Choice of formats & camera equipment
Sometimes institutions decide to produce their own documentation ‘in house’. This often means that they decide to invest in camera, sound and editing equipment. Decisions must be made about acquisition formats and cameras. It is also important to remember that good equipment needs good people to use them. So investing not only in equipment but also in training of personnel or hiring competent people is recommended. It can also make sense to buy services from third party providers.
When hiring, it is a good idea to have some understanding about formats and equipment to be able to make the right choice. Especially today where the selection of formats and resolution is in midst of an accelerated transition as the old standard definition is increasingly being replaced by high definition (HD). See Appendix A for more information on video acquisition formats. If you are considering investing in camera equipment see Appendix B: Choosing a camera.
A point to consider is that most professionals have, for some time already, been commenting that standard definition is disappearing at least as a production format. This trend is mainly driven by television as most broadcasters require that the programmes they acquire today are high definition. This of course drives the business and will have spill over effects to other fields. So ensure your documentation is ‘future proof’ of it would be advisable to make them in HD. With that said, the 40 years of production in standard definition will obviously not be obsolete very soon.
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