Originally posted by Paul Hunt This question is not intended to be facetious...
Apart for reasons of convenience, why would a professional choose a DSLR for video, over a dedicated video camera?
I recently used my K-5 instead of the dedicated video cam I normally use for work and have done that before. My normal video cam is this one:. There was news to be had at a nature reserve and although I went there for a radio item I was asked to shoot some video for a short segment in our newscast. Due to budget cuts there is only one cameraman available. So some of us have had some training to shoot and edit video. I chose my DSLR because its portability and handling; so basically because it was more conveniant.
The video cam isn't very heavy but bigger and there are controls everywhere which can be a problem when you try to concentrate on doing two things (radio&video) well. The tripod for the video cam is also significant more heavy than my own Gitzo tripod (without video head). Further more I knew I didn't have to interview anybody and that sound wasn't important in this instance (and if needed I can alway's record some background noise with my small Nagra audiorecorder.) And I knew I could get some good footage with just steady shots without panning or zooming (I've made many fine news video's with my video cam without those are techniques before). I still managed to do some usable hand held shots though.
So in this instance taking my K-5 with me instead of lugging the whole video setup with me hiking in to meadows was the right compromise and the video editor did like the 'feel' of the footage out of the Pentax with it's bigger sensor. If I had known about this assignment beforehand I would have brought my macro lens because the story had to do with very, very rare mushrooms, but for close focussing the DA*16-50 did the job. Professional use of video in the publicly funded regional news industrie over here is more and more about getting acceptable images as cheap and efficient as possible because of those big budget cuts which the national, publicly funded, broadcasting industrie is also dealing with. Gradually I see a bit more colleagues using a DSLR for work or wanting to use one although I don't expect them to become a mainstream newscam for video. If see no reason why a K-3 on a tripod wouldn't be at least as useful as my K-5 on a tripod and with the newly added video functionality's it will probably be better.