High Time for HD

High definition video, with its unparalleled ability to relay detail and color gradations, is tailor-made for the production of natural history documentaries. Yet HD equipment, like all new technology, brings with it a novel set of challenges that a doc-maker must overcome - from pre-production through post. As Sydney, Australia-based underwater documentary filmmaker Pawel Achtel points out, 'there are more similarities than differences' between standard definition and HD, 'only everything for high definition has to be better, more precise, more robust and more expensive.'