Broadcast Cameras

Television cameras are somewhat more complex than most people realise. The lenses alone can cost a small fortune.

Whether for Field Production, Studio Poruction or Electronig News Gathering (ENG) there are a wide range of requirements.

Broadcast cameras typically feature larger sensors and typically 3 separate sensors to capture red, Green and Blue images separately with the incoming lighe being split by a dichroic block (which of course requires more physical size).

Understanding Television Production Cameras

Ben Grantham – 13m 44s  (Feb 2016)

Produced as part of a student project – quite a lot of information with a few minor technical errors (e.g. Genlock is essential to allow cameras to feed into a production mixer and not specifically about recording with the same timecode). 

Well worth a watch as it covers A LOT of information in a short time.

Camera Line-up

When working in a multi-camera shoot, such as in a studio production, it is important that all cameras have the same behaviour. 

The process known as ‘Camera Line-up’ is typically done at the start of each day once cameras have stabilised. Cameras are typically pointed at a chart containing a scale of black-grey-white which is illuminated at a specific luminosity and colour temperature.

A studio camera’s CCU (Camera Control Unit) has adjustment for the balance of Red, Green and Blue at both black level and white level. A vision engineer may perform a quick adjustment by eye but for fine adjustment a waveform monitor is essential.

Field cameras are typically all-in-one devices and due to the nature of where they are used it is not normal for them to get the opportunity to be aligned int he same was as studio cameras. Field cameras typically relay on a manually trigger ‘Auto White Balance’ adjustment. If shots are edited together from different cameras which weren’t correctly balanced there can be a visible change in colour which can be off-putting to viewers.