I took a few screen shots from the PBS POV Documentary Equipment Survey.

Below is a link to the entire survey.

POV Documentary Equipment Survey (http://www.texasmediasystems.com/news.php)

Some of the numbers that stood out for me:

28% have 0-5 years experience

45% Canon share with the doc vertical with the C300/C100 and 5D/7D Cameras

54% Sennheiser on Audio Equipment

76% Final Cut Pro compared to 12% Avid Media Composer

Its all about the cost of the tools. I am surprised the C300 had a bigger share than the 5D.

...but now that I think about it more, I'm sure the more experienced people are using things like the C300 where the 0-5 years experience group is probably rolling the 5D's and renting RED cameras.

...and now that I actually look at the graph, I see the versions of 5D's are separate so I'll shut up now.

The C300 is an far better doc tool than the rest of the pack ( even other Canon Products ) great low light. Native 850 iso, 422 recording, Broadcast ready, great audio handling, long battery life, well built. No clip time limit. small format body. Its main drawback for Doc work is the same thing that makes it so great. THat large chip. Doc work is hard enough, trying to capture the events as they are happening , sometimes only once, and having it all in focus is hard to do. THere is no "cut!" and "Back to one please the DP missed the focus mark." in the Doc world.

The Picture use on the article is a bit misleading. Doc shooters don't usually run with Cinema Primes. too heavy and too costly.

Else where on the article a better list of glass is offered. By the way, Sigma glass is making great strides in the level of lenses they are making. at a much lower price point.

Some interesting things from that article. For example DSLR's being just about the most popular cameras but the most popular NLE being FCP 7 which can't cut AVCHD easily or directly.

Not sure I'd read too much into the survey. Far too small a sample and no idea of what sectors or areas the respondents are from, broadcast, corporate, online, enthusiast????

What I'd really like to see would be a survey on "what equipment do you use and how much profit do you make". That would be telling, separate the enthusiasts from those actually making a long term living from production and then look at what gear actually makes a decent return on investment. A survey could result in 100% usage of camera "A" from a sample where no one actually makes any money.

It's gratfiying to see that almost one in three have less than five years in the industry. My guess on the c300 use is due to broadcast acceptable codec out of the box. I would love to shoot with one but the pricing puts the c100 far more in the sweet spot. It does mean that the 4:2:2 requirement is changing unless these folks are shooting onto Ninja's or the like. Goes to show that the folks doing this haven't left FCP7 yet. Clunky input process but it still works just fine.

My guess on the c300 use is due to broadcast acceptable codec out of the box.
Yes, but a lot more as well. Sensor optimised for video. Likewise ergonomics - whilst preserving the best of what DSLRs are appreciated for.
It does mean that the 4:2:2 requirement is changing unless these folks are shooting onto Ninja's or the like.
Well, there have never been any laws about codec requirements - only recommendations. And they have never been too hard and fast, even within broadcasters - make a good case for using equipment which doesn't meet the spec for valid reasons (and "I can't afford it" isn't one of them! :-) ) and exceptions may be made.

And they only apply to broadcast, because of the likelihood of multiple recompressions along the chain.

But if your doc is intended for broadcast, then in overall budget terms then surely the difference between a decent DSLR and a C300 body isn't that much? Not when averaged out over the likely lifetime of the equipment? Which I suppose is a similar point to Alisters.......

I'd say about 90% of news shot in the field around me is shot on either ex1's or ex3's and don't those use a 4:2:0 codec? So yeah, about that broadcast quality standard......unless I am missing something which is totally possible.

I'd say about 90% of news shot in the field around me is shot on either ex1's or ex3's and don't those use a 4:2:0 codec? So yeah, about that broadcast quality standard......unless I am missing something which is totally possible.

News is a different animal than episodic or verité non-news (doco etc) for broadcasters. In my former market (Winnipeg, Manitoba) standard definition news was split 50/50 between stations on BetaSX (4:2:2 at 18mbps Interframe MPEG Long-GOP) and DVCam (4:1:1 at 25mbps Intraframe DCT) but they "wouldn't" accept DVCam originated material for long form doco stuff as the primary source... so we "bumped up" to BetaSP for distribution!

True story... and yes, an engineer could certainly tell the difference...

I wonder if Texas Media Systems has a large inventory of Canon gear to push.

As has been said - the critical element is WHO they asked. I wonder f the documentary makers who have been at it longer maybe didn't know about the survey, and are just plodding on with their ⅔" kit blissfully unaware it's not 'cool' anymore, but because they're busy and in demand, they don't read forums, or get kit lust any longer.

Looking at the people I bump into here in the UK who have been doing this a long time, then for their broadcast, satellite and documentary work for the names, they're still shooting as they used to - worrying about card formats and add ons, but not considering getting rid of their big investment in favour of bigger sensors - at the moment.

I'd say about 90% of news shot in the field around me is shot on either ex1's or ex3's and don't those use a 4:2:0 codec? So yeah, about that broadcast quality standard......unless I am missing something which is totally possible.

If you're talking about local news, that's a different animal. Local broadcasters don't seem to mind shooting video below the generally accepted broadcast standard 50mbps, 4:2:2. The stations in my city use JVC HM-700s, EX1 & PMW-320s and HPX370s. The 370s just recently began shooting in HD instead of SD, and that may be in AVC/Intra 50.

I work audio with a camera op (F800) who has lots of national broadcast clients, and he always shoots in HDCAM 50mbps, 4:2:2. He always gives his clients the maximum quality available.

News has traditionally been shot at a lower technical standard than programme production. The BBC used to shoot Betacam for news, while programmes were Betacam SP and then Digibeta.

I don't recall the BBC ever using Betacam. They went straight from BVU and High Band to BetaSP. There was no real cost benefit for Betacam v BetaSP and there were never any one piece non SP Betacam cameras, only bulky dockable units using the BVV1. Perhaps you mean DVCAM which was used for news and current affairs for a very long time while Digibeta was used for higher end production.

But yes there are often different standards for news. Right now under the EBU guidelines you are allowed to use 35Mb/s and 1/3" sensors for news, but it must be news, not current affairs or other forms of journalism (for example magazine type news shows).

It may vary from region to region, but our BBC shot their news on Betacam until they moved over to Betacam SX. The Betacam road tapes were wiped and typically reused about 5 times. At the end, they still had a couple of BVW 200s on news, by that stage they must've been about 10 years old. The Betacam tapes were cheaper than the Betacam SP tapes.

I'd say about 90% of news shot in the field around me is shot on either ex1's or ex3's and don't those use a 4:2:0 codec? So yeah, about that broadcast quality standard......unless I am missing something which is totally possible.
Let's look at exactly what the EBU defines as "best practice" - https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/r/r132.pdf
Although a camera can meet the requirements of a Tier it may be let down (or even downgraded by an on-board codec. Section 2.3 recommends minimum acquisition codec to be:

50 Mbit/s 4:2:2 minimum for inter-frame codecs, or

100 Mbit/s 4:2:2 minimum for intra-frame codecs.

For Journalism/News these standards can be relaxed to allow

35 Mbit/s MPEG-2 inter-frame codecs at 4:2:0, or

50 Mbit/s AVC intra-frame codecs at 4:2:0.

However, low cost HD and HD consumer formats are solely acquisition formats. They should never be used for the acquisition of HDTV content on a regularly basis.
If employed in special circumstances such as covert video journalism, reporting in crisis areas, etc. it is strongly recommended that further processing in the original acquisition format is avoided.
So for news - "35 Mbit/s MPEG-2 inter-frame codecs at 4:2:0" *are* considered broadcast standard, if you like.

And I don't think of that as arbitrary. Absolute standards are less critical in such as news than other more mainstream programmes, and the latter are more likely to have a more complex post requirement regarding codecs. Since the standards are intended as guidelines, not hard rules, it makes complete sense that minimum requirements can be relaxed somewhat for news etc.

And look at the last sentence - these guidelines don't, and never have FORBIDDEN the use of lesser formats per se - though they advise against their use if possible.

Brian - I think you are confusing Betacam and Betacam SP. AFAIK, the BBC only ever had two Betacam (oxide tape) camcorders, and that was in the late 1980s. I believe it's as Alister says, they went straight from High Band U-matic to BetaSP for news work, initially with BVW200s, then BVW300s later. (BVW200s were BetaSP - not Beta oxide.)

That was the case through most of the 1990s, then round about 2000 BetaSP got largely replaced by DVCAM for news, Digibeta for more mainstream programming. Whilst dual formats wasn't seen as a problem in England, economies of scale meant it less satisfactory in such as Belfast who wanted a single format. Digibeta for everything was seen as just too expensive, DVCAM wasn't seen as good enough for the higher end work - hence the compromise of BetaSX.

Worth noting that the differences between different format cameras were more down to Sony matching a higher quality front end to a higher quality recording system, and vice versa. (With corresponding differences in price.)

BBC N.I. were using Betacam because I used it when freelancing on local news with them, the SP tapes were used on the programmes. I've still got an old blank Betacam tape from that period lying in the back room, they were the only people I used this tape for at the time, since everything else was either SP or Digibeta. I can't recall if the locally based national news crew used SP. although their final piece would often include local news material because it tended to be hard news, rather than feature type material.

That surprises me and that's penny pinching taken to the extreme given that a Betacam player could be modified to play back SP. I can't imagine that the savings in tape stock would have been significant seeing as the tapes would have been used over and over. Certainly here in mainland UK, BetaSp was the norm across the country to avoid any possible compatibility issues and also as once the 200 was launched every camera could shoot SP so production companies, trucks and facilities houses only needed to hold one type of tape stock. Generally speaking the 200 wasn't widely accepted for broadcast, the 300 or a BVP7/BVV5 was the minimum normally requested.

It was only used for the news, which was shot using in house cameras or the occasional hired in camera. Their BVW 200s were used for many years, together with BVW 300s, their BVW400s were used for in house programmes before Digibeta. The news and programme kit was held in different locations at the time.

I was impressed how well the BVW 200s held up to such a hard life, although, perhaps it was getting to the my grandfather's axe stage by the end of their working lives. However, I was surprised that they were still using them, since everywhere else was using 300s or 400s.

They supplied the Betacam tape stock, any stock I personally brought for supplying productions was all Betacam SP.