Gear for the multimedia reporter
David Johnson June 8th, 2007
Mindy McAdams wrote the book on Flash Journalism, literally. Her teaching online journalism blog is a killer resource for anyone in the business, and she’s dished out another keeper with her list of gear for the multimedia reporter. We get asked this all the time. Thanks for putting it all together so well, Mindy! (Pictured: Edirol R-09 audio recorder.)
5 Comments Add your own
1. Mindy McAdams | June 8th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Thanks, David! It means a lot to me when people with your experience give me a thumbs up!
2. Z | June 8th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I hadn’t realized how far the mid-line P&S digital cameras had come in video until I played around with my new (used) Canon S2IS the other day. Darn thing’s got a 12x zoom, stereo mic, and a built-in wind filter. In a pinch, I could shoot a package with this thing.
3. adam | June 8th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I’m glad to see some attention paid to an aspect of new media journalism that can be really tricky to follow; gear.
One key item that Mindy left out is the sound-for-video element is a wireless mic (I recognize that Mindy was laying it out for all kinds of media, but I’ll get specific). They’re expensive but, aside from speed, the cingular advantage that the laptop reporter has is the fly-on-the-wall aspect and a small, clip-on, wireless mic taks full advantage. A 10 inch shotgun mic is the way to lose the low profile advantage and start looking like the same old local news.
As I wander a bit further away from the intention of the initial column I’ll simply say this; I’m seeing more and more internet video that looks like it was shot by the most disgruntled local news crew in NYC. It doesn’t have to be that way. We need some real visual storytellers to emerge from the crop of backpack journalists showing us the advantages of the gear and the best way to use it.
4. Charles | June 8th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Z,
I have a S3IS and the video IS really, really good. The only downfall is that the media encoding/something technical is “outdated” or something, which translates to it eating memory cards like crazy. But the quality IS really, really good.
5. Z | June 9th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Yeah, Canon just can’t get off their old video codec. Every review I read says something to the effect of “they still haven’t gone to mp4″ or whatever. I’ll be getting a new SD card soon.
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