By: Joe Strupp Joe Rose of The Oregonian in Portland, who often bikes to assignments, says his ""mojo"" kit includes a month-old Apple MacBook, a portable USB DiskGO external hard drive; a Verizon wireless broadband USB720 modem; a Canon Powershot digital ELPH 7.8 megapixel camera; a Sanyo Xacti high- definition digital video camera; and an 8 gigabyte Apple iPhone.
""They started with Dell laptops a couple of years ago, but they were not that great ? and now we get the Macbooks,"" he says. ""They have all the editing equipment. This is also the second laptop I have had in six months, after the first one broke after it was dropped in a rainstorm.""
At the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, mobile blogger Monica Guzman says her FLIP F130 digital video camera is not ""high-end technology,"" but it is a ""very economical Web camera"" that serves her purposes well. Her mobile bag also includes a Dell Latitude D620 laptop, Samsung camera flip-phone, and Canon Powershot A520 digital camera. ""The laptop is about eight months old and the camera is several years old, and the cell phone is kind of basic,"" she admits.
Amy Bartner at The Indianapolis Star also concedes her Sony HVR-A1U digital video camera is ""middle to low, but good enough for online."" The rest of her backpack kit includes an Apple Macbook OS-X, a Canon Powershot S3 1S digital camera, and a Verizon LG cell phone.
The costs can run more than $14,000 for such kits, as the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle indicated in its list of necessary gadgets for its mobile journalists.
According to Editor Karen Magnuson, that list includes:
Sony HVR-A1U HDV camera with Sony wireless microphone and video light, Sennheiser shotgun microphone, Libec tripod: $5,000
Canon 30D digital still camera, 17-35 mm and 70-200 mm lenses and flash: $5,000
Dell Precision M65 laptop computer with Avid and Photoshop Elements and Photo Mechanic software: $4,000
Marantz PMD660 handheld digital audio recorder: $500
Mobile journalist backpack: $200
Cell phone: $100
TOTAL: $14,800
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here