what kind of camcorder do they use in the NBA/NFL

[Victor Nguyen]

just wondering. The DOF is really shallow and for example in the NBA, they can follow the ball into the basket and then move to the shooter with perfect focus.

[Don Bloom]

Could be something like a Sony Beta or a PMW350, but mosstly the question you asked has to do with the lens, the f/stop and the shutter speed. I will tell that the cameras from the major stations and league are 2/3 inch so it makes it much easier to get the shallower DoF. How do they keep it sharp thru out? Proper backfocus and an experienced camera operator.

[Victor Nguyen]

so do they use manual focus or auto focus?

[Brian Drysdale]

2/3 cameras are manual focus.

[Don Bloom]

No such thing as auto focus on cameras of that type.

If one is focused correctly and isn't changing position or focus point, then focus once and let it be. that's not to say you aren't always checking. Say you're doing basketball, abd you're under the net, you pick the farthest point you would need to be in focus, say the top of teh key, focus to that point and make sure sure you're in focus back to the top of the rim. Properly backfocused and DoF should cover you. Of course if you move left or right or back a foot it may change. This technique is called zone focusing. Very handy and used for many many many years in film, video and still work.

[Victor Nguyen]

seems like great training to be first AC... Just have a new found respect for those people. And the risk involve too. I have seen videos where videographers get pummeled by the athletes.

[Sander Vreuls]

They don't use any assistants.. Cameraman does that himself..

[Don Bloom]

Yep a one man band for the most part. As for being pummeled, back in the 70s when I was doing still work I got nailed at a High School basketball game by a kid going full speed to the bucket. He couldn't stop and smashed into me. I got lucky...no camera or lens was hurt in the crash. I was shaken a bit but finished the job.
Same year I was shooting a pro football game, in the corner of the end zone, Nikon F with my beloved 180mm Nikkor lens. Hard to tell distances sometimes and the game moves fast...got the recieiver catching the TD pass and saw him coming towards me. I couldn't move fat enough and BAM! A guy twice my size smahed into me. I had some cuts and bruises, but thankfully my camera and lens survived to live another day! Sports can be dangerous! ;-)

[Victor Nguyen]

how about sound? please tell me they have some one else for that.

[Don Bloom]

Depends. Most TV stations that are using the cuts for the sports segment don't worry about the game sound so they tend to just use the shotgun mic that's on the camera since 99% of what they do is going to be voiced over by the sportscaster during the news broadcast.
The networks like the NFL network or the network that's broadcasting the game use dedicated sound. Watch an NFL game and you'll see a bunch of parabolic mics on the sidelines. NBA games have a bunch of shotguns placed all over the arena, high and low. For NASCAR we had shotguns all around the track usually hung on the fences facing towards the crowd so they could get both the crowd noise and the cars on the track. Trust me, 43 800 horsepower cars racing around the track at 180 mh plus, there's plenty of noise but on the TV broadcast you hardly ever hear it because the guys in the audio truck keep the master down so the announcers can be heard.
It's a treat to see a crew of 150 or more get together and work together (mostly) to put a sporting event on live TV.

[Sander Vreuls]

Well one man band is a bit wrong too.. I mean they don't have to change exposure or any other camera related settings either.. The vision engineer changes aperture, ISO, filterwheel and colors of the camera to match the others.. So "all" the cameraman has to do is make the shot and make sure it's in focus..

[Garrett Low]

Actually, watching the Warriors games out here on the west cost. They do have one assistant for the camera ops on the floor. Those cameras are all tethered so the assistants only job is to wrangle the cable. It's very impressive to watch how fast and neatly those guys and girls can correctly coil a cable so that all the have to do is follow the camera about 6' behind as they run out onto the floor during timeouts. Then, about 10 seconds before the end of the timeout they're running behind the camera coiling a hundred feet of cable before the players get back on the court.

all the cameras in the stands for fan interaction are wireless. None of them have mics on them. A lot of times with the warriors is more exciting to watch the camera crew than the team. :-(

[Don Bloom]

Depends. If they're shooting for local news they might have a grip but they're generally not going to the truck unless they're going to do a live shot with the sporscaster during halftime (unusual to see or going live after the game with interviews but normally they're going to tape for edit) Network broadcast, such as ESPN, TnT, the majors (CBS,NBC, ABC) you could be talking about 2 or 3 or more crews and each crew is 2 or 3 people going back to the truck. They're televisiong the game live so it's a whole other animal.
It all depends on which aspect you're talking about.

[Victor Nguyen]

If I want to be an intern to record basketball games, Do I go to the basketball stadium and ask for a position. Who am I suppose to talk to?

[Don Bloom]

A lot of stadiums today use live feed on the giant scoreboard. Some use lock downs cameras, some use remote cameras some use real people to operate. Those postions seem to be held by either people with a ton of experience or people that have degrees in film from a decent school and they're usually the "intern". You know, the person who works his butt off for really low money.
Most of the cameras you see are from news stations or the network(s). getting in with them especially in a major market is like the holy grail for a lot of people. Hard to get in and in the major markets, if you're not union it's pretty much a done deal of not getting a shot.
It doesn't hurt to ask of course, put together a resume' of whatever experience you have, let them know you'd be willing to do just about anything for a chance to get in but don't quit your day job.
Smaller markets and smaller outlets (local cable comes to mind) might be more open.
Good luck!