CNN correspondent Nic Robertson waxes enthusiastic about the "revolutionary" aspect of camera phones during a 2:23 minute video on CNN Pipeline (see left). Robertson says, "2006 has to be the year of the most dramatic change that I've seen in the last 15 years or so in broadcasting."
The change is because of camera phones.
"This is the future of live broadcast," he says. No longer do reporters need a big video camera and a truck with a microwave dish in order to be first to report the news, Robertson explains.
N90 for three CNN videos
Robertson uses a two megapixel Nokia N90 camera phone and discusses three situations where it has been extremely useful. The first instance is when he shot a video of himself sitting at home discussing the situation in Afghanistan and transmitting it to CNN Pipeline.
The second situation was when he was at a refuge camp at Darfur in the Sudan. Robertson and his crew, including his translator, had to run for their lives to get to their van that was attacked by refugees who wanted to pull the translator out of the van to kill him.
As refugees attacked the van and broke windows, Robertson used the N90 to shoot a video of the scene while the van was speeding away. The video also was included as part of his Pipeline report.
It was jerky and sometimes out of focus as Robertson bounced around the van, but there's no doubt about the video's newsworthiness. You can see the crowd attacking and beating on the van.
Safe by being unobtrusive
The third example of using the N90 was in Baghdad on November 15, 2005 when he was able to shoot a video outside an underground bunker where Iraqis had been tortured.
Robertson says it was only because the camera phone was small and unobtrusive -- and the police didn't know what he was doing -- that he was able to shoot the video, that also was shown in his Pipeline broadcast.
A camera phone is "all you need to go live from many locations in the world now," he says.
Robertson praises camera phones before
This isn't the first time -- I think -- Robertson has discussed the value of the N90. In July 2006 I wrote in "Camera Phone Report" about a CNN reporter who penned an article (without a byline) about the N90 for shooting videos.
Although the article isn't signed, I'd be surprised if Robertson didn't write it.
N90 quality
I have an N90 that was given to me to test as part of Nokia's blogger relations program. I established a moblog for N90 photos, plus two videos on a ferry to Nantucket Island on a very foggy morning and on a ferry back to Cape Cod in the late afternoon when I visited Nantucket off Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
N90 videos don't offer the quality of a professional's (or even an amateur's) video camera, but they certainly are good enough for airing on television. And the N90 has been supplemented (though not in the United States, sigh) by the 3.2 megapixel N93 and, early next year, the five megapixel N95.
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