I would vote for a long baseline for holography. We also do not know the extra capacities of the camera.
VOY's Doctor and his bulky camera?
- Thread starter Mr. Laser Beam
- Start date
Stuff gets bigger and smaller all the time. Japanese cellphones are currently trending much larger, mostly to make a bigger fashion statement and to accomodate larger media screens. When I was there in the late 90s, the latest ones were barely larger than your thumb when folded up. My last two phones have gotten larger in size too.
The Doctor's huge camera could simply be a fashion statement - a way of saying "Hey, I'm a PHOTGRAPHER! DEAL with it!" in his usual egotistical way. There's that guy from the USS Victory who seemed to have a far cooler 3D video camera that was smaller and in a headset. But then, HE wasn't making a statement, he just had to get the job done.
Of course, the real reason he had aa huge camera was so that ANYONE in the audience could take a half-second look at it and instantly recognize it as such. If the Doctor had a camera the size and shape of a credit card, us Treknology types would be in awe over it, but some people would be scratching their heads instead of paying attention to the storyline. Anything for ratings.
Mark
The Doctor's huge camera could simply be a fashion statement - a way of saying "Hey, I'm a PHOTGRAPHER! DEAL with it!" in his usual egotistical way. There's that guy from the USS Victory who seemed to have a far cooler 3D video camera that was smaller and in a headset. But then, HE wasn't making a statement, he just had to get the job done.
Of course, the real reason he had aa huge camera was so that ANYONE in the audience could take a half-second look at it and instantly recognize it as such. If the Doctor had a camera the size and shape of a credit card, us Treknology types would be in awe over it, but some people would be scratching their heads instead of paying attention to the storyline. Anything for ratings.
Mark
That was reusing a prop versus making a new one?
If ya think about it, the doctor doesn't even need a camera, real or virtual. He's a computer program, directly linked to the ship's computer, Anything he "sees" is already in the computer! All he'd have to do is mentally tell the ship to save an image he sees and file it.
^ Excellent point. 
Then again, the Doctor also needs tricorders for scanning his patients.
He's not integrated to the ship's sensors so thoroughly that he would have "supernatural" senses. He wasn't intended to, because he was supposed to be mere rush hour help. A medical tricorder obviously sees something in the patients that the general room surveillance sensors cannot see. The handheld holographic camera could also see things that the room sensors cannot.
It is something of a mystery why we don't see more cameras, or fewer cameras. If away teams cannot pipe up any visual data except when one team member has a headset or wears a rigged VISOR, why aren't headsets and VISORs mandatory for all away teams? OTOH, if visual imagery can be recorded by tricorders (and we see this at times), why the headset in "Identity Crisis"?
I would suggest that tricorders usually record sufficient visuals, but specialist cameras are used for a more "dramatic" recording - one where the angles and framings are chosen by a dedicated visual recordist who holds the recorder at eye level. The devices used for this dramatic recording are then equipped with a variety of drama-enhancing bells and whistles; civilian ones, like EMH's camera or Chakotay's "tourist" disguise one, have more of those for the sales appeal, while professional journalists (ST:GEN) or Starfleet officers on assignment ("Identity Crisis") use more austere and compact gear.
Timo Saloniemi
He's not integrated to the ship's sensors so thoroughly that he would have "supernatural" senses. He wasn't intended to, because he was supposed to be mere rush hour help. A medical tricorder obviously sees something in the patients that the general room surveillance sensors cannot see. The handheld holographic camera could also see things that the room sensors cannot.
It is something of a mystery why we don't see more cameras, or fewer cameras. If away teams cannot pipe up any visual data except when one team member has a headset or wears a rigged VISOR, why aren't headsets and VISORs mandatory for all away teams? OTOH, if visual imagery can be recorded by tricorders (and we see this at times), why the headset in "Identity Crisis"?
I would suggest that tricorders usually record sufficient visuals, but specialist cameras are used for a more "dramatic" recording - one where the angles and framings are chosen by a dedicated visual recordist who holds the recorder at eye level. The devices used for this dramatic recording are then equipped with a variety of drama-enhancing bells and whistles; civilian ones, like EMH's camera or Chakotay's "tourist" disguise one, have more of those for the sales appeal, while professional journalists (ST:GEN) or Starfleet officers on assignment ("Identity Crisis") use more austere and compact gear.
Timo Saloniemi
Also, the Doctor is vain enough that he likes to BE in his pictures. Between that, not wanting to tell people "alright, now smile at my face as though it were a camera!", and the simple conceits of being programmed to behave as a human, it makes sense that he'd want to tote around a physical apparatus to take his pictures.
Mark
Mark
Due to vanity a large camera?
Maybe so.
And Picard and crew were SO bedazzled when Geordi hooked up a bluetooth adapter to his VISOR...
Mark
Mark
