My First Wedding W/LS300
 

I wanted to share with you brothers about my first wedding with the LS300's. I have two and I shot a wedding today and here is a Screen Grab:

Keep in mind I did not shoot log because I do not feel confident as of yet. I shot 709.
This is why I'm so happy to have this camera.

First One - was right out of the camera with no color correcting
Second One - was with a little color correcting
Third One - was with the Skin Lomo V2 Lut

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Thoughts after my first wedding with this beast... It is one thing to shoot for an hour or so then pack it up, but a whole other story when you are shooting all day on a wedding.

Battery-
The battery life is not that bad. I came from the FS100 and the NP-970 battery would last me the whole wedding day including b-roll shots. I was scard to use the JVC's for b-roll because I only had one extra battery per camera and I did not know what to expect so I kept conservative. I shot b-roll with another camera leaving the JVC's only shooting Ceremony, Formals, and Reception. Cam "A" lasted the night up until that last song of the reception before we left. I changed battery for the last song in Cam "A". JVC Cam "B" lasted without battery change but it was not used for the Formals.

Quality Image -
As you can see from the screen grabs above the LS300 coupled with the Rokinon 35mm T1.5 delivers very good imagery. Screen grabs are better than some photographer's pictures.

Easy of Use -
I would say it is very straight forward. Of course i shoot strictly manual so it is what it is. The wicket DOF will give you a little work when you are tracking moving targets and you are at a stand still. I stopped the Iris down a bit so the DOF was not so shallow.

Build -
It was not so bad. I know not to be overly aggressive with the flip screen or careless so it was not a problem for me at all. I had another Cam Op with me operating the second LS3 and he had no problems with the flip screen as well. He has only used it for about a hour a week prior. It holds up pretty good and I feel as if I do not have to worry about it.

Media -
I had two 128 Sandisc Etreme Pro Cards in each LS3. On Cam "A" I went through one card and had 80 minutes of recording left on the second card. LS3 Cam "B" lasted with the card. Again Cam "A" was used to shoot the formals and some outside shots downtown. So the usage of the storage was to be expected.

Sound -
I used Audio Technica Dual Receiver and laved up the groom and the officiant. I got some static because of the stage mic and seem to give off some interference. Nothing to do with the LS3. I used the shotgun mics for the reception and the only thing I'm worried about is the Toast. Was not able to patch into the DJ system.


I have not viewed all the footage yet, but I will take a look soon. I always like to give myself a few days before looking at my footage. This way I have a clear head to be creative and I'm not tunnel visioned out on what I shot from my memory. I like to approach with a fresh perspective and allow it to bring thing back to my memory. I seem to be more creative in this circumstance and less critical of my shots.

Bottom Line -
I love the LS3 and the imagery it produces, and it is exactly what I was looking for in an upgrade.
Priority 1 - was the quality
Priority 2 - was the amount of work that had to be done to get that quality.

I was able to have my 3 cam system stationary without moving and also be confident because of my confidence in the 4K resolution where I can have frame control by zooming and panning with clarity in post. I was debating on getting a third LS3 and I'm still deliberating at the moment. I would like to reach up a bit higher if possible without breaking the bank but frankly I'm not sure that is possible (GH5 loyalist see paragraph below.) I Think it will be hard to reach up past the LS3 with significant quality without going up past $5K. I see the LS3 is being compared to the Sony FS7 in some ways and the Blackmagic Ursa / Ursa Mini. Suggestions are welcomed but keep in mind that I use my cams for TV Shows, Music Videos, Documentaries, and Weddings. Weddings I find is the event I shoot that seems to need the most versatility. I can not have a cam that sucks in low light. I need to be able to go from one room to another and with little adjustment be ready to shoot quality imagery.

GH5 loyalist - I had the GH5 and sold it after 2 weeks. I don't have anything bad to say about it, except I did not like the jitters in the footage. I'm sure it could have been solved but, I just was not comfortable gravitating toward a DSLR cam of that size as a "A" Cam. I started with a camcorder camera made to shoot video without overheating issues and all that. I would only seem to use as a b-roll cam as default. I figured it was too expensive to tie that much money up in a "B" Cam / B-roll camera. So I freed up those funds by selling it. No shade on GH5. I think the GH5 has a very good image, and I liked the 5 axis Image Stabilizer.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

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Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

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Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Random thoughts from your post:

I really like how your wedding footage came out! Looking at your sample grades 2 & 3 just reminds me how much better this camera system is vs say the older HDV where frankly I don't think you could change color that much without it showing and how the older cameras look looked in low light. Yes, looks like a good shot from a DSLR.

Rec 709 is working for you, you can always try to shoot J-Log at a chapel a week or two before with their lights on on a different day. I always found the priest/pastor more than willing to let me drop by a week or so early and test shoot some footage there. I think the 709 is working for you so why mess with it, but would be interesting to see how the J-Log likes the darker rooms with still having the lights spill in from the windows. Would it noise up? I don't know. Probably, it seems to for everyone else.. though maybe they should have expose it more. (this is where the riding the highlights and even histogram fails me and grey card or light meter saves my bacon.. though on the older cameras they had center weighted meter that worked well for me with a grey card. )

I also picked up 5 or 6 Rokinon Cine DS lenses (Nikon mount to also use with my DSLR's though Canon is more popular) and be able to use a speed booster on the JVC later if I want to. I'm amazed how good they are for how inexpensive they are. (price of a used Nikon or Canon manual focus lens on eBay but engineered for Cine work, de-clicked, longer focus and usually 1 or 2 stops wider.)

Battery: I tried a cheapie Kastar battery and charger from Amazon.com together they where about $70 and battery lasts 420 minutes that I think is fairly accurate. (also has USB plug in battery to be a power tap I'm guessing for cheap USB lights etc or charge your iPhone? plus a LED 4 dot read out of remaining power. For the price I find it hard to say to get the IDX over the price of the Kastar. I can get a dual charger and 4 batteries for about the price of one IDX JVC battery. So far with 1 sample I give it a thumbs up.

3rd JVC LS300? Maybe. I never had the luxury or the common sense to have 3 cameras of the same make and model so I could train 1 or 2 assistants once on one camera and have them be able to pick up any other one.... and have a common color, dynamic range etc. Of course that led to me hating post work and hating event work. So if it makes economic sense go for it. Try to get the 3rd one used for a lot cheaper or possibly the cheaper 170/200 to hand off to the least trained assistant? set up the manual camera settings to mimic close to what you are doing with the JVC LS300.. (I have toyed with this idea but I would need to find some raw footage or comparison footage before I would drop $1,300 on a fixed lens camera... so 1 used LS300 or a JVC GY-HM170/200 for about $1,300/1,900?

3rd upgraded different camera system? There is the 10 million dollar question which is why I gravitated towards the JVC LS300 in the first place. JVC always being (pro-broadcast get a lot for your money but usually never top end but incredible value camera) always impressed me for the money, and I always felt like I was missing something on say a better 2x or 3x Sony or now the Ursa Mini Pro for instance. I'm tempted to get a 2.5k Blackmagic Production camera to start working with Raw in a meaningful way or find a used Digital Bolex that I love the footage I have seen from... but I doubt raw would benefit you much in turn around time for what you are talking about, though maybe documentary if you plan on getting big hard drive arrays vs the easier to edit and store our AVCHD 150mbs footage. My other friends get a bunch of cheap Canon DSLR's put them about, focus, hit record and walk away and have already figured out their post color work to match. I have done similar things where I had my main good camera on a tripod and 2 other cameras on tripods next to me with hugely different lenses so I can cut back and forth between wide, medium and telephoto. 1 of the cameras being a JVC HD110 with the Fujinon 17x that I could zoom in and out, but I always had coverage in post without having to zoom, plus 1 or 2 other cheaper cameras on stage that hopefully didn't get knocked over. I still shrug and think get 3 of the same or a 3rd one of radically better Sony Fs5 that everyone talks about or a Blackmagic type of camera and shoot pro-res and occasionally raw.

Mic? I picked the Sennheiser K6 module with the Sennheiser ME66 mic.. I cheated I asked and audio engineer I knew what was the cheapest mic combo he would go out to work with and he said that one. About $500. Pretty good mic for my budget. My issue always was on the JVC HD110 the audio overhead wasn't great.. it was good, but I don't think it was great so picked up a digital audio recorder (Tascam DR60 I think) to plug in-line in between the mic and the camera and re-synch audio later in post with the better audio. I only barely tested it out when I went to the JVC LS300. (I keep my cameras far far too long) I don't know if the JVC LS300 would benefit in audio by having an extra recorder in line between on a 2nd light stand with better mic, but I'm sure any under $10,000 camera would. Red and Blackmagic for instance have terrible audio... only good for synching up exterior audio later. well the Ursa Mini Pro might be different.... but the other Blakcmagic cameras tank in audio dept. The stock shotgun mics where always ok, but sounded like listening to the world through a tin can with a sock over them. Oh and my audio engineer friends they use other mic that cost about $2,000 to $5,000 each for example. I listen to them and they where better but to me at this point, it was saying a Lamborghini was way better than a Ferrari when all I could afford was a used Chevy. So I got the Sennheiser K6/ME66 combo.. sort of the Chevy Silverado Truck of the audio world with the smaller engine. Microphones and most lenses out last our camera bodies so feel free to drop money on audio and lenses when you like. :)

For stationary and or events I love to have a decent monitor. I had a 17" HDTV on a $90 stand to live feed from my camera and used that focus and frame and see how it looked. Also advertised what I was doing so people would come and watch my footage of what I was getting and trade business cards, take flyers there where there etc.... For portable no AC a 9" external monitor. I have tried a few, and I think for $400 barely adequate. IF you go that route I would say to try out the Blackmagic production assistant (might as well get the 4K for more $$$ so you can record it live via HDMI as maybe less compressed?) or perhaps the better Atimos Shogun Flame type of monitor recorder for $1,500 range.... (with the J-Log LUT built in) ... but it's a hard pill to swallow for events when you can be next to a wall, AC outlet and a $150 24" K-Mart/Wal/Mart 1080p/4K HDTV on a $90 stand (B&H) is still tons easier to frame, focus and expose with and well, people will come by to see what you are doing and watch your footage. For weddings receptions it would be fine... for weddings, I doubt it unless you were away from everyone. For live music from your main spot I think it's a must.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Aaron - great write up, and a good series of posts for the past couple of months!

About the low light capacity on this camera - how is it? I running a Sony A6300 right now, which is obviously pretty good in low light. How would you say the LS300 compares?

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

The ls300 is not a very good low light camera, the problem is mainly the noise which becomes very visible at 3200 iso and higher, it a colored noise which is hard to remove with a plugin like neatvideo.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Thanks Alex! The Roki's did a great job for me yesterday and I was impressed myself. I will post few screen grabs of the low light clips soon as I get back to the footage. Yesterday, I pulled a 12 hour shift and then when I got home I spent my time downloading and ingesting footage and proxies into premiere. In total yesterday I have 320gb of footage between the 2 LS3's, drone, and the FS100.

Yes, I felt safe with the 709. I'm getting better with the J-log1 but just was not there yet to gamble a wedding on it. I will keep shooting 709 on the professional gigs until I feel confident enough. Right now for me, I'm hitting and missing.

I run M4/3 now that I'm with LS3. Sold the canon glass I used with the FS100's along with the Metabones. I have a few lenses now 50, 35, 24, & 85 (the 85mm is not a cine lens. I got it used at the camera store when I was there so I had to have it for the price). I just bought the 12mm T1.5 and it is on the way. I want this one for the music vid I got this weekend.

Wow, 420 minutes! That is what I'm looking for right there. I will be grabbing that ASAP. That would bring me back to my FS100 days of shooting all day without changing batteries. I got both of my LS3's used. The second one I got from ebay and it came with 3 IDX batteries and the dual charger that charges both bays at the same time. I was amazed that I got the whole bundle for $1850. I will be getting that Kastar though right away.

Yea, I started with three different cams. Once I was able to maneuver some things and upgrade by buying and selling I took advantage of getting the 3 FS100's. I rock this way for about 3 or 4 years. So now it is just common for me. But looking at the whole scope of things I really don't see the need for a third just to capture the backs of the wedding party entering. I have two up front. One focused on the bride and one focused on the groom. Those are my most important shots as I will be switching back and forth between them. I also have to keep in mind my other functions like music vids, commercials, TV shows, and so on.

So I did grab another cam today with the 12mm Roki that I'm waiting on through prime shipping. It is the E1 Camera Z. I know, I know... This is not to serve as a third cam. I strictly got this one to use for my Music vid and i see a few angles that will not be able to get with the LS3 because of the size. I'm going to mount on the inside of the car on the wind shield with a car mount kit to get the shot I need. I took a chance after watching all the youtube vids about it. I need for a specific use, and not as a full fledged member of the main cam family. I will keep for hard to get to spots where this cam will shine. The draw back is the 60Mbs at 4K. I was looking for something that was 4K obviously and would be able to share my existing glass where I did not have to buy dedicated glass for it. So it has the M4/3 Mount and by picking up a 12mm I should be good with that. Because it will be able to be used on the LS#'s as well.

Digital Bolex, Hmmm... I never heard of that. Interesting. I did think about grabbing a 170 or a 200 but the fixed lens thing got me debating. I love the options of using different lenses. Shooting in strictly manual you can get very creative with your focus and shots. Again the 170 or 200 does sound like the logical choice but I fear I would lose on creativity. Reminds me of the Sony NEX-AX2000 I had for the Sony NEX-EA50.

I love the monitor idea. That will have a nice effect on the event as a whole. It adds professionalism as well. So, how do you send feed to the monitor? I finally got around to getting the USB network adapters for both of the LS3's and I set them up to control them via IP address. The latency is significant but shows promise.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Thanks John V. - Sorry I never shot with the A6300 so I can't compare them. I will say the LS3 with the Roki Cine T1.5 is a descent combo, but does introduce some noise in dim light areas (after going back to look at some of my low light footage the noise is there). I normally denoise those shots in post. In the reception at the end of the night there was no sunlight coming in and we only had the decor lights that were at the top of the ceiling in the Ball Room (there were also a few blue accent lights that were shinning on the walls to give mood). The DJ had a 2 lights that were going from blue to red. I never had to pull out a light to make it happen. I open the aperture full open turned the gain up to high (my gain positions are set to default) and I was good. I took lights with me just in case but never had to use them. I will post a few grabs in a few soon as I get to the footage.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Great comment! I've been following Aaron's posts on this cam, even before he got it. Really like the interchangeable lens capability (especially prime lenses) and the camcorder vice still camera shape with controls. Meant to say something so glad you did.

Aaron - enjoyed reading your posts, the selection process through the first use and ramping up learning all the ins and outs about it. You've jumped in with both feet using this!

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Thanks John N. - This awesome LS3 community has really helped me along. I appreciate all the contribution given about this cam. I really think it is under rated. I noticed that the popularity is growing. You can find the $2K used deals anymore. At least I have not seen any since my last purchase. This tells me that people who run out and grab the latest greatest and then dump them a few weeks later are holding on to them currently.

For me I think that it was the best choice, especially for the price point. I don't think you can go wrong with this cam or the GH5. It will boil down to preference. If I was to be honest, if my work was strictly Music vids then I think the GH5 would be the better choice for me. It will fit in places where the LS3 will not. Because I shoot weddings, TV shows, and etc. the LS3 was the better grab. For the sake of Presentation and professionalism. If paid me $2K to capture a weeding and I show up with the GH5 as my main cam I'm sure there would be some hesitation on the part of the client. I know the power and features of the cam but the clients does not. They see a small little camera like the neighbor down the street. When you are in a wedding and word of mouth is your advertisement. They are grading us on presentation, equipment, and professionalism. It is all about what they see. When I show up with my LS3 and the Roki cine lens they smile and that is worth it to me. The bride is already nervous and wanting everything to go right the last thing I want her to do and worry about my ability to capture good footage. Yes they see our past work and that does get us in the door, but there have been many flops in this area of wedding professionals where they have an off day and the footage goes to hell even tough they were high recommended. Anyway, I'm sorry GH5 users this is just my take. Presentation matters to me as I try to break into the daytime TV world. Sorry for rambling... That all being said I will have to grab other cams to do what the LS3 can not do. The first thing is fit in tight spaces. In my up music vid this week I want to mount the cam on the inside of the car to get a certain angle and it will take a heftier car mount kit than the one I have currently (by the way I picked up the Camtree Car Mount you can get off Amazon. It is a very good one if you are looking for somthing sturdy and won't break the bank]). SO got the E1 by Z coming for the size versitility and the ability to to use my M4/3 glass that I already have with a very small form factor. I think the lens is bigger than the cam.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Here is the Kastar battery and charger I got, I would recommend getting their bigger kit with more batteries and the dual or I think even more battery charger. It was a shot in the dark that I didn't think would work and it did. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

www.digitalbolex.com
Digital Bolex D16 was a crowd starter camera.. (out of production now) very nice artsy 16mm indie feel.. CCD not Cmos and raw only. Very organic looking footage. I will have to get one some day. Perhaps an ideal for hand held pre wedding video to be intermingled with the wedding video etc.. but ideal for hand held music video due to CCD and zero possibility of rolling shutter. But today they sell used for sometimes more than they sold for new. $2,500 to $4,000. List was $2,900 to $4,900 depending upon lens mount and built in SSD size.

When I say monitor/TV I mean a $100-$200 Vizio 720p or similar 1080p 17-28" HDTV pick light and thin... pack with gear with a 1/2" foam core velcroed to the front so you can toss the tv in the back seat. HDMI today, mine was component. Eye candy for the public with your flyers and info on the back of the monitor/hdtv. That and was much easier to pull focus in low light environments as well as watching how much noise I was introducing with gain. (something like this though I know this is not what I have, but it's similar https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...for_14_32.html)

Then if you want to be sly get one with DVD built in so when your not working your demo reel/add thing is running with the TV on... or better is get a better HDTV that you can just plug in your thumb drive with your 1080p demo on it and play it through the media player... however most of the smaller HDTV's don't have a built in media player so probably get a $26 gizmo 1080p player that HDMI's into your HDTV on site and you have your thumb drive of your 1080p demo reel/add plugged into it.... so you can use it with any recent HDTV with HDMI https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071KWYKJG...=2QNN3VV38UGKG) I assume this will work.. I'll have to get one before I say it does.. but the add says it does.

The HDTV and DVD player plugged in before and after the event was a way to show off my previous and varied work and to brag and boast without having to say anything.. with my webpage at the bottom of the screen playing. Today I would make sure to have a 1080p HDTV and 1080p media player of some sort. If there was any cheap 4K 32" UHDTV and 4K media player I would say choose that route.. but so far.. neither exist.. so 1080p isn't bad... or if you had to a cheap blu ray player at Walmart is usually around $50 for last year's Sony BluRay player. The reason for cheap was it was the last thing I packed up so if it got knocked over or stolen I wouldn't be heart broken.

Just random thoughts and suggestions, hopefully some are good or give you ideas for other things.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Z camera looks pretty interesting to be sure. The perfect thing for mounting on stage with a wide angle lens and medium aperture so everything for 5 feet to infinity is in focus for instance.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

Just order 2 of those batteries. I already have a dual charger. Just the 2 batteries link is here for those that may want to take advantage:Kastar Battery (2-Pack) for JVC GY-LS300

Thanks Alex for the heads up on those batteries.

I love this idea. I will have to implement this... Awesome Idea!

Lol, yes... I will have it Thursday and I will be able to give some kind of impression then as to how it compliments the LS3.

Re: My First Wedding W/LS300
 

I compared with my gh5 and at 6400 iso the difference is big up to a point I"d say the ls300 footage was unusable, since the gh5 is not exactly known for it's low light capabilities that says a lot about the ls300 performance. However I still will take my ls300 footage over my gh5 any day but I"m not going to take it with me at a candle lit only venue.