[Chip Thome]

Suggestion. If you have an extensive background in SLR and still cams, you might want to think heavily about a DSLR like the Canon 7d which does video. There are a lot of people shooting those, and other DSLRs, from what I have seen from the forums I frequent.

[Chip Thome]

All I know of that fits most of that is the HMC40, which lacks the 3CCD.

To get 3CCD, and mic input, and Mini DV, it sounds like an SD Panny GS500 as the most current model that was available.

In HD gear, 3CCD is only going to be in the lower end pro lines, and up. Something like the Panny HMC150 fits all you describe, except the “Smallish”.

Don’t know about Sony gear, but assume it is going to be the same level of gear as the Panny, to get what you wish for.

[Chip Thome]

IMO, it isn’t so much the size of the market as the perception of what value video has to your potential clients.

I live in a rather conservative area, maybe frugal is a better word…. ok….let’s just get down to brass tacks….they are outright tightwads here !!!!

My county has 250,000 and already has wedding video companies in business. From what I have seen, no one is “killing ’em” and working every weekend, or even close. I did an internet competitor search and came away with maybe 20 within 50 miles. My county would have a radius from here of about 20 miles tops. In that 50 mile radius, the population also easily swells upwards to 400,000 total, including my county.

Last year, my county alone issued approx. 1900 marriage licenses. Within that 50 mile radius, I would assume that could easily be doubled.

With around 4000 weddings in a year’s time, you would think this market would have many more than 20 videographers. It doesn’t.

But then… we have been accused of being 10 years behind the coasts in just about everything else, no reason for video to be much different.

We began doing some promo work for local bands. Like weddings, they liked the idea of having video…. right up until the discussion of actually paying for it came up.

So, if where you are located, if you have people who realize the value of what you are offering, size shouldn’t be too much of a problem, compared to the mentality issues I have in my market.

[Chip Thome]

I could see this changing of tapes separately if those cameras can set timecode that can be used to sync the various tapes.

But I thought he said his primary audio is a wireless set up, which I assumed was going to one of the cams. If that would be the case, when tape was switched in that cam, he would be loosing his primary audio source for the duration of the tape change.

To alleviate that, recording audio separately and sync that file in post would work.

What I have done with my GS 500s has been set up one cam locked on the stage, and then firewire that cam into my laptop and out to an external hard drive and just let it go. That would eliminate the tape change on one cam, and keep that audio in sync with the main cam’s footage.

[Chip Thome]

Also….. can’t the DVX100s be sync’d/sunk by timecode ???

I thought somewhere I read they could be.

[Chip Thome]

IMO, you have a pair of tape changes there.

I would get together with the speaker and find out approx time points at various spot of his lecture and then try and plan for two breaks when his presentation has a “natural” break to it. One would be at the introduction of Q&A. Somewhere else in his presentation there has to be a natural spot to switch tape as well.

I have shot where I have run out of tape and let me tell you, that sucks !!!!

If it were me and the speaker was cooperative, I would bust his presentation onto two 63 minute tapes and then one 83 minute for Q&A…..just in case. What you don’t want to do, is have him just impromptu “expound” at some point in time, and there you are running low of tape.

If you take his 1.5 hours and bust it to 2hr and 6 min of tape, you have got plenty of fudge factor built in for impromptu anything.

I only used 24P and 60i once so far on mine and the 24p looked “warmer” for lack of a better term. The 60i, definitely sharper, more crisp. I would give some thought to which of those impressions work best with the topic being presented.

[Chip Thome]

The only thing I haven’t seen discussed here is the overall presentation length and what speed you are planning on recording in.

Is there an intermission to switch tapes if you are using 63 or 83 minute tapes ??? Or are you going LP on the recording ???

[Chip Thome]

I know of one man who has the low end Azden and speaks well of it and it’s functionality. I have another friend who has an Azden that is a few steps up form the first one, and thinks it is wonderful. Both of those systems I believe are under $500, the lower one below $200.

Bob Hatch at Fullcompass is a friend of mine and he and I had a long discussion about these. Now… Bob will sell me whatever I want… but as a friend and a professional he does try to steer me toward what I should buy…. not want to buy. If I go against his advice, he has no problem with it, he will still sell me…. but I have learned to trust his judgement.

During our wireless discussion, he suggested the Sennheiser G3 as a minimum of professionalism. As has been stated here already, Bob stated how it would give me years of service. Like you, I didn’t have the extra $500 laying around to pop for one.

If you just need to “get in the game” for now, I would look to that sub $200 Azden, with plans of an upgrade ASAP and putting the Azden on Ebay when you do go more pro. there seems to be about 3 price points in wireless. the sub $200 range, the $500-ish range and the $1000 and up range. When you get close to the $500-ish range and up, the brand names people toss out are there for a reason. Those are the quality units most have bought and rely on.

[Chip Thome]

IIya,

There are lots of good suggestions going here, but let me describe for you when I started out doing bands.

I had one single chip Panasonic camera and an old Slik tripod. I set up the tripod and didn’t extend the legs to their widest stance, which got my camera 6 feet or so in the air. Because the band was on an elevated stage, it was good enough. For audio, all I had was the built in mic. This at least “got me in the game”.

From there I used that set up for several months, and learned and read all I could about video and doing live shows. Each time out I’d try something a bit different and made a ton of mistakes, but learned from most all of them.

My next improvement was a Panny GS500 and then a Rode VideoMic. I learned real quick, the shotgun Rode VideoMic is garbage for live music. Next came the stereo VideoMic. some time later, a second Paanny 3 chip camera, and a monopod. Then I tried a board feed, and ended up buying cables to go with those possible set ups. Then more cameras, and more and better tripods. Inside of two years, there was a boat load of gear that I had to drag to a show, compared to one camera bag and a tripod when I began. I also ended up having to bring in a second shooter, to man the second B Roll.

But… I started out just like you, one camera and a desire to shoot some bands.

My best advice to you would be to just go in there and shoot your first one and go home and critically evaluate how it looks and sounds. The two biggest offenders of quality have been discussed, stabilizing the cam and getting good audio. Start with having your cam stabilized, and learn from what you encounter in your first shoot.

If you want to go the recorder route, spend a lot of time investigating each model to make sure it will do what you want. You probably could find a lot of uses for the recorder other than just this.

What you have to go learn is most of these shows have garbage lighting for video. Most will light for the effect it will add to their performance and not care what a camera needs as far as light to capture good footage.

What else you have to learn is how placement can’t always be the best, and sometimes you just end up with a lousy view of the stage.

You will find some performers are relatively stationary, and some are all over the place during a gig. I have found some performers I just can’t pull a real tight close up on them, because inside of three seconds they are often out of the frame.

There are a ton of things to learn about shooting these type gigs….and experience is going to teach you 90+% of them.

Be forwarned though…. if this gets “in your blood” you aren’t going to stop buying stuff because you are going to find you drive yourself to newer and higher levels of quality and need more and more stuff to get there. 🙂

My brief list of my “collection” now is:

2 Manfrotto 561B
2 Manfrooot 3246
2 Manfrotto 3130
2 Panasonic GS 500
1 Panasonic GS320
2 Panaasonic DVX100B
1 Slik Master
1 Manfrotto Modo
1 Rode Stereo Videomic
1 Rode shotgun Videomic
Filters for all of everything
1 duffel bag full of cables

And probably a ton of other stuff I can’t recall right now. 🙂

It is fun to go do….. but the gear buying gets VERY ADDICTING !!!

[Chip Thome]

What we do is place the cam we refer to as the “static full view cam” on one of our Manfrotto 3246 which we can get up to 7 feet in the air. We also use the “Manfrotto 561Bs”, but a monopod is pretty much only the best for our B Roll.

We now have one cam elevated to the point where it clears the crowd and because this is set up in the back, we also have a full view of the entire stage.

A board feed is only good enough, if the venue is big enough where the sound people are not relying on guitar amps etc pumping out enough of their own sound. In smaller venues, typically the sound people will tame down the guitars and amp up the vocals, drums and keyboard giving you a strange mix when listening to it by itself. For this reason, you need an alternative source, such as a camera mounted mic, we use the Rode Stereo Videomic. We then mix the pair in post, to give us the clarity of the board feed for vocals etc, along with the ambient of the room and the guitars that is often buried in the board feed.

You can grab the board feed to a recorder and mix that later in your post. Many use a Zoom or Edirol, but I have read of some loosing “sync” after a period of time. Research your specific selection thoroughly before assuming it is going to do the job.