DSLR Video ?
 

A brief history before my question.
I am a professional photographer who makes his sole income doing photography. Mostly studio work, but also 20-25 weddings a year. I started playing with video due to lack of any professional video in my area and the love for it.

I no longer offer video only weddings. only Photography Only or a package that includes video highlights, and single camera during the ceremony, and through the first dance.

I do not take the place for a videographer, only offer a better quality than family members can provide, and do not push that package at all, only offer it because no one in town offers any video at all.

If you were doing nothing but limited wedding video, not even multi cam work, would you go with only DSLR's and an audio recorder like the Sony PCM-D50 for the lav and shotgun mic, or would you feel the need for a larger camera.

I ask because I recently purchased a Sony EX1-r, but wondering if this is way overkill.
I have DSLR's 1D Mk III, 1Ds Mk III and 5D II with tons of Canon L glass. I am thinking I would have been better off getting the new Canon 1D Mark IV since 95-98% of my income comes from photography.

Why didn't you use the 5Dmk2? People are out making films with it. I know we just did. It's quite a nice video camera when used with care.

I have had this camera for about 6 months, only had it as a back up to my other bodies. I finally broke down this Christmas and played with video its amazing.
I have a SD 302 mixer and Sony PCM-D50 audio recorder so audio is not a problem.

I guess I just never put too much trust in the DSLR's for video.

I love playing with video and will continue to offer it in a different format, not for DVD of the wedding day, I will leave that to you pros. I will only offer a few video clips to enhance my photography for those who would have never considered a videographer.

I have done both, and play well with others regardless if we were doing video only, or photography only. I hate to hear the bad stories from photographers about video guys, or videographers about photographers. I just can not get enough $$ in my market area to make video profitable enough.

Denny,

I thought that you were getting out of the video end of things - now you have an ex1?

While the Ex1 is a little hi-end for weddings, the 5d2 takes a lot of time and attention. It's pretty hard to use it without being pretty dedicated to it. I used it while also shooting 2 other cameras and it's a grind. You end up in no-mans land when you try to do to many things.

I am getting out of the video end, I love it, but am just so busy with photography that I can not justify playing with video. Most of my work is studio work, with some weddings.

I love the EX1r but I bet I wont use it 10 hours a year, and my 1D3, and 1Ds3 are getting a ton of use, I will probably upgrade to the 1D IV and get rid of the ex1r.

I am only offering minor highlights, this is just a fun thing for me to do, and also a marketing idea to book more weddings. When I retire I will play more with video. :)

Get a couple XR500V or CX500V and some tripods, set them strategically to get the key angles, shoot the artsy stuff with the 5DII... cut and mix in the edit, and you'll probably find yourself able to get pretty good docu style videos for the ceremony, and at a fraction of the cost of the EX1. Picking up a trio or quartet of the above cameras would give you good "unmanned" coverage, and with the 5DII for detail and cinematic shots, you might find yourself getting the best of all worlds... just a wacky idea, but works from my experience in a market where there aren't big $, so keeps video on a budget!