Meet the New Camera

Flap, flap, flap.

The rotor blades above my head spun faster and faster as I strapped myself into the back seat of my employer’s helicopter. With the flick of a toggle switch, a panel of electronic news gathering equipment came to life in front of me. A monitor on top of the panel glowed with an image of the belly of the bird from the camera outside. Somewhere, there was a crime scene waiting for us to fly over and record tape for the evening news.

Before I put on my headset, I heard my cell ringing from the clip on my belt. Thinking that this was a fine time for someone to call, I reached down and pulled the black box lose from the clip. As I raised the ringing box to my ear, I dug my thumb into its side flipping it open.

“This is Ken.”

“Hey Ken its Father Dan.”

I could barely hear his voice over the beat of the rotor blades but I could tell he was excited.

“Hey you know that table where we keep all of the church bulletins and the prayer books?”

In my minds eye I immediately saw a little table stacked with small leather bound books with a gold cross stamped on each cover standing by the front door of the church.

“That table is now covered with boxes with ‘Sony’ printed all over them.”

The new camera had arrived.



I wanted to jump out of the helicopter and run over to check out the new equipment but that would have to wait until Sunday. For now I had a date with the yellow crime scene tape and flashing blue lights.

Buying a camera for this mission trip proved to be a harder task than I had anticipated. I thought the entry level prosumer camera like a Canon GL2 or a Sony VX2100 would be more than enough camera to document the work done by the mission crew. After a little research I discovered that these cameras may have good enough image quality for what we wanted, but they didn’t have some of the bells and whistles that I have grown accustomed to with the professional grade camera I use every day.


To me, sound is just as important as images in a video. I knew I wanted a camera that would accommodate a good quality shot microphone so I could capture clean crisp sound of all of those African hymns they sing in church. With the cameras I listed above, controlling sound quality became an issue. Sure, there are enough products out there to slap onto these cameras to make them do what you want but why not buy something that already has these features built in. You can spend just as much money buying the add-ons as you would buy the next camera up the ladder. I focused in on cameras like the Canon XL 2, Sony PD-170, and the Panasonic DVX100B.

Price became the next issue. These cameras had the features I wanted but I felt they were too expensive for the church’s mission trip budget. So I started my search for the right camera by looking at used cameras. I used a Sony PD-150 a few years ago in Iraq and knew that it was more than enough camera for the job. Since Sony only sells the PD-170, I knew I could find a used 150 at a good price. Father Dan wasn’t so sure he wanted to spend the church’s money on used equipment but I think he went along with me because he trusted my judgment.

While combing all of the different web sites that sell new and used equipment, I stumbled onto a site selling a brand new PD-170 for less than used PD-150s. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I sent the address to Fr. Dan since he was the one with the key to the church vault. We both knew that something wasn’t quite right with the deal but we needed to investigate. If we could get a new camera in our price range, everyone would feel more comfortable about the purchase.

Sure enough there was a major catch with the cheap price. The 170’s on this site came from Europe. They were the camera only. No microphone, batteries or AC power source. No lens hood, owners manual, and most importantly, no warranty. If we bought all of that stuff to go with the cheap camera, we would have spent just as much money as if we bought the camera new in a store here in town. Deal or no deal? We said no deal.

Fr. Dan found other sites selling the cameras for a little more than the site I found but these sites were still much less than the professional camera houses I was familiar with through my job. Why not check them out as well. He found another shady deal that folks not as knowledgeable as us might fall for. These sites wanted to sell us cameras straight from Japan. They had all the support gear but still no U.S. warranty and no owner’s manual. Now I know I could get the manual off of the internet. But I wasn’t buying the camera. The congregation of the church put up the money for this piece of high tech equipment so Fr. Dan and I felt a one year warranty was worth the extra money.

Finally, Fr. Dan found a site that was selling U.S. cameras for a price that was not much more than the used cameras I found at the professional camera retailers. We ordered the fine camera you see here in these pictures. I didn’t know this but the PD-170 comes with a wide angle lens attachment. The used 150s did not have this piece. If we would have bought a used camera then bought a wide angle lens, the used camera would have cost just as much as the new one we ended up with. I think God was watching over us as we went through this difficult task.

I pursued the Sony over the Canon and Panasonic for several reasons. In my job as a photojournalist, I have used several different brands of video cameras. Sony has always held the title of being the industry leader in professional grade cameras. But I didn’t let a reputation be the only deciding factor. Back in 2003, I took a little trip to a country called Iraq. My employer handed me a new PD-150 to use while chasing the Army across a sandy desert. The camera performed up to expectations even after I dropped it off a tripod onto an asphalt roadway. It took a lick’n and kept on tick’n. I knew the Sony would stand up to the harsh environment I will experience in Africa. I’ve seen the Networks use these cameras in many different situations like war zones and hurricanes. It its good enough for them, then it should be wonderful for our little mission trip.