Skycam
 Information on this page may be out of date or apply to old equipment. Use with caution.
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| Joe Wharfe says: "This hunk of plastic is rather outdated compared to our current kit. It's currently sat on top of the server rack doing nothing but could be a nice prop if you really wanted." If you have reason to believe this isn't something that ended up in the Bin Pile, feel free to remove this tag. |
This Sony DNW-9WSP, once named Miranda, was obtained second-hand by Anna Bucks from Sky News. It came with a large dedicated tripod, batteries, and charger - at the time of acquisition they suggested that a function doesn't work, however we haven't been able to determine which function this is so it doesn't matter.
This has a very nice lens on, and a good zoom. It is a very mechanical camera, with 2 internal neutral density filters, and 3(?) internal filters for extreme white balancing (there is also the function for fine tuning white balancing automatically by means of a switch). It can have two (or three?) sets of custom settings saved under different names for quick configuration - however there's no instruction manual so good luck on figuring out how to achieve this. The batteries are Ni-Cad and old so don't last very long.
We have four batteries and the charger (which can charge up to 4 batteries simultaneously). We also have a 12V 2.5A power supply for it. Other 12V power supplies will power it for only a couple of seconds, before the camera turns off because it can't draw enough current.
It's good on OBs as a static wide shot, tripod-mounted camera, or for long zooms. It is extremely heavy, and the lack of reliable batteries make it a poor choice for shoulder-mounted use.
For zooming smoothly, there is a switch labelled 'servo', 'manual' which enables or disables the wide and tele paddle which drives the ring motor for zooming. The switch is located on the underside of the handle on the lens. The ring will rotate at a constant speed, the zoom probably isn't linear in the angle of view change for a given rotation of the ring. Even so, the 'servo' setting should be smoother than manually changing the zoom.