For Wedding Ceremonies?
 

Hi,
I know Paul has mentioned using an HD10 as a second (?balcony) cam for the ceremony portion. And Michael had mentioned awhile back his intention to use one of these JVCs at a couple weddings.
I would like to hear from anyone who has actually used these
for an *indoor* ceremony. I'm not really wondering so much about the dinner/reception as I know cams with lower-light reach would be the way to go there. But how would the JVCs stack up against the other cams normally used, say, in a church or hall for processional, vows, recessional, etc.? Does the image hold up okay for afternoon and also evening ceremonies? Any special
considertions for use in this type of situation? Thanks.
Dave

Hi Dave, I know you read what I already wrote on this subject, but just to let you know that I've filmed two outdoor wedding ceremonies with this cam as a second cam holding a wide shot, and it worked out very well. It totally depends on the available light. If you can be sure that your ceremony will be sufficiently lit, then you're ok, if you can't be sure, and you think you might turn up to a candle lit ceremony, I really wouldn't risk it. This is a great cam under good lighting conditions, but under really poorly lit conditions as frequently occur at weddings, you'd be better off using something else that you know will allow you to crank up the gain and get away with it. I certainly wouln't use it as my main cam for any wedding, as this is a live event like any other, you've only got one shot at it, and you need much more professional controls than this cam offers to do a respectable job in my opinion. I'd highly reccomend the Ikegami HL-DV7W that I use, if that falls within you're budget, it's an incredible workhorse.

I hope this helps

how does the camera perform indoors with on-camera lighting? If I had say an outdoor ceremony with sufficient light, but then moved indoors for a reception...would an on camera light make-up for some of the low lighting?

I'm sure that an on-camera light would work fine for interview situations where lighting subjects in close range is needed. But the problem comes where either on-camera lights are not appropriate or the subjects are more general or distant and the lighting is very low. The JVC is not at all the best choice for a situation like this, you need a camera with at least 12db gain available and minimal nduced grain under these conditions, many DV cameras are also not at all suitable for this IMO, such as the GL1. You need to test the camera you have in mind specifically for this, if that's what you're looking for.