system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What do those massive shoulder mounted TV cameras do that a nice handheld video camera cannot?
gpt
As an operator of one of those big cameras, here's what's going on.

**Enormous lenses and sensors designed to let in a lot of light, plus a mechanical aperture.** This gives the camera the ability to operate in a wide range of lighting conditions. That lens assembly usually extends back into the "body" of the camera quite a ways. Glass is heavy, too.

**Motor-driven and by-hand zoom, focus, aperture etc** - You can twist rings on the outside of the assembly to adjust all of the above by hand, which is sometimes preferable and looks "more natural." But they're also motorized, enabling you to adjust all of those settings by the controls near your hand on the back, by a remote control, or by the onboard computer.

**Onboard computing hardware to process uncompressed video, and to make smart decisions if set to auto**. Most consumer cameras take video and immediately compress it to something like MPEG-4 with very little flexibility in options for that. These bad boys store and process *uncompressed* video, which can hit like a gig a minute. They also have better capability for a wider "palette" of colors to work with than consumer cameras. This footage can hit like a gig a minute easy. And then if you want to leave some or all of the camera's decisions for aperture/color balance/etc up to the hardware itself, there's an enormous expectation that a camera that expensive will have a better auto than a sony HandyCam.

**Large properly shaped microphones and connectors for pro level external mics**. Consumer cameras usually have little mics, and they're often omnidirectional and pick up *everything*, which is often a bad thing. Larger "shotgun" style mics pick up in a conical pattern (think about what a shotgun blast would hit, to paint a dark metaphor) which is preferable to get just your subject. Additionally, the camera has XLR hookups and onboard 48v power for pro-level external mics so you can use both built-in and external. XLR plugs are like the size of your thumb and there's no mini version.

edit: **oh, and the battery is often enormous and goddamn heavy** - with so much more stuff onboard than your average camera, If this thing had a relatively light battery you'd get like an hour tops. So the battery is usually pretty beefy so you can film all day. Sitting it on your shoulder is the most comfortable way to hold that weight. Oh, and **metal frame**, consumer cameras are plastic but these guys are usually significantly metal for durability. Not that you should be throwing a 10k camera, but just in case.