight lapse in the video, but this is still very impressive. This is something that can't be taken from any video camera, only as a screen shot.

Here is an example of a real world application.

At a protest and take some photos of different aspects of it. The police, the protestors, the environment it's in, and then some other bits that may add to the story. Then having the ability to switch over to video, capture what it is like to be there in with sound and being able to move with the protest, capturing the same things as were with the stills. Sometimes the most dramatic things have to be captured on video rather than as stills. Say the protest gets violent and the police and protestors clash, having the ability to do two in one gives the photographer great power on how to capture the situation.

Bringing me back to my original point, being able to do both and not have to fumble around with a still camera and video camera is just awesome.