What camera? For Live Event. Up in a helicopter and on a freighter in the ocean.
 

Hey Peeps,

I need to know from your experience what cameras are best to shoot a live event with the camera a few miles away from the Controls, if possible. We will have two live cameras, one on a freighter boat and one either in a helicopter or on the Golden Gate Bridge shooting a live feed.

What camera's have you tried?
What size lenses should I add?
What do you recommend I use to send that signal a few miles away to the Main Switcher?
Where can I get this equipment in the Bay Area?

Need to shoot in HD. Tape preferred. Editing later on Final Cut 7. Snow Leopard

This will be transmitted to a large big screen for a crowd to watch as these boats come in from the bay.

I'm totally clueless as to what equipment I need to shoot this. Everything is supplied by another company except the two cameras and videographers.

Sorry if this is so vague.
Best,
Kelly

I'd jump in with preliminaries: for sending video wirelessly for several miles, microwave transmission is probably your best bet (likely to have significantly less issues than RF, especially using HD). Probably be quite spendy, if a rental IS indeed available in your market.

I would bite the bullet and bring in an expert team for something like this, and it won't be cheap. Your going to need HDSDi equiped cameras, stabilised lenses or camera mounts, high power digital HD video links, directional rx antennas and people to point them. There are so many failure modes for something like this that it really is a job for someone that knows what they are doing.

I agree with Alister but I didn't want to be the first "naysayer", especially since the OP used the words "totally clueless". That to me is an indication that someone could well be in over their head and this doesn't sound like a great opportunity to "try it out and see what works".

Webcam. Laptop with Internet. And a magnifying glass to zoom further. It would look so VIRAL! Good luck.