Responsibilities of being a camera operator are limited but they are still your responsibilities. What does it all mean to you? These are two totally different things - Camera Operation and photography, when you are speaking of community access television and operating a camera inside of a studio. In the body of this article, I have placed a link that gives excellent camera descriptions and basic use operations guidelines for studio and field ip camera.

Camera operation is just that. Camera operators are very important in all television productions. After all you will get the shots, hold the shots and you will correct anything that should be corrected. Without the camera operator, you will just have an ordinary operation. You are the life behind the camera. You are the person that allows creativity in shots. Yes, there are some shows that can use just a robotics camera, but that operation is limited. So, as a camera operator you have an important role in television production.

You are the hands behind the camera and though you have eyes, your eyes are under the direction of the Director of the show. What does this mean to you as a photographer? It means that you can be an awesome photographer and yet still produce bad shots if you are acting under someone's direction who is not a photographer. In the studio, while doing television shows, the Director who is in the control room calls all the shots. Some Directors take full charge and the camera operator is not allowed to use his mind or eyes to change the shots or do any experimentation. On some shows, the Director can and does use the talents of a professional photographer who is operating the camera and the Director will instruct the photographer, ahead of time, to get the best shots he can get (while that particular camera is not on program). So, if you are a fussy photographer who wants to control all of your own shots, do not work as a camera operator inside a television studio.

There are basics to camera operation and the basics begin with safety of the camera, safety of the operator, and having the knowledge to know who is in charge of the show/shots.