How important is the 'broadcast standard'?

[Fortinbras]

I need your opinion.
For almost a year now, I have been putting my time and energy (lots!) and money in a personal passion project about the commemoration of the first world war. I go out and do a lot of filming, and what I have, I usually cut into short films and I put these short films on Vimeo. Bu what I have up to now is in fact b-roll material which I will use for a full blown documentary on the subject. Once finished, I plan to do some screenings for those interested in the matter in special locations, and who knows, I might as well enter some international screenings as well.

As the project evolved, I have pushed my camera (Canon T2i) to its limits, I think. I have also invested in some good glass. I 'm not at all a professional film maker, but I read a lot about it, and I stumble on the 'standard broadcast': 50Mbps and 4:2:2 color space. Of course, my humble T2i doesn't deliver that.
My dilemma is this: as I'm putting all this time in it, is it all worth it as it is non-broadcast standard? Upgrading to a standard approved camera is quite an investment, one I cannot afford. Renting doesn't make sense as this is a long running project.
Your view will be appreciated.

Here is my latest short:

 

[Patryk_Rebisz]

Worry about content not specs.

 

[LyleGorch]

Documentaries, especially on historical topics use material from a wide variety of sources. I've used horribly transferred 8mm, flakey 1 inch, 3/4" and far too much VHS in pieces that have gone to national broadcast, but it was all archival material and archival material is always the exception. I would say try to shoot the body of your production, interviews, broll and recreations in the best format you can get your hands on, maybe try finding one of the smaller 3 chip 1/3" cameras that capture to one of the "professional" higher bit rate codecs before you start shooting interviews, Panasonic, Canon and Sony all make models in this category (they are really popular for ENG these days) and sometimes they can be found used at significant discounts.

Why bother? If you have any intention of your project going to broadcast there will be a QC process/protocol with the network/broadcaster after delivery and before the broadcast window and you will need to satisfy the broadcaster's specs with a tight deadline, and in my experience fixing things on a tight deadline can become very very expensive, particularly with caption-encoded broadcast masters. Starting with camera original that doesn't have any idiosyncrasies is going to help down the line.

Online just about anything goes, you can shoot a doc with your smart phone.