My first job in life was with the National Bank (NAB) just as I turned 15, and initially I loved it. These days, I am a bit more jaded about banks and their tactics, but one thing I am sure of is that working in a bank takes away the sense of 'value'. Why? Well for me and other bank jonnies I knew, $2000 became a pile of red and orangey notes about 'so high'.

So I would look at this story with a different - probably jaundiced - eye than others, but it is worth telling. I was pointed today by our own Ben "Biggles" Longden to a story on the B-Roll forum. Some poor chappie had spent his well earned on a new Panasonic camera as it appeared he had received a contract to work as a stringer - a freelance news gatherer - for a local TV station. The sad thing was, he discovered the station couldn't read the format of his captured footage.

'What am I going to do' he wailed?" to no-one in particular. Advice came thick and fast. There is a package to convert his footage to what the TV station wanted but this was too low and time is of the essence in news gathering. Someone else suggested buying a cheap tape SD camcorder off e-bay and using this as a deck by printing-to-tape from the timeline of Sony Vegas and yet a third suggested taking the camera back and trying to switch it for one that was suitable. A last person said why not buy a cheap camera for news gathering and use the expensive one for more expensive jobs?

Now imagine you have just landed a job as the person to drive the race tyres for Ford V8 Racing from circuit to circuit, but you have to supply the transport. You decide in celebration that a brand new u-beaut-ute is order, but unless you are as bright as a total eclipse, you are not going to drop into the local Holden dealer and by a Maloo ute are you?

So surely, if you nail a gig as a TV stringer, you'd check what formats they can accept - and more importantly perhaps, ones they can't!

So little sympathy from me I am afraid. But a lesson worth learning!

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com