Single-Camera Video Production, 5th Edition

Chapter Three

The Equipment

Equipment Development

The equipment presently used in single-camera video production has a relatively short history. In the early 1960s, a method of editing 2-inch quadraplex videotape was developed. It occurred to directors and journalists that some types of productions could be shot on one camera, recorded on videotape, even out of sequence, and then edited into a form suitable for airing. By 1969, amateur videotaping became possible with the invention and sale of a Sony black-and-white handheld camera combined with an open-reel ½-inch videotape recorder.

In the mid-1970s, editing systems for both formats were developed, but the 2-inch format was difficult to edit, even with a computer controller, because it could ...