WTF Is Up With The IFSC Camera Work?

The IFSC Bouldering World Cup just wrapped in Innsbruck with some excellent rounds of competition and great problems by the setters. While everyone is thankful to watch the semis and finals for free on YouTube, there were some big problems with the camera work. From odd angles to zooming in on hands and feet at weird times to missing big moments, the livestream was all over the place. The above screenshot is of Janja Garnbret’s feet the moment she won gold, instead of showing her going for the last hold.

On the women’s finals YouTube page, one comment read, “Some of the worst camerawork I’ve seen in a long time, especially for a finals round. All that we ask is for the athletes to be in frame (full body) as they are climbing.” And another read, “In many occasions when the athlete was about to perform the movement, the camera would focus on a detail of a hold or a feet and we lost the overall perspective of how the movement was done. For example, in the last boulder we couldn’t see how Garnbret did the crux because during the two tries she executed the beta, the camera selected was focusing and closed on the heel hook.”

And while things improved slightly for the men’s finals, the camera operators were still zooming in to hands and feet at weird times. One person commented, “Once again the cameras have failed to capture vital moments of the competition and instead zoomed in on random holds. This mistake was made and called out at yesterday’s women’s finals and yet they do not fix it, very disappointing.”

It was a great event with solid routesetting and world-class climbing, and thanks to the IFSC for providing free livestreams, but hopefully the camera work gets sorted out for the upcoming World Cups and Olympics. Watch the finals below and read about Garnbret’s win here.

Women’s/Men’s Finals