Wedding Use

A

Angel1403

New member
I currently use a Sony DSR250 for filming weddings. I do 20 or less a year.

I am considering trading in the Sony for

Panasonic HVX 200 camera
Two Panasonic CGA-D54s batteries
One Panasonic FS-100 Firestore HDD Recorder for HVX 200
I may also get Panasonic AJPCSO 60G P2 Store HDD Recorder and three 8gb P2 cards and Portabrace cover.

I was planning on using the camera on DVCPRO 50 for wedding work if using the P2 cards along with the 60gb P2 Sore HDD.

Or I was thinking about using the Firestore and P2 cards and loading card footage onto P2 store as required.

Any thoughts, advice? Does anyone use this camera for wedding work?

Cheers

Angel1403
 
It is good to have p2 when your firestore runs out of space. I've dumped p2 to a laptop while running around at a few weddings.

Be sure to have an on-camera light for interview/advice for the bride and groom. You will probably need more light for the dancing / toasts if they drop the lights in a room. For low light work (shooting in 24p) drop the shutter to 1/24. Be sure to check the lighting conditions in the church (if it is inside) before the ceremony on a calibrated TV or monitor - day before. I only shoot weddings for friends but the camera has been awesome :)

Oh, grab 4 dvxuser batteries from this site.
 
And get the Extended Life battery for the FS-100, it will outlast the HVX batteries.

As someone who spent many years doing weddings, taught at WEVA and 4Ever Group annual conventions, taught many, many FCP seminars to local wed/event videography groups around the country, and still writes for a wedding video magazine, I honestly don't think the HVX is a wedding camera at all. Poor low light, which is 90% of wedding work, long recording times make recoding to FS-100/P2 a royal PITA. I'd go with the DVX100, which I did weddings with for awhile. But even that I felt fell short of what is needed to do weddings properly. A good PD-170 is perfect for wedding environments.

Now, I said I used a DVX100a for awhile with weddings. I did that cause I was moving away from weddings and into more commercial work. The DVX was great for that, so I suffered it's short comings on weddings for that move.

If all you do is weddings, I'd stay away from the HVX. If it's a part-time, or once in a blue moon thing, and you do more serious work mostly, go with the HVX.

Just my very experienced wedding work 2 cents. And I'm not really sure what the point is...

Oh, and wireless mics are a must have for the ceremony, one on the groom, one on the podium where folks will do readings. I used the Samson UM-1 set up and loved it. I still use it for doing interviews.

So, still not sure what my point is...

Oh, we have sunshine here in south Louisiana for the first time since New Years. It's effecting my brain. Bright light in sky, what is that, blinds me, ground dry, what is wrong? Oh, wait, it SUPPOSED to look like this outside...

Batteries, yeah, get those batteries here, they last forever!
 
BenB, could you point me in a good direction to the wireless mic you speak of, I shot 1 wedding with my HVX and after others saw it, I got 3 more jobs, but I would like to get wireless mic audio. Thanks
 
Do a search at B&H's site for "Samson UHF Series One". Everyone has a wireless they love, it's not the only solution on the market. But it is more affordable and very reliable.
 
BenB said:
I honestly don't think the HVX is a wedding camera at all. Poor low light, which is 90% of wedding work, long recording times make recoding to FS-100/P2 a royal PITA.
Click to expand...

BenB, some people (see link below) here have been disagreeing with the argument that the HVX is not a good low-light camera.

I'm pretty new to the HVX, and although I haven't been too impressed with my own footage from badly lit scenarios, I will put my hands up and admit I haven't spent enough time making test shots in low-light conditions to make any authoritive statements on the subject - so I'm going to sit on the fence for the moment...

...but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on this thread -

 
All I can say is what I've personally experienced. You have to do a lot of work to get the HVX to not get a ton of grain. I even get grain in daylight shots. Seems any solid colored, smooth surface generates a ton of noise with the HVX.

To me, it's too much work for weddings, where you have to switch enviroments very fast. I used a DVX100a in full manual mode for weddings and it was ok. I've used the PD-170 in auto mode at weddings and got better low light footage.

Also, I'd never want to deal with P2 cards or FS-100 units during a wedding, being on your feet, hand held so much, just a lot to deal with, IMHO. I personally like compact, lightweight, low maintanence, good low light quality cameras for weddings. The HVX, as much as I love it, to "me", just isn't what you want for wedding work.

But, that's just my opinion...
 
Well, considering the amount of experience you bring to the table, your opinion carries a lot of weight.
 
This is just my experience and opinion. Ask around, other folks may have other experiences. Full-time pro wedding shooters all have their own work flow and situations. Some refuse to use lights and go with a VX2100, some use pretty bright on camera lights and use bigger cameras with weaker low light capability. It can vary. Ask around.

And if you're going to do mostly weddings, look around for your local wedding videographers association. Join WEAV and 4Ever Group. I used to be president of our local association here in Louisiana, I've taught classes at conventions, etc. Find your local group and go to a couple of meetings (before joining, not all groups are worth while).

I'm just one of thousands of experienced opinions on this subject.
 
I've been shooting weddings for the past year with my HVX, only I shoot them to Mini-DV tape. The camera I had before that was a Canon XL-1. Now I give that camera to the second cameraman when I use him.
You have to work with your settings a bit to get the brightest image you can and then I always do a little CC in FCP where I brighten the image further.
I have to say the the footage is beautiful. Very rich and detailed and painterly. Skin Tones are absolutely perfect.
 
Ok, I didn't think of using it to shoot to tape.
That's actually an idea, with proper lights and such.
But it's still weak in low light...

And that XL1 was a killer camera for it's time! I loved those things! Folks forget what a breakthrough the GL1 was, such an awesome camera for such and awesome price at that time. I used both a LOT and loved every minute of it! But, eventually, they aged, and got over run relatively quickly. I had one when it first came out, it was so much fun, such a thrill to use.

In fact I have a full set up of two GL1's for sale! Just in case anyone is interested...

I remember the zoom on those being super fast, about as powerful as any pro-sumer cam, and the auto focus being super fast, they were real dreams to work with for weddings and live events! I miss them.

If Canon could make them exaclty as they were, but record to DVCPRO-HD, just like the HVX, the same, but different, but, with old stuff that's like, well, then there's the new stuff, and well, like...

I'm just saying, if they "could", that'd rock. The best of all worlds.

And while we're at it, I'd also like a winter mansion in...
 
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pmpworks said:
BenB, could you point me in a good direction to the wireless mic you speak of, I shot 1 wedding with my HVX and after others saw it, I got 3 more jobs, but I would like to get wireless mic audio. Thanks
Click to expand...

Samson mics might be good enough for weddings, but if you also plan to do broadcast work, you might want to bite the bullet and step up to something a little better. Like maybe a Sennheiser G2 line. Check out the audio section for more recommendations.

Also, if you really want to shoot weddings in HD, you may want to consider the Canon XH A1. Even though it's HDV, I've heard a lot of good things about it. Look in the other camera section for more details.
 
Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the great advice................Its a shame though, as I really like the idea of disk based recording using the HVX.

It looks like I will need to go my initial route Sony Z1 & Sony A1 and Sony disk recorder.

Cheers

Angel1403
 
As painfula s it is Angel, you're doing the right thing.

I LOVE my HVX200 but it's really not for weddings or uncontrolled, indoor event shooting in general. I believe Ben refered to it as a "digital film camera" in his review of it in Event DV and that's really how you may want to look at it in many regaurds. You want to use it to shooting high quality stuff that looks good but for weddings where you want great low light sensativity and cheap workflow, it's just not idea. Don't get me wrong, if the wedding had a lot of light and you were using tape and P2, you could get some great stuff and the slow mo from the P2's would surely be appreciated by your clients. But the sad fact is I can't think of a single wedding where everything was bright enough. Even if it's outdoor there's usually a recepetion or something that's dim and frustrating. For that you really want the Z1 or A1 (even though I despise those cameras with all of my soul).

If you think you ever want to branch out into commercials, coperate videos, narrative cinematography, or most other things then it's worth considering the HVX200 but, if weddings are gonna be your bread and butter, it's just not worth the hassles.
 
GraphicPlanet said:
You have to work with your settings a bit to get the brightest image you can and then I always do a little CC in FCP where I brighten the image further.
I have to say the the footage is beautiful. Very rich and detailed and painterly. Skin Tones are absolutely perfect.
Click to expand...

Two questions for you, GraphicPlanet...

Do you have any clips we could see?

And, what settings in general do you adjust?

I'd better explain my interest here... I've taken bookings to shoot a few weddings this summer with my HVX, on tape, and I was hoping to use the cash to buy up a firestore and P2 cards to take it to another level. Now I'm getting a little nervous about how it's going to work out with uncontrolable/poor lighting conditions. So ... I love this camera, but if it's going to create problems of the magnitude discussed here, I might have to... gulp... consider changing before I dig myself deeper.
:Drogar-Shock(DBG):

What you say re; your footage sounds promising though. Hence my massive interest.
 
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I agree with you on the HVX use for weddings in HD. The situations I come across like weddings, I use tape as well since it handles lowlight better in SD and will cut well with my DVX100A. If your wedding client insists on HD for archives and an SD copy for DVD, the only real solution is to use the firestore so you don't have to swap out P2 cards at a critical moment. I recently had to go from bright daylight to a dark lit room and if I pushed up the gain to +9 and slowed the shutter a little, it wasn't too grainy. The HVX produces some of the best looking SD for a camera under 10K that I've ever seen and that's why I took the plunge, to have format choices. Good luck:violent5:
 
If you go with a non-HVX camera, Focus Enhacments has the FS-4, I believe, that is a super great DTE recorder, been around for YEARS, proven reliable, great product. I'd question Sony as thiers I think is more expensive, and they only just now started to design and build these things. Focus has been at it longer than anyone, from what I understand.
 
I'm shooting weddings in 720p 24p, can the canon do that? I really like 24p for weddings, it give it a better appearance, at least that's what my clients have said so far. Yes your right about the low light issue, but that seems like more of an issue for receptions. I shot one wedding, and got 3 jobs after it was shown.:beer:
 
That's cool pmp. I"m shooting a wedding this weekend with two hvx's and p2. It'll be my first wedding. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Jason
 
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