Weddings - 60i or 30p (auto-focusing)?

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filmguy123

Veteran
Anyone here shoot weddings? I think 30p has a really nice look, but I used it the other day and had some troubles with it constantly losing focus... for this reason, is it best to shoot a wedding (or other live event) in 60i even if the 30p look is more desireable?

Or do you prefer to still shoot 30p and become very good and self-managing the focus?
 
I dont see why anyone wants interlaced lines in their footage. But for me personal 30p :) .Also, Auto focus takes time to adjust itself. I personally have never used Auto except in tests. But I would say manula is the way to go. Just my opinion. Also dont forget to shoot some of the reception in 60fps.. Good luck and congrats on the gig.
 
Ya, i dont think ive ever used Auto focus, except for a test. It's a waste of time, specially for controlling depth of field....Ever thought about 24p?
 
Always shoot weddnigs 50i or 60i in the uSA.

The video look is preferred for weddings rather than film look.

I have been shooting weddings for the last 6 years and its definately the way to do it.
 
You can acheive the Video look with 30p or if you want to waste space 60p is fine :) NEVER 60i. Just what someone wants: When they are pausing on the cake getting smashed in the grooms face by the bride, and you have a billion lines ruining it. Again my opinion.
 
Don't know why anyone would EVER shoot interlaced, to be honest.

Ultimately, if you want it to look like video , shoot 60i. If you want the film look, go 24/30p.

In my experience, people love being able to watch themselves in a 'movie' of their special day... The more you can make it feel like that, the better.

And the auto-focus is terrible.
 
Yeah, I noticed the auto-focus was terrible too... so how do you deal with that? Just get really good at focusing? Any tips or ways to practice getting to get good and fast at manual focusing?
 
Set the camera to give you a focus distance readout in feet, and guestimate the distance to the subject if you are moving around.

Remember that if you get lost or overwhelmed while using manual focus, you can hit the "PUSH AUTO" button to have the camera focus for you, and then revert back to manual.
 
Autofocus performance will always be worse in 30p or 24p, versus 60i/60p. On any camera, under any circumstances, the faster frame rate will deliver the better autofocus performance.

So if you want to shoot at slower frame rates, don't count on autofocus.
 
DVX100 vs HVX200 autofocus?

DVX100 vs HVX200 autofocus?

I used to use the DVX 100 for taping weddings and always had great success using the autofocus, especially on the dark dance floor for run and gun type shooting. I just used my new HVX for it's first wedding gig (still in SD - 60i and on MiniDV) and it started causing me some focusing grief on the dancefloor. Is it just a poorer system than on the DVX or is there any way to improve the HVX's performance. I ended up going manual but I was always fine on the old camera using auto for my weddings.

Extra info> The HVX was starting out fine with an AF around 90 for most of my dancefloor footage and would often jump to AF15-20'ish and then back to 90 a few seconds later.

Extra info2> This summer while taping a rock concert, my hand was hit by a beer bottle while I was shooting the stage. At that time I lost all Autofocus but I powered the camera down and upon restarting, the focus seemed to be back to normal? Could this have cause other damage?

Thanks,
Craig
 
Never shoot a wedding at 60i interlace. This footage is simply uncompatible with the flat panel progressive high definition displays. If you want higher framerate then shoot 720p at 60 frames per second.
 
Try using manual focus with a nice deep depth of field. Avoid going out on the lens while recording - the smaller your focal length (and thus the wider your shot) the deep your depth of field, and the more 'stuff' will appear to be in focus relative to your critical plane of focus, or where you're "really" in focus. Also, light permitting, stop down your iris as much as possible, as this will also make for a deeper depth of field.

Learning to guesstimate distances and using the distance readout in the camera can never hurt either.

Of course, make sure that the EVF detail and FOCUS ASSIST features get used as much as possible. Zooming in briefly will let you set your focus much more precisely (for faster zooming, I normally turn off the servo on my lens and zoom manually)
 
Thanks for the tips...I've read most of them on here before. I was trying to find out the differences between the DVX and the HVX. Is there a better focusing system in the DVX? I seemed to have far more luck with it. And the low light capability seemed better as well.

Androbot, I was shooting on MiniDV so 720 was not an option. I would like to try a wedding high def soon if I can get a client interested. Speaking of which, if someone were to want it done in high def, what would be the best method of providing HD and SD to the customer. Ie/ couple wants say....BluRay and the parents want a regular DVD...best process to downconvert to SD????
 
The DVX is one stop brighter than the HVX in progressive and two in interlaced, I think. Maybe I got that backwards.
Your focus issues are probably related to available light and frame rate. Switching to 720 60p would help with the latter. Setting a handful of PAR 64s on the dance floor is the only way you can work the former. If you want some help convincing the couple to let you set up lights, talk with the photog, she/he will be happier, too.

Honestly, for most wedding work, I'd probably take the DVX out instead of the HVX. Or HVX for the ceremony and DVX for the reception.
Almost any NLE should handle a downconversion pretty well. I use Edius and have no qualms. If you wanted to run any fancy processes on it, you could downconvert in AE, maybe squeeze a little extra quality out of it.
 
So downconverting afterwards, would the quality be pretty similar to a regular SD picture from the DVX? (aside from letterboxed?)
 
If you shoot on the HVX, SD fullframe onto MiniDV, you're going to get similar quality to the DVX, with worse low-light performance. But the HVX will trump if you use DVCPro50, or widescreen, or HD.
 
What will it look like if I shoot in 720p60p and then in post, convert the frame-rate to 30p? Will it give a more filmic look as if I had shot it in 30p to begin with, except enable the camera to have better auto-focus while shooting? That would be GREAT - but not sure if thats how it works...?
 
Yes, if you convert to 30p from 60p you'll have zero pulldown issues, plus if you wanted to go slow motion for the cool parts you could. Plus more samples should equal better focusing... but some of that is up to you and how you shoot it.
 
Summing what I believe you heard here (and what we do in our 20 or so wedding videos a year) is:

1. People like to see themselves in a "movie" and anything one can do to get closer to that look (like 30p) is more satisfying.
2. Auto focus in weddings is baaaaaad close up on the DVX but a lot better on the HVX and on all close ups the safest is . . manual and keep the finger by the push focus, cause if ur like me you can't see if it's in focus anyway, the LCD screens too small for my too old eyes.
3. 24p auto focus is more better defined as rubber "ban focus" or "out of focus."

At ALL my weddings there are two or more videographers and only one is a qualified videogrpaher. The other(s) have little experience (1 or more shoots) so autofocus is a given most of the time and to circumvent "issues" I have them on the more wide shots and I am on most all the close ups or "them" if someone in the group has some "reasonable" amount of experience.

Again for me it's light and LCD's and old eyes which is always a problem and thus where possible I use the viewfinder and with the HVX that little "focus box" was obviously designed by an older designer who had guys like me in mind.
 
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