Best camera for shooting wedding

[Gigi Harris]

HI Warren,

I did a South african documentary a few years back with Northwestern Kellogg University GIM Program. Fell in love with the country. What part do you live in?

In regard to your post, yes I still shoot with the Z5U and love love love it. Flash (M2T) files as well as shoot tape at the same time. Best of both worlds. I still like tape as archive and need it for weddings I shoot for others. The camera is rock solid, absolutely fabulous in low light. Up there close to the PD170 and 2100. the all time best low light cameras. I also am a huge fan of the Sony 970 battery (the real sony still in package not the knock offs) This battery lasts forever and out lasts every other battery on the planet bar none. I have had them all. I love the fact that the camera also shoots native 24/30. Great for Docs and Music videos. I Edit with FCP 7 (still some kinks after doing a clean instal with snow leopard) But there are alot of improvements as well, I shoot HDV or M2T and Edit Pro Res. Pro res is a dream and render times are a fraction of HDV. (Never ever edit an HDV timeline unless doing straight cuts or simple transitions. useful if printing back to video, but that’s about it) Definitely less hard drive space needed but the rendering times for effect heavy timeline is unbearable. It’s worth the money to by some 2 terabyte external firewire drives or Raid. Editing in ProRes gives better color space and green screen is alot easier. If you are not interested in going to tape at all, you still can shoot flash M2T. The new AVCHD tapeless HXR-NX5U might be a good choice for you. The camera is almost identical outside of being tapeless. Call me old fashioned. but I still like tape for archiving as well as shoot flash. Whats not to love by being able to do both at the same time. Hope this helps

gigih7

[Warren Anderson]

Hi Gigi
Thank you so much, I am based in Johannesburg, but shoot all over the country and 90% of our work is weddings and we also shoot music videos and conferencing etc. I really enjoy my trusty old PD170’s and you’re 100 % correct about the NP-F970 batteries being so fantastic. I need all the help I can get re HD – We were in Egypt over Christmas and New Year and I recorded 3 hours of HD on my small Rollei HD cam which uses H264 compression, dumped the clips on my Mac Quad Pro – took 12 hours of rendering, so this has me a bit worried ito post production, although I believe capturing in pro res is a lot quicker. I spoke to one of the local Panasonic guys re their AG HMC 150P which is a lot cheaper than the Sony Z5 and the NX5 – the Z5 uses MPeg 2 compression whereas the NX5 uses the new AVCHD Mpeg4 as does the Panasonic range of cameras, and hence much better quality. He tells me that AVCHD is definately the way to go and that the Sony Z5 is old technology. Is the Z5 quality also much better than the PD170 ?
I would really prefer to remain with tape as we often shoot 3-4 weddings in a week and end up with around 14 hours of tape and at 12gigs per hour would require 168 gigs of storage per week if I go tapeless, so would have to look at a Raid system. Many thanks really appreciate your input and will read through all the posts to try and gain more insight.

[Gigi Harris]

Didn’t mean to unsubscribe. Hit wrong button. Hope this puts me back on this thread.

gigih7

[Gigi Harris]

Warren,

Definitely capturing directly to prores is the way to go with the Z5U. When editing MP2 footage captured to prores, there is a negligible difference to that of AVCHD. Both have pros and cons. I do a lot more weddings than commercials, infomercials, documentaries and music videos. But I do enough of these to tell you that shooting M2T and tape at the same time is great. Editing is a breeze. I guess the only time I would really think about the minimal quality difference is if my video were shot 24P and transferred to film
For theatrical distribution. Otherwise I would definitely go with the Z5U if weddings is your mainstay. You can always output your final to quicktime and print back to video for a hard tape copy for archiving. As I said before, AVCHD, M2T, and tape all have their place in the wedding business. I shoot a lot for other companies and have to send in the tapes. Sending flash cards is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too expensive. So I have the best camera (Z5U) to serve all those purposes. Those people giving opinions and advise, unless they understand the wedding business and the huge volume of footage, they would understandably vote for AVCHD tapeless. Old technology isn’t always the worse.
In regards to the quality in comparison to the pd170. It depends on what you mean by quality. The PD170 is an unbelievable camera, great low light and rock solid. Love it. But it doesn’t shoot HD. Now if you are looking to go into the HD world but still want the choice to shoot SD which most HD cameras do, then the HVR-Z5U is every bit as wonderful as the PD170. In some ways much better. 20X lens, 3.23 inch led monitor (I think it’s bigger) also the Z5U shoots true native 24/30 progressive. The Z5 will also give you far more options to adjust the image than you find on the PD-170.

Here is a link to my documentary page with my South African Gim scenes. One of my favorite docs to date. Loved working on the safari. https://web.me.com/gigih7/Spirit_of_Play_Video_Productions/Documentaries.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrJic7yiuxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrJic7yiuxo&feature=related Gim South Africa Langa part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xckcxOdqr6s I shot the american interviews but most of the footage was shot by the students in South Africa, alot using a camera for the first time, so the shots were not always the best. I learned so much about South Africa that I was never aware of. Especially apartheid. would absolutely love to visit. It has been a dream of mine. I would love to see some of your South african work.

gigih7

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[Chaz Davis]

PLEASE….I’m in need of any suggestions or direction. I’m a new college video student looking to shoot weddings to help pay bills.

Please comment on the following and please advise any other “must have” items for wedding coverage. Reminder I’m on a shoe string budget.

1. camera Panasonic AG HMC 40
2. software vegas or Powerdirector 9

thanking you in advance, chaz

[Andrew Watts]

Hi Chaz
You said “I’m a new college video student looking to shoot weddings to help pay bills.”
Forgive me I don’t know you but have you videoed any weddings before? I would be horrified to meet a video person covering my daughters wedding only to find that you were practicing and charging on such a momentous day with the attitude “I want to pay some bills?”.
We all have to start somewhere once you have a few years under your belt you will answer your own question, its not the video camera its the person behind it, In other words you can shoot a wedding on a small hand held video camera using a tripod it will be fine on close ups with normal lights in the church etc but shooting the disco will be poor picture quality very grainy and if on automatic it will find it hard to focus on shoots over 15 feet indoors But any outside shoots are fine these small handheld video cameras need to be on a tripod and don’t zoom in. If I was you I would use whatever video camera you have with a solid tripod find its limits once that is done then offer your services for free for the first ten or so so you know what is expected of you remember that a you will be videoing for about ten hours on the day then it will probably take about thirty two hours to edit the footage with menus and burn to DVD I started back in 1981 and I am self taught, be creative and enjoy videography you wont get rich quick?

Have fun Andy

[Bryant Shunk]

Hi Andy, I have been reading some threads on here and wanted to get your opinion since you have posted most recently. Along with my sister, I am going to get into shooting wedding videos. I have always loved filming, and now with the ease of final cut pro, I have begun to love editing even more. I have a degree in audio engineering which is helping me, but, I am uncertain what camera I should buy. I am looking for something in the 4 thousand dollar range. I want to get the best HD camera I can for this budget, and I have been primarily researching the Sony line. I wanted to go with the EX1R, but I need to cut back on the initial investment until I have filmed enough weddings for free that I can use to build a better business on. I’m not looking to get rich quick. I’m looking to make a career out of shooting weddings. I want a camera that will give me the ability to get a professional business started. Any input you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time, and thank you to anyone else who may respond to this.
–Bryant

[Andrew Watts]

Hi Bryant
Thank you for your email. I might have been in the trade for thirty years but I am still learning. The business modal has to be right from the start you said you and your sister you will have to have a good turnover to pay both of you.

The first thing is to enjoy your line of work and let your flare behind the camera come alive through your editing skills and final product to the customer.
Get to know what comes next and a typical wedding then add in extras like staying till the end or pre-wedding shoots of the bride getting ready.

The second thing is keep it simple us a tripod when videoing and when editing dont over do special effects, it might show off your ability or skill in editing but it becomes gimmicky and unprofessional swirling titles and to much slow motion.its not until you have cut your teeth on doing all this will you get to grips with what I mean.

Third don’t spend yet?? on any cameras use what you have and let the Business grow naturally Dont walk before you can run!.

Fouth You wont make a living out purely out of shooting Wedding Videos unless you live in Wedding City.

A full all wedding shoot will take about ten hours on the day and about 30-32 hours to edit In other words a weeks work and your costings will have to reflect this plus the depreciation of the equipment like Camera and batteries etc.

In the UK the Sony ex1 or ex3 are hot favourites but with HD it also mean a 64bit editing machine and Blue Ray. But 99% of customers want standard def so HD might be good outside but its not good for disco scenes inside or low light shoots. The sony ex1 or ex3 will have a sharper picture when shot in standard def over a old standard def video camera.

Have a very simple web site. Your Business have to start somewhere don’t borrow money use what you have and save hard and over two or three years you should have the money to purchase outright a SONY EX3 with a extra plate to support the camera on your shoulder get a Nano drive this will allow you to record in 100bps instead of 35bps as standard on the EX3 this setup will allow your company to grow into small ads for business and internet video transfer etc, give the whole project three years to get off the ground and only then it might pay for itself expanding into other areas is a must to keep the money coming in. purchasing expensive cameras dont always mean better videos its you who can make the video better.
Regards
Andy Woodland Studios from the UK