Legal Deposition Camera Recommendations

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by Andrew Clark

** Regarding the wireless; that's what I was thinking too; just wanted to hear it from somebody that has done depo's. Ten or more lawyers at once?! Wow, that's a lot of wires/cables in the room. I can see where a safety lock / tie down would come in handy; as you wouldn't want one the the "sharks" to suddenly get up and yank the wire/cable connected to the mixer board!!

** Wouldn't it be safer to utilize mics that DON'T have battery power?

You don't place mics on all of the layers present in the room - as discussed earlier, you need FOUR lavaliers for witness, two lawyers, and yourself. If more lawyers are present, you use a boundary mic to pic them all up.

And I would never call attorneys "sharks" - they will be your clients, those who write the check! I suggest you learn to respect them.

A AA battery lasts a year or more in an XLR preamp - change it when you change your clock and you're safe. Of course it's better to use phantom power from the mixer when available, but sometimes you may not have a mixer - think field recording out in the boonies at the site of a motor vehicle accident for example.

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

...... And I would never call attorneys "sharks" - they will be your clients, those who write the check! I suggest you learn to respect them.

Ervin, it was just in "good humor" here!!


Please don't assume I don't know how to "respect" lawyers or others. I do. I treat others as how I would want to be treated ..... with courteous respect.

[Don Bloom]

Sharks are the nicest thing I call most lawyers including my own. Of course he get's me back with his bill but in the meantime everytime time I see him I yell shark week!
relax, humor is good for the soul!

[Andrew Clark]

Just wanted to extend my gratitude to all of you for sharing your knowledge, insights and advice; I really appreciate it.

And now on to doing more research in this field!!

Again, thanks to all of you!!

[Terry Wall]

Originally Posted by Roger Van Duyn

Hi Andrew,

I don't know how close the XL-1 is to my XH-A1, but to burn in the date and time I need to set a Custom Display and then also set a Customized Function called Character Rec. You might look in the XL-1 manual and see if those two terms are in there. If so, you need to do both. First set up the Custom Display so that the time code is showing, then set a Customized Function that enables the Character Rec. That will send whatever is showing on the Custom Display to tape.

Hope this helps.

Andrew, I have an XL2--similar build to the XL1 and I noticed in the user manual for the XL2, page 83, are instructions for how to engage this setting. The manual even cites, "...this is ideal for surveillance and law enforcement use." And to the degree that--as has been pointed out--most courts are still in the SD era, I may be able to get a bit more use out of my XL2! ;-)

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Terry Wall

Andrew, I have an XL2--similar build to the XL1 and I noticed in the user manual for the XL2, page 83, are instructions for how to engage this setting. The manual even cites, "...this is ideal for surveillance and law enforcement use." And to the degree that--as has been pointed out--most courts are still in the SD era, I may be able to get a bit more use out of my XL2! ;-)

Hey Terry, thanks for the tip BUT .....

.... I think this might be a feature exclusive to the XL2. I just went to the Canon website and looked up the XL1 manual and it states:

"A data code, containing the date and time the recording was made and other camera data (shutter speed and exposure settings) is automatically recorded on a special data section of the tape."

... then reading further down the page, it states:

"If a recording made on XL1 is played back on a different DV camcorder, the data code may not be displayed correctly."


Is this what you were referring to? If so, then yes that'd be great ... but I don't know if the clients (attorneys/lawyers) will accept that. My impression is that this data needs to be seen while recording the depo. Maybe others here can chime in on this.

[Terry Wall]

Hmmmmmmm...that sounds a little iffy ("...the data code may not be displayed properly.") for the XL1. It was what I was referring to, but that little wrinkle in the XL1 may render it unusable for legal work. Sorry, Andrew...thought I might've found something to help you.

~TRW

[David Barnett]

I think I recall something too, about the code being sent out. Maybe via firewire it burns, but Component cables it doesn't.

My biggest fear with Canon is again whether it displays seconds. Doesn't sound like that critical an issue, but if all other depo videographers show HH:MM:SS and you only show HH:MM it'd be a slight against you. Might as well try to avoid it, unless you can confirm for sure a certain Canon model can display it. I couldn't.

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by Terry Wall

Hmmmmmmm...that sounds a little iffy ("...the data code may not be displayed properly.") for the XL1. It was what I was referring to, but that little wrinkle in the XL1 may render it unusable for legal work. Sorry, Andrew...thought I might've found something to help you.

~TRW

No worries Terry; just making sure that I wasn't mis-understanding the manual!!

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

.....My biggest fear with Canon is again whether it displays seconds. Doesn't sound like that critical an issue, but if all other depo videographers show HH:MM:SS and you only show HH:MM it'd be a slight against you. Might as well try to avoid it, unless you can confirm for sure a certain Canon model can display it. I couldn't.

Ditto here on that David!!

[Andrew Clark]

BTW, does anybody here own or has used the Panny 160a?

As per Ervin's suggestion list of camera's, (and thanks again for that extensive list of cams Ervin!!) I am quite interested to hear any first had experiences about it. Looks great in that it would work quite well for other events.

[Ervin Farkas]

Andrew,

let me chime in although I don't know that camera - it is the TOP recommended camera on a dedicated legal videography forum. Very few of us legal videogs here... if you want to ask specific questions about it related to legal video, I can direct you to the forum operated by the video wing of the National Court Reporter Association. Contact me by private message.

[John Doody]

Little late to the party here, but here is a good resource for a lot of legal video info for those that are still looking-
Legal Media Forum

You can also visit the NCRA or AGCV websites for more certification information for legal videographers.
The CLVS Certification Process - Certification & Training - NCRA
Home

The date/time placement issue with the Panasonic AC160, now 160A, has been addressed with camera's latest update. I have recently added the Panny 160A to my kit. It's a great tool for the job, but if you are only doing depositions, it's probably a bit more than what you really need. You don't necessarily need the LPCM audio, SDI output, and variable frame rate (def.not for legal video) the AC130A is also a very good choice & will save you hundreds over the 160A.

[Andrew Clark]

Originally Posted by John Doody

Little late to the party here, but here is a good resource for a lot of legal video info for those that are still looking-
Legal Media Forum

*** Thanks for that John; but that forum seems not to have too much activity; not like here on DV Info.!!

Originally Posted by John Doody

You can also visit the NCRA or AGCV websites for more certification information for legal videographers.
The CLVS Certification Process - Certification & Training - NCRA
Home

*** I've visited and checked on those sites as well.

Originally Posted by John Doody

The date/time placement issue with the Panasonic AC160, now 160A, has been addressed with camera's latest update. I have recently added the Panny 160A to my kit. It's a great tool for the job, but if you are only doing depositions, it's probably a bit more than what you really need. You don't necessarily need the LPCM audio, SDI output, and variable frame rate (def.not for legal video) the AC130A is also a very good choice & will save you hundreds over the 160A.

*** How do you like this cam? Is the "manual" zoom ring a true manual zoom; meaning not "laggy" like some other cams on the market? Seems like a versatile cam for utilizing for other events as well.

[John Doody]

I've only had my 160A for a couple weeks, so I'm still testing things out before I take it on a job. I'm pretty happy with the choice, but I do wish it could do even better in low light than it does. Pipe dream I'm sure for a 1/3" sensor camera. As far as the manual zoom, it does feel like there's a slight lag. I find it a bit annoying to try to gauge it correctly going slowly. Maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it. I'll be using the servo setting mostly for my work, so it really isn't a big deal to me. I wish I could do away with the manual/servo switch altogether, though, but that's just my preference. One surprise to me was that the time only displays in military time. It's not a huge deal, but I'd rather have the ol' AM/PM format.