DVX in Court

D

Dona_Nobis_Pixel

New member
 DVX in Court

I am contemplating getting in the Legal video business in the Washington DC,Va and Md area.
The American Guild of Court videographers recommends a digital camera with the capability of recording two hours or more on a single tape.
Would a Mini Cam like DVX100A with a FireStore FS4 be a viable alternative?
A prompt answer and equipment recommendations from the Court videographers community would be greatly appreciated
 
Re:   DVX in Court

Re:   DVX in Court

Well, I'm not a court videographer, however, the firestore would be a good alternative as it A. eliminates the possiblility of dropped frames, and B. even the 30GB model will hold more than 2 hrs of footager. You may want a larger one, just in case, and still have a tape backup just in case you do run out of HD space, but yes, you should be set.
 
Re:   DVX in Court

Re:   DVX in Court

Since their recommendation for 2+ hours is most likely so you don't miss anything while changing tapes, you could also just chain another cam to the DVX and it will pick up where the DVX left off, tapewise.

Dan
 
Re:   DVX in Court

Re:   DVX in Court

I'd check into all of their requirements. Some of these legal jobs have very strict timecode standards.
 
Re:   DVX in Court

Re:   DVX in Court

I used to do this way back in the days of VHS camcorders... :-/
Video depositions was the specialty of the company I worked for at the time.
The major requirement they had back then was the ability to record the date/time info on screen. No timecode of course with VHS.
The VHS camcorders could of course record for two hours but that was never an issue. They always took breaks about every 45-60mins so I had ample opportunity to change tapes.

It was a pretty boring job as I remember it..... sitting there listening to laywers interview people in a conference room. :-[
 
Re:   DVX in Court

Re:   DVX in Court

I don't know a lot about hard drive recording but I would reccomend against it for legal video. Often times you'll need to turn out a vhs copy fast and often you'll log 8-10 hours of tape a day. I use a dvx ,recording on 83 minute tapes while making a simultaneous svhs backup. A lot of people doing legal video still use svhs. But a lot have switched to dvcam.

The reason the AGCV reccomends 2 hr tapes is because you have to force the attorneys to take a break when you change tapes and they don't like being interrupted, but I find they generally take a break every hour or so anyway, so that's when I change tapes.

As for the AGCV, they look kind of shady, the majority of certified (you may not need to be certified in your state) videographers get their certification through the National Court Reporter's Association http://clvs.ncraonline.org/index.shtml

Personally, I think they're shady too. But it's a nice thing to be able to tell an attorney that you're certified by the NCRA if he's questioning your method. Here's a link to a Yahoo group on Legal Video as well. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LegalVideoForum/
The forum's kinfd of a pain to navigate, but the people there are very helpful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top