Ok, if you thought that maybe I had finally gone off my rocker and posted pictures of myself naked, sorry.

Last weekend I did feel naked though. Canon Professional Services send me one of the most anticipated HD video cameras in a while to try out for four days only. The Canon VIXVIA HF-10 is a tiny consumer level flash memory HD video camera that can record 2 hours of full HD video to it's built in memory.  I didn't mean for this to be a technical blog entry so if you have an interest, you can read my full review and see images and movies from it here .  http://starbannerphoto/hf10  
The condensed version is that for only about $1000 it's an incredible camera.

Now to the nakedness -

The news is the news and we will always be here to cover it. However, the way we gather and deliver the news is changing.

The reason I felt naked for those four days is because I used only this camera for both still and video coverage. Yep, I left the big ol' Canon 1D MKII and 40D in the car. I've been doing this in one form or another since 1979. I've always carried at least 2 big cameras (I used to carry three but stopped after I saw my boss sitting in the darkroom in traction one day).  A camera to a photographer is like underwear. Unless your Brittany Spears you never go anywhere without them. You can see how awkward leaving them in the car would feel.

The camera I'm carrying above is the first step in the next revolution of news gathering. The camera that can shoot stills and video at the same time and provided both with quality. You'll say, Alan, where have you been, that's not new. No it's not but the way this camera does it is. With truly digital video and internal memory (and you can write video to a small memory card, too), you can now work with the video with about the same convenience and speed as stills. That's the key, No tape, no hard drives, no mini DVD's no proprietary image formats. Hook up the camera, start editing.

The point of this is not to show you another new HD video camera. The geek in me is absolutely giddy about it but that's not the most exciting part. The most exciting part is the catalyst to story telling this technology will be.

Alan Youngblood/Photo Editor/Star-Banner