Most of the studios today are on Betacam technology. The cameras are either Betacams or Digibeta which give high end digital out put. Whatever the final quality of the out put, all professional cameras have certain common features. The camera will have lenses/wide to tele zoom lens through which it sees and focuses the shot. The camera will have aperture and focus controls that can be used if the camera is put on manual control and not on auto. The camera will have a viewfinder that shows the image the lens is looking at. Depending on the sophistication, the camera may have a colour or black and white viewfinder screen. On top of each studio camera there is a red tally lamp which will go on if the camera is selected during recording. This helps the talent to know which camera is on air. The camera will be fixed on a camera stand. The camera stand will have the facility to raise or decrease the height of the camera. In studio cameras, the focus and zoom controls are provided on the handle of the camera stand for ease of operations.
It will also have locks for pan and tilt controls. By opening the locks for tilt and pan the camera head can be moved up and down and sideways. The camera stand will also have wheels which allow for easy movement of the camera across the studio floor to take up position for required shots. In outdoor shooting, when the camera is hand-held, earlier it used to pose the problem of shakiness of the shots. Now most cameras are mounted with steadycam technology which smoothes movements into a natural feel. Most complex hand-held work can be done without fear of ending up with unsteady frames.
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