by Buck McNeely

As the producer/host of the largest syndicated outdoor-adventure TV series in the nation, "The Outdoorsman With Buck McNeely.." 1 find myself in some exotic and remote comers of the globe, shooting under some of the most demanding conditions.
    Whether I'm on a one day fishing trip in my home state of Missouri or on a two-week safari in the African bush, the choice of gear I depend on is critical.

FEATURES
    The original Ikegami Editcam, introduced more than seven years ago, was an interesting experiment but unusable for someone in my position. The camera

light-sensitive (f8.vs.jl1 at 2,000 lux).
    The camera can be quickly switched to shoot in either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios through the viewfinder menu. For low- light shooting, the DNS-201W offers a variety of gain settings that range between -3 dB and +48 dB.
    The DNS-201 takes advantage of virtually all the same digital signal processing found throughout Ikegami's HL line of cameras. Camera "looks" are adjusted through the viewfinder menu and stored on one of eight scene files in the cam- era's memory These can be off-loaded onto an inexpensive SmartMedia card.       Physically; the camera uses the same chassis that Ikegami builds for its DVCPRO camcorders. The body (without lens or accessories) weighs 10.5 pounds

seven different compressions, including AVR- 70BH, AVR- 75, DV50,jFIF 3: 1 and JFlF 10:1, and is compatible with most Avid NUs. When working with an Avid system, the thumbnails that represent the clips appear within seconds after the Field-










 

Pak is mounted to the system. In most cases, you edit directly from the portable drive with no transfer or digitizing.
    Apart from the door mechanism where the hard drive slides into the camcorder, the unit has no other moving parts. That's a big upside to this technology -there is no worry about heads clogging or belts breaking in places where the nearest service shop is a plane ride away.
    The highest -'quality setting available in the Editcam isDV50 (50 Mbps). We recorded in AVR-70BH resolution and AVR-type compression.

IN USE
The Ikegarni DNS-201 W Editcam was outfitted with a FujinonA17x7.8 DERM lens and a 2X extender. This lens also switches into 16:9 for that cinematic look. This is an excellent long lens, essential for quality telephoto shots of wildlife.
    For power, I used Anton/Bauer Digital Trimpac batteries. We are now phasing in the Dionic and lithium-ion-type batteries and find that they are lighter and provide more run time.
    For anyone with experience in this industry, there is a comfort level with videotape. Making the transition to tape- less acquisition does require a small shift in thinking, but the process of getting images is really no different than any other camcorder.
    In theory; if the recorder section ever failed, we would just pop in another Field- Pak. There's not even a dew light on this

camera and we had it working in humidity levels that would knot up videotape.
    For 95 percent of our shooting, the camera goes on a tripod, a battery powers the camera and you hit the record button. The radical differences become apparent only after a closer look.
    Anybody who has ever worked on a fishing show knows that if you want a shot of the host getting a hit on the line, you're either going to bum a ton of tape or you try to get lucky. The lke Editcam has a unique feature that offers another solution: a special type of record mode called "Retro Loop."
    This feature actually let us capture events after they happened. In this mode, the camera writes a "buffer" of time (up to five minutes) to the disk that's constantly updated. We left the buffer set to 30 seconds.
    The Editcam sat in this mode for hours, waiting for a fish to strike. When the fish took the bait, we hit the record button and began recording 30 seconds prior to that point!
    This feature really gives an edge when working with the unpredictable nature of wildlife & and might work well for a news stakeout, too.         Although most of my shooting is done outdoors and in daylight, the DNS- 201 W's excellent sensitivity was a real plus. We recorded quite happily at +9 dB with virtually no noticeable increase in grain.

The author used the Ikegami DNS-201 Editcam on location for his syndicated program "The Outdoorsman With Buck McNeely. "

was large and heavy, it consumed an inordinate amount of power and the drives it used were expensive and lacked the recording capacity that 1 required.  
    But like most hard drive technology, this has changed tremendously over the last seven years.
    The camera section of the Ike DNS-201W Editcam uses three 520,000-pixel IT CCDs. These are the same chips that are used in the HL-45W camera. The Edit- cam is also offered in an FIT version (DNS- 21W), but there is a big difference in price. The IT version is actually a bit more

and looks pretty much like many other camcorders on the market.  Instead of loading a tape, however, you insert a hard drive.
    The Editcam records on a drive called a FieldPak, a single hard drive that fits in a shirt pocket and weighs about eight ounces.  It is the recorder section of the camcorder.
    Ikegami offers Field Paks in two capacities: 20 GB and 40 GB.  At DV25, these translate in 1.5 and 3-hour record times, respectively.
The DNS-201W records in as many as