HVX for event videography?

hey artgug,
Was that amount of p2 storage necessary to cover the wedding? Would you have been okay with less? Without the p2 store?
 
Hey, thanks for replying.

What was the lighting at the reception like? Receptions are usually pretty dark - the PD150 series could handle it fairly well, as could the DVX - but both with some noise (activated by gain).

Is the HVX going to behave the same way **if I shoot in 60i SD to tape**? I keep hearing (and refuse to believe) that the HVX is delivering unacceptable amounts of noise. Will the bride and groom even notice the "noise"?

Thanks again


artgug said:
I just shot a full day wedding on Saturday. It was shot in 720pN, and I got 2hr 40min of footage, obviously using P2 cards. (footage looks beautiful, BTW).

Heres what I brought:
(3) 8 gig cards
(5) 4 gig cards
the p2 store

6 new batteries for the HVX and the p2 store.

with 2 8gig cards in the camera, and one in your pocket, that gives you the ability to tape for a full hour in 720 pn without having to go to the p2 store. If by chnace you dont have time to dump before that, I still had the 4 gig cards, which give 10 minutes each at 720 pn, as backup, until I could offload to the p2.

I own the 4 gig cards, and rented the 8 gig ones. The biggest problem was my first wedding using the p2 store, so it is a bit nerve racking wondering if it would hold up, but it worked great. It takes some new equipment, but right now, you should be able to charge a premium for full HD weddings.

I have shot weddings in HDV, although, I wouldn't go back. The day of the shoot is a bit more work, but now that I am in post, the footage looks much better, (Cinelook and 24p really looks beautiful), and it is SO much easier dealing with DVCPro HD than HDV in FCP, and I use a decklink card for HDV.
Click to expand...
 
I guess it depends on your shooting style, and if you have an assistant with you. Some shoots I do use assistants, but I went at this one alone, a worse case senario. I could have probably gotten away with less cards, but I would have been at the p2 store more often, which would have been tough with no helping people with me.

And me personally, no, i couldnt have gotten away without the p2 store, or some other way (latop or hard drives) to be able to offload footage to during the day. i generally look to shoot about 3 hours of footage per wedding, so that would be a lot of p2 cards.
 
SD to tape is equal to the DVX. I dont think you could get away with the reception having no lights, but then again, I wouldnt shoot a reception with any camera and no lights.
 
BobDiaz said:
. . . at night, many churches turn down the lights for that romantic look. . .
Click to expand...

I think the look is supposed to be more "sacred" than "romantic," per se. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

So that is sacred noise you're seeing--not romantic noise.
 
I totally disagree.... I just shot SD to tape on both the HVX and DVX. THe DVX was much better in lowl light. I would say at 1/24 the DVX 0gain to the HVX 9gain just to be close in light levels.

Sorry but I was not thrilled with the HVX after dark!
 
The advantage of shooting a wedding in HD is not that you will get any more money but it is easier to sell the idea of having a wedding done professionally in HD rather than Uncle Arthur who volunteers to shoot the wedding in SD for free.
 
That seems like a silly statment, sorry but uncle Arthur can go buy a sony Handycam and shoot in HDV!

Sorry but camera work is camera work SD or HD...... plus how does this professional expect to have clients view this HD video? I can see for future consideration when HD dvd players hit but this is no measure of work quality.

Seems odd to me you grade a professional by his gear rather than actual work.

You must be a big Steven Spielberg fan.
 
I agree Boomerang. I still shoot with a 7 year old XL-1 and I charge a lot and still make a living. No one ever really cares about your camera, they care about your demo. Blow them away and they'll never complain about the price.
 
I wouldn't recommend the HVX for this sort of work at all. If this is the majority of the work you do, the HVX offers no real advantages over a DVX, and a few major disadvantages.
 
I don't think that too many Uncle Arthurs are going to spend $1500 for an HDV camera just to put a videographer out of a job. There are of course are many ways to put the Uncle Arthurs at bay. For some professional videographers the shoulder mounted camera does the trick. For others delivering in High Definition will make it impossible for Uncle Arthur to compete. And of course Uncle Arthur does not have the steady shot and the years of experience backing him up so he could very well ruin the footage.
But for the videographer who thinks that HD might be the ace in the hole lack of delivery is no longer an issue. This month the Toshiba HD-DVD players will ship and for a price of $500 could easily be bundled into any high end wedding package. A wedding videographer who cannot afford an HD-DVD burner could easily subcontract this work to a production house for a reasonable fee while still doing all of the editing himself.
 
Still has no foundation on if the videographer is "professional"

I guess if upgrade my super 8 and I pick up a Arriflex 235, well that makes me a professional film maker.... cool!

I guees you have some sort of beef with a guy named Arthur.

Hey if a HD upgrade is the only way you can beat out Uncle A, than good luck.
 
so let's start a list of how a videographer can beat Uncle Akira (sorry, I'm in Japan),

1. Skill - (I doubt his office job gives him time to practice his camera work)
2. Skill - (No, I'm not repeating myself, I'm talking about EDITING skill this time)
3. Skill - (haha, just kidding)
4. Crew - (Uncle Akira usually works alone)
5. Lighting - (Uncle Akira usually carries none, maybe a crappy camera light)
6. Professionality - (Uncle Akira might want to drink and enjoy the festivities, you won't because you're a professional.....right?)
7. Objectivity - (Uncle Akira might think Aunt Sachiko looks beautiful in her dress and spend 20 minutes filming her, missing the bride and groom's exiting the limo, you realize she's a fat slob and are already outside waiting for the limo to arrive)
8. Uh, editing equipment and software?
9. Experience (kinda the same as skill)

the only thing good about uncle akira is that he's much cheaper than a videographer, but then again, those aren't the type of customers people are looking for anyways....

basically, there is no competition between Uncle Akira and a pro. In fact, a smart videographer can even work together with these types, maybe get a couple of handicams, hand them out to people, use some footage from them....all sorts of creative ways.....
 
Uncle Ezekial for me. I'm Amish. Wait.....I'm not allowed to use the internet or the camera.......umm.....nevermind....you didn't hear this from me.

:)
 
I was thinking that the HVX200 might be overkill for a wedding and a cheaper HDV camera may work but then again I think if you shoot 720p60 progressive it looks so good on a flat panel display and the 60 frames per second make it so much easier to shoot without worrying about strobing and judder that the customer satisfaction may be worth the extra money.
 
I'm not intending to shoot weddings in hi def - there's no way to deliver.

I do intend to shoot STANDARD DEF on the HVX at 60i. Which is why I'm asking what I'm asking - how do the low light levels perform on the HVX at STANDARD DEFINITION?

Thanks y'all for your input. Doesn't seem to be any consensus :(

Dillon
 
I would like to know how the wedding footage came out also. I have a dvx100a and am in need of a second camera for weddings also. Wondering and wanting a HVX.
 
So you rent a bunch of 8gig cards so that you can function----and you increase your costs by how much? There is no way that the HVX is the way to go when doing event videography.
 
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P2 cards aren't necessary for STANDARD DEFINITION, Rextilleon.

As a filmmaker who also makes money doing events, I'm looking for a camera that can serve as both my motion picture camera, as well as my event videography camera.

I could get 2 cameras, which would be far more expensive than getting one camera. Don't you think?

Thanks for replying

Dillon
 
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