egafd.com

thanks for the info, I'll look into those

this place does them for ?6.85
http://www.tv-bay.com/forsale/Tape_Stoc ... 02238.html

I wonder how much better for the machine they are than standard HD sony tapes? A review on amazon said the quailty of the playback was about the same.
their a lot more expensive, but I guess it is worth it, and it's not like i'm shooting hundreds of hours

Nobody in broadcast seriously refers to camera operators as a director of photography, though annoyingly, when I am the lighting cameraman on stuff I am occassionally refered to as the cam op on the call sheet. No big deal to most, I suppose, but when future work often relies on past credits and all some companies look at is those credits, being thought of as 'just' the operator when you lit it can be frustrating. In case you think I'm being a bit precious, accountants probably dont like to be called book keepers, and when I operate I dont mind being called the operator.

Spot on about DVCam though. I was a series cameraman on a CH5 reality show shot on DVCam with DSR 450s. I dont know what the editors did in post but considering the quick turnaround it looked fantastic. Mind you it was 2 years ago and it would probably now be shot on XDCam to disc/card. The EX1, even using the cheaper non-proprietary cards rather than the horribly expensive SxS cards, can produce fabulous results.

There's a habit these days for the hirers at companies to be so inexperienced that they have to see a reel before they think you can do it. If they dont see their next production on your reel they dont give you a second glance. Commercials perhaps might require a reel, but if I send a cv for the kind of work I do, realities, docs, corporates etc, I expect them to be able to see from whats on the cv that I am experienced and well capable of shooting their job, otherwise there wouldn't be the list of stuff on it. In 15 years as broadcast cameraman work has come in from cv, recomendations and my diary service; its only comparatively recently i've been asked to send a showreel.

The best technical people to speak to are:

Stanley Productions.
www.stanleyproductions.com

They have huge experience in this area.