Renting a camera for the 1st time - Question
 

Hello,

We are doing a video shoot in the Cleveland next month. It's an outdoor shoot covering youth football drills and tips. No indoor lighting.

I have read how people rent cameras a lot. I'm used to shooting with my 2 camera setup -- Canon XL2 and XL1s. My problem is the XL1s does not shoot true 16:9 and also none are HD.

My concern with renting is being comfortable with a new camera (2 of them) that I have never used on a short amount of time -- probably a couple of hours to play around with them before the shoot. Also, the cost of renting 2 HD cameras -- maybe something equivalent to the Canon XL2 cost but an HD camera?

Would you guys recommend renting in my situation?

Re: Renting a camera for the 1st time - Question
 

Are you planning to master a blu-ray disk?

If not, then for widescreen DVD your XL2 should be fine. If the XL1s in 16:9 stretch mode looks soft when cut with the XL2, then you could rent about any HD camcorder with a sufficient zoom lens or buy something used. The camera is not as important as your expertise in using it. I just bought a used XHA1 and it works great outdoors. This camcorder operates in a way similar to your other cameras and is also one of the cheapest HD cameras to rent.

Re: Renting a camera for the 1st time - Question
 

Doesn't HD on the web look a lot better (crisper and clean) than SD? I'm wondering about bitrate with a progressive download or stream though. Anyways

Re: Renting a camera for the 1st time - Question
 

Yes. HD content on the web looks better than SD. Especially when played full screen. But will your viewers do that or even notice?

People rent but that doesn't mean they rent cameras they don't know how to operate. Seems to me you could rent two xl2s and problem solved. I don't recommend trying to mix HD and SD

Re: Renting a camera for the 1st time - Question
 

Oh, I thought you were delivering on DVD. Web video bitrates typically range from 500kbps CIF to 1mbps SD to 3mbps HD. These bitrates allow smooth video streaming at typical residential broadband speeds.

You are correct that shooting 60i SD doesn't work well for progressive web delivery. Shooting 30p SD works well for web delivery, but doesn't work for football because you loose smooth slow motion. For your project any 60i or 60p HD format would work well. In my opinion 720p60 is the sweet spot between convenience and quality.

Re: Renting a camera for the 1st time - Question
 

One thing is to grab a camera and hit RESET on all functions. It helps to routinely build up settings for every shoot. If your assistants and second shooters do the same then if a situation arises where a button gets presses accidentally or a setting changes or you NEED to change a setting, you (or) the assistant, knows where that setting is...