Dave Klien, WDIV-TV chief photojournalist checks out one of the station’a new camera lenses.
DETROIT—What differentiates WDIVTV— and what keeps viewers returning— is the product that we put on the air. People’s TV’s aren’t just parked on our channel. There’s a lot of media out there, including cable news channels and plenty of Web sites that claim to be news producers. That’s why—in addition to having experienced news anchors in the studio, journalists and videographers in the field, and news directors and producers behind the scenes—we must also deliver our stories in a technically reliable manner.
STAYING ON TOP OF HD IMAGERY
With so many viewers investing in high quality HDTV sets, they’ve become more critical of everything they watch. It’s more important than ever for news stations to deliver the superb picture quality and image detail that viewers expect to see, especially for local news. That’s a big reason why we have added eight Canon KJ20x8.2B lenses to our ENG toolset, and by year’s end our entire complement of 18 HD ENG cameras will be equipped with these lenses.
It was important for us to get high-grade lenses that were well constructed and provide a strong addition to our portable HD cameras. We also needed a product that balanced cost along with functionality and the superb HD image gathering that’s so important to our on-air look.
Videographers in any news market take what they do very seriously. We respect their opinions, and when we asked them about what’s important in a portable high definition ENG camera lens they overwhelming responded that it was the inclusion of a 2x extender. This greatly assists in capturing the details of distant scenes and objects in newsgathering, as videographers do not always have the luxury of being right on top of the subject they’re shooting. A 2x extender, such as the one built into the Canon KJ20x8.2B lens, is critical for subject- framing flexibility when videographers have to “sit on a scene” and be ready to capture important news in HD from a distance.
NO LEARNING CURVE HERE
As a news organization, we’re always on the move. We don’t have time to hold a four-day seminar to teach everybody the inner workings of a new lens. We needed a device that would fit into our organization immediately and our videographers were able to use the Canon lens right away, remarking that they felt comfortable with the iris and zoom controls. The KJ20x8.2B lenses are delivering a superb HD picture and the 2x extender feature is also getting high marks from our videographers.
Lenses for portable news cameras are also subjected to a lot of wear and tear. We’ve found that the Canon KJ20x8.2B is sturdy and strong, and are confident that it will perform for years to come. The hand grip on this lens is also well built.
One of our great strengths at WDIV-TV is the ability to deliver strong imagery tied to strong stories. Putting the highest-quality content on air will always be a central key concept to us. It’s why going with Canon makes sense.
Jeff Liebman is the manager of news operations at WDIV-TV. He may be contacted atjeffreyl@wdiv.com.
For additional information, contact Canon at 800-321-4388 or visitwww.usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/lenses.
