WHILE THE OUTCOME OF SUPER BOWL XXXIV REMAINED IN DOUBT until its final play Sunday night, photographers covering the game were sure of three things from the start.
First, they knew there would be very little 35mm film used to document the historic event.
Second, they knew photographic still images would be transmitted around the world faster than ever.
And third, photographers using ditcams (digital cameras) knew they would be more relaxed than ever.
Football is a game of hard-hitting fast action. On Sunday, the photographers stood and kneeled along the sidelines, peering into cameras atop monopods. They focused on the defensive maneuvers and speed of Titan defensive end Jevon Kearse in pursuit of the elusive Rams quarterback, Kurt Warner. By the fourth quarter, the level playing field that had been expected yielded a more dramatic finish than anyone could have anticipated.
Photographically, the question was whether digital cameras would perform up to the high standards needed to cover one of the world’s most watched sporting events?
Five years ago, the Associated Press, in a corporate research agreement with Nikon and Kodak, introduced the News Camera 2000 digital camera. Despite field tests and training at such seminars as Visual Edge, photographers were still leery of the technology and the camera’s performance.
This Super Bowl was different from all other special events. There were several ISDN high-speed telecommunications lines, a couple hundred PCMCIA Cards (better known as PC Cards), NT servers, PC platforms for image handling, and 150 or more ditcams, according to early inquiries.
And for the first time since the introduction of the digital camera, photographers and picture editors had set aside many of their fears.
“Nope. No, I have no jitters about the cameras,” said George Walker, photographer and Super Bowl XXXIV field assigning editor for The (Nashville) Tennessean. Walker said he was “relaxed and confident” about how Canon’s D2000 cameras will operate when the time comes. “This is the year that we are letting go of our worries about digital images. My main concern is, can I see the picture?”
On the other side of the field, the St. Louis Post Dispatch team expressed similar feelings. Photo editor Gary Hairlson led a team of seven photographers using Kodak DCS 520 ditcams.
“Hey, for us, it was business as usual,” Hairlson said before the game. “We are confident that these cameras will do the job and are feeling pretty good about what will happen come game time.”
Twenty-nine-year veteran photographer Brian Horton, senior photo editor for sports for the AP, which pioneered the middle period of the digital camera evolution during the NC 2000 digital days, said there is justification for the newfound confidence.
Approaching his 20th Super Bowl, Horton said, “As far as I am concerned, we can focus on taking great pictures and not on how the cameras will work. With these cameras, we no longer have to worry about reaction time, frame rate, or ease of handling.”
AP ALONE AMASSED A STAFF OF 25 TO 30 PEOPLE. Twelve or so documented with ditcams. Horton said the AP would deploy “a mixture of Nikon-Kodak DCS 620s, Kodak-Canon DCS 520s, and the new Nikon D-1s inside the stadium.”
Behind the scenes in a doublewide trailer, AP constructed an impressive network of PC and Macintosh computers for image handling and delivery. Film processing systems were set up to support members that have yet to step into the era of complete digital imaging.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the game’s hometown paper, tried and tested its equipment at many large sporting events over the past five years. AJC planned to use mostly the new Nikon D-1 ditcams and intends to cover the Super Bowl 100% digitally. And they were not alone. AP, Reuters News Picture, USA Today, and the National Football League planned to offer digital-only coverage.
Come game time, James Colton, picture editor for Sports Illustrated, expected to be “on the receiving end, sitting in New York.” SI and Allsport reportedly planned a combination of digital and traditional film coverage. The St. Louis Dispatch and The Tennessean photographers were likely follow suit with a second film camera as back up.
John Glenn, assistant managing editor for photography at AJC, said he was relaxed. As the Journal-Constitution photo staff prepared to host a pre-Super Bowl Barbeque and Blues Bash at Daddy D’z BarBBQ joint for visiting photographers, the AJC staff expressed the greatest of confidence.
The paper successfully tested the new Nikon D-1 by photographing the New Year’s peach from high atop a tower at Underground Atlanta. They delivered a wonderful image that was on the front page by 12:15 a.m., five minutes before deadline, and the image quality was never questioned.
So the game watched by millions on television will be experienced for days, months, and years to come through the thousands of still images captured by a hundred or so photographers for many millions of eyes around the globe on printed pages and computer screens.
While many photographers are still concerned about how these images will be saved and archived into the future, from what I can see, no one is concerned about, as Walker puts it, “letting go, getting the picture, and getting it out.”
