When shooting a Wedding over 60 minutes?

[Ralph Hajik]

I would like to thank all of you who responded and everyone had great suggestions. I think the easiest way do solve this is to buy 83 minute tapes. Later when I get extra money is to purchase the Firestore Pro 4.

Thanks Again,

Ralph Hajik

[Vito Defilippo]

83 minute tapes sound like a great idea. Where I get caught once in a while is at the reception. you working on your last 10 minutes of tape, and the father of the bride decides to jump up and do a 15 minute speech. Sigh…

[David Rennie]

Thats why communication with the DJ is so important. If you establish a relationship with the DJ early on they will warn you before such things happen. Afterall in your example the FOB likely used the DJ’s microphone.

[Eric Gibson]

For Catholic weddings and events I switch at Communion, there is no need to shoot the entire church receiving communion, bride & groom yes, but not everyone.

[Vito Defilippo]

Well, of course I talk to the DJ at the start of the night, ask what the schedule is, and request that he give me a heads up before he is going to introduce the next speech or whatever. But, some of them forget, or get surprised themselves when there is an unexpected request for a speech, song, or some such. Once in a while you get bit…

[Scott]

Just out of curiosity, what failures have you had with recording in LP mode? In 4 years I have never had a failure and am curious what has happened to other people.

Scott

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Scott] “Just out of curiosity, what failures have you had with recording in LP mode? In 4 years I have never had a failure and am curious what has happened to other people.”

Video dropouts
Audio dropouts
Timecode dropouts
Various combinations of the above

Incompatibility between recording unit and playback unit (if different.)
Incompatibility between recording unit and playback unit (if the same.)

LP is so unreliable is even disclaimed by most the camcorder manufacturers right in the manual.

The way LP is achieved is to just to SLOW DOWN the TAPE MOTION (and not the heads) so that the same info that would be recorded across a larger AREA of tape in SP mode is “crammed” into a smaller section of tape.
This means the head “swipes” (tracks) are very close together and difficult to “separate” during playback.
It requires very tight tolerances and “perfect” tracking to follow the recorded material.

Happy that you have had no problems.
(I guess we won’t go into what happens as your gear AGES and the heads and guides start to wear.)