Shooting with 2 cameras - cameras must be the same ?

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David Zeno

Active member
Hi everyone,

If I bought a second video camera ( my first one is an HV20 ) should I be buying the same camera, as the first, if I wish to tape a scene from 2 different angles at the same time ?

Does it matter if both cameras are not the same ? , I'm guessing not, but have often wondered.

What about filming a scene with my HV20, but also with my Canon TX1, ( it's a 720 pm camcorder / cam ) but it records to an .avi file.

I guess what I'm wondering is this, if I managed to get both pieces of footage from each camera in my editor, and get them synced correctly, then in theory, I should have them perfectly synced throughout the entire piece of footage .... sounds good in theory, but what about reality ?

Question 2, having the same camreras shooting a scene, ( 2 x HV20 ) does this ensure an exact / correct sync through a 60 minute film ?

Just some questions I had.

Sorry if the question is not great, but I hope it is half intelligent

Dave.
 
Unless your camera is capable of Gen-lock, the audio will drift ever so slightly over time because you're rounding off the number of frames, but this is during hours of continuous recording and is usually not an issue.

What you should be worried about is the footage coming out looking slightly different, this is why the same model camera should be used in a multicam shoot.
 
Yeah, two idetical cameras should be able to produce compatible footage (so long as you remember to set their settings the same!) - by 'compatible' I mean you could freely mix and match their output without it looking odd.

But it's pure luck whether the same would be true from 2 'unrelated' cameras - it might work perfectly (after some settings fiddling) or it might not work at all. The only way to know is to try - not really practical while standing in a camera shop :) but maybe you know someone with the model you're looking at and could borrow it to make some test footage?
 
I shoot wedding videos and generally, each cameraman uses a different cam. We meet before the shooting begins, work out similar settings, and white balance together, but otherwise we let the post guys deal with making the footage look consistent. It isn't too bad.
 
Is this a narrative you're shooting? If so, best to stick with one camera. You'll end up looking like a TV interview with mostly profile shots of both actors. You want that head on, POV shot of each and that takes individual set ups. Not to mention tweaking the lighting to perfection. You don't want to have to be limited by how the camera's lighting might be affecting each other.

It can be hard to match cameras of the same make and model anyway. Two very different cameras could be a major headache in post.
 
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