Wedding videos

[Jason Jenkins]

The Panasonic HVX is not very good in low light. If you were to use an HVX, you would definitely need a good on-camera light and a couple of 64GB P2 cards to make sure you have enough media. The Canon 5D, coupled with fast lenses is amazing in low light because of the large sensor, but there may be limitations on the record time.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[Mark Suszko]

I have not looked at in in depth, but at first blush the new Panasonic AG-AF100 looks like it would work well for this task: with variable recording duration, multiple codecs and using cheaper storage cards than P2, the guts of the camera seem to be DSLR guts, with the advantages people see in using DSLR for video, but put into a form factor of a more conventional shoulder-worn type. This is the beginning of a rush of such cameras, I think, and they will be good for event video as well as ENG work, at a ridiculously low price. I think I could buy three or four of these for what we spent on just a lens for our last ENG camera. There’s a demo of the picture quality of this camera circulating on Vimeo, I’ll see if I can find you a link later.

The nagging question will be can you easily edit with the compressed HD that comes off these cards.

[Mark Suszko]

And here’s the demo footage; I think it looks amazing.

https://vimeo.com/15826664

[Matt Campbell]

Depending on what format the camera shoots in and just like the Canon 5D and 7D, I’d probably just transcode everything to ProRes and edit away. Thanks for the comments. I’ll check out that link and look into these cameras.

Jason, yes, the HVX is quite bad in low light situtations. And for most weddings and events, the receptions are almost always dark.

I’m going to look into the 7D and see what recording times you can get. The other thing I don’t like about them, is there’s no XLR connection for external mics. Or is there? I curious about mounting a good external condenser mic to this.

OS 10.6.3, Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 ghz quad-core intel xenon, 16 gb ram, with BM Intensity Pro card

[Rick Wise]

To get good sound with any of these still cameras it currently appears that the only way is to have an external recorder for audio. We are back to double-system sound recording! You should have either an audio feed to the HDSLR or another mic for the camera itself. In post, the software Plural Eyes should make syncing up the good sound to your picture pretty easy.

There is a new, plasticized version of the Mark 7D, the EOS 60 (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/732047-REG/Canon_4460B003_EOS_60D_DSLR_Camera/BI/6544/KBID/7158), with I believe most of the same features. A significantly less expensive option and with all the benefits and defects of the 7D. Even more important than the body is the glass on the front, and the mind behind the camera….

You might also want to look at the new Canon XF305 (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/684198-REG/Canon_4454B001/BI/6544/KBID/7158) with 4:2:2 colorspace, internal waveform and vectorscope, and a 4″ LCD monitor. I have not yet found reports about low-light level performance. It has 3 1/3″ CMOS chips, so a much smaller capture size than the HDSLRs. On the other hand, it is designed for video shooting, not adapted to it, and rolling shutter should not be a problem.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Aaron Leong]

I’ve been shooting weddings since 2002 . . . “fell” into it with SONY TRV-950s, upgraded to Z1Us and when the EXs came out I traded in . . . LOVE the EX series for event coverage. Footage is small, easy enough to use, sensors are decent size for low light (+6db introduces acceptable amount of noise), good DoF for the camera size, long record times, balanced XLR audio, etc.

Since using them I’ve strayed away from on camera lights which are very distracting and changes the mood of the reception entirely.

Audio, I use sennheiser wireless into an edirol R-4 recorder which is very clean and assists us in not missing a beat. 3 mics during the ceremony, 2 wireless taps directly from the DJ or band’s mixer during the reception makes the audio outstanding (if the DJ or band sends a good signal) . . . we also compliment the audio tracks with some on camera audio for ambience in post . . . In case the MC doesn’t warn us ahead of time before starting an event like toasts or the first dance, we can put a title over missing video and would have our cameras up and running within a few seconds.

I’ve shot with DSLRs at weddings and the low light, fast lens combo is EXTREMELY nice!!!!! . . . if you can keep it in focus. Pulling focus on moving subjects without having pre-measured everything is very tough on the fly, all the while trying to maintain shot composition. Also, during the ceremony you have to keep hitting the record button. Kind of annoying. They are great for B-roll shots though!!! . . . hands down . . . pros and cons to working with both, but I love the EX cameras for this type of work.

I’ve done narrative work with the 5DmkII and love the look, but it’s a camera that is easier used with pre-planned moves. Tons and tons of control . . . I don’t like the post process with the 5DmkII, transcoding, etc. just putting it out there.

I’ve also use the Panasonic HVX200 and don’t like the screen, too hard to pull focus on it. HUGE file sizes, sensor is a little small 1/3″, 960×540, with interpolated pixels to make 1920×1080. EX are 1/2″, 1920×1080 . . . well 1888×1080 to be exact but that’s still a lot more pixels than HVX. Keying EX looks just as good as HVX and if you wanted the 4:2:2 signal, bypass the compression using the HD/SDI out on the back of the camera into something like a Nanoflash from Convergent Design. 140mbps usually does the trick . . .

Anyway, this is my experience with it . . . hope this helps!!!

~aaron