Grants:PEG/WM CZ/Mediagrant/Camera upgrades

Legal name of chapter

Wikimedia Czech Republic

Grant contact name

Milda

Grant contact user-name or e-mail

wikipedista.milda@gmail.com

Grant contact title (position)

WM CZ grant coordinator

Project lead name

Petr Novák

Project lead user-name or e-mail

User:che

Project lead title (position), if any

chairman

Full project name

Camera upgrades

Amount requested (in USD)

1963 USD

Provisional target start date

as soon as we get funding

Provisional completion date

June 30, 2011

Budget breakdown

We intend to use the all the money to purchase additional equipment for digital SLR we have acquired in last year's project. The approximate allocation will be:

• macro lens: 11500 CZK
• wide angle lens: 18500 CZK
• tripod: 6500 CZK
• polarizer: 1700 CZK
• two sets of batteries and charger: 900 CZK

Total in CZK: 37100 CZK

~ 1963 USD

Project scope

Last year, Wikimedia Czech Republic has been awarded a Camera grant. During the course of that project, we have bought a Canon DSLR with some basic equipment and let Wikipedians use it to take pictures for Wikipedia and Commons. The details can be found in project report, but we think it worked pretty well overall.

However, there are situations where basic equipment does not do the job. These include photographing for botany and mineralogy, where regular lenses are not able to capture details plants and stones in sufficient resolution to make Commons material truly high quality stuff we all want it to be. Also, then photographing reportage and architecture (which sometime nicely merge in our scientific and specialized pictures project), standard zoom lens does not provide wide angle view necessary to show entire building facades of their interiors and what's happening inside.

Therefore, we want to buy equipment that will rectify these shortcomings, and make it available to photographing Wikipedians in the Czech Republic, several of whom have already expressed interest in spending their time making above described kinds of pictures.

Project goal

We obtain a wide angle lens, macro lens, tripod, polarizer and a set of batteries for our flash. We let people use them.

Non-financial requirements

There are no non-financial requirements.

Fit to strategy

The project will improve quality and scope of photographs that Czech Wikipedians upload to Commons, available to worldwide Wikimedia community as well as everyone else. Therefore, Wikipedias will be able to provide better coverage of Czech Republic and basically everything that we come across.

Other benefits

After the official grant project will conclude, the equipment will remain available to willing volunteers for as long as it's feasible. (This will work even better that with "camera" project, since while new and improved DSLR bodies come out every year, a good lens — not to mention tripod — holds its value for much longer.)

Measures of success

These are going to be used to produce at least 200 high-quality Commons uploads in the first year of the project and used in at least two Wikimedia CZ events (such as workshops).