-
Does anyone use camcorders for weddings anymore?
Haven’t done anything in awhile, and need to upgrade to 4k to start doing weddings again. In the past, have used a camcorder (most recently Sony nx5u) and a smaller, more affordable, camcorder back camera. Have not really owned a DSLR or similar for many years.
Now, upgrading, would love to have a Sony A7sIII but it’s definitely out of my price range. Was looking at the 90d as an interim, intermediate affordable solution, but the lenses are quite expensive too. Apparently it’s necessary to purchase a separate video lens the regular ones would change aperture when zooming.
If you have to purchase two, and lenses and etc, it’s really expensive. I’m also concerned about hassling with things such as overheating and also the 30 minute record limit and fewer features and options.
Still, it seems that this is what everyone is doing. If you freelance, they ONLY want you to have DSLRs or similar, so they must be producing a better result.
Could use some advice on exactly what is necessary for an upgrade.
Also (if anyone’s left), what happened to the forum? It looks like everyone’s gone. Where are they going now?
-
4 Replies
-
Greetings from a dinosaur of the trade. I’ve been out of the wedding game a long time so take my opinions for what you think they’re worth. I’m still a fan of camcorders for wedding work over DSLR rigs today. Particularly if you work short-handed, with multiple cameras. Of course you wanna shoot in 4K but as you’ve sort of indicated in your post, by the time you assemble a DSLR rig that can do everything a dedicated camcorder can do, (audio, long record times, long capacity, ease of use when hand held for long periods – ) you’re spending more money.
What I would be doing if I was in the game today is, use a 4K camcorder, but also plant 4k gopro type action cams around the church where I could get away with that.
As far as freelance jobs that “demand” a DSLR, well, you have to decide what your niche is and your “right price” for the level of service you provide is. That means you sometimes let an opportunity slip by that’s not a good fit, or you turn down a gig that doesn’t pay enough for the time you have to put in. That’s what uncle Harry and his wobbly hand-held iPhone shots are for. Part of why the event forum is slow I think is, the gear has gotten so much better and cheaper, it democratized the process for a whole lot more people, to DIY, and a large number of peopler who might have hired a wedding shooter before, now think they can do “good enough” with iPhones. They’re wrong, of course, but that’s a value decision they made.
-
Haha thanks. Yeah it’s a real dilemma. I do feel that having a 90d would really up my photography skills, but if it’s cost-prohibitive to set up all over again to do weddings I may have to find another justification to buy this camera.
I was thinking maybe the 90d and then an inexpensive 4k recorder as a backup cam. But I’m still in the process also of setting up to do drone photography and guessing that people might want that too. So that’s more money.
I do have a gopro gathering dust after I found out it wasn’t really adequate for 360 tours though.
Those A7slll’s look like a beast though. I want one so badly.
It’s sad to see such a great forum be so quiet. Haven’t checked the other CC forums so maybe it’s just the events one, don’t know. Is there another site people have moved to?
-
I’ve been shooting weddings for over 30 years now, and I’d say that for the last 8, I’ve been shooting with a combination of traditional camcorders and DSLRs – DSLRS for the “eye candy” parts of the day such as preps, photo sessions, and camcorders for everything else.
My DSLRs have primarily been Lumix – GH4, G85, S1…I would describe my feelings towards them as “love/hate” – especially the S1 – beautiful images in low light, but you loose too much time focusing – auto focus is lacking despite several firmware updates that promised better focus among other things.
I’ve been through many camcorders over the years – bought one in August – Canon XA 50 which has become my go to camera (and I had always been partial to Sony before this). I like it much better then I expected to – and I’m using the DSLRs less and less.
-
Aside from dealing with same day edit, I think there is still room for old school cameras.
I’ve only shot once in my life and never again.
Its not for the weak 😛
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up