Shooting my first wedding next weekend

[Evan Bourcier]

Hey guys, quick update - I'm meeting with the bride tomorrow to just talk about a few things, so I'm writing down a list of questions and thoughts, anything you'd recommend to put on that list? Wedding is Friday, closing in fast. Also ordering the quick release adapter tomorrow from BH, anything little smart to have? Specifically I'm looking for the best solution for transporting the tripods/slider/flycam etc.

Thanks,
Evan

[Chris Harding]

Hi Evan

Just get an overview of the ceremony especially from the bride..where the car is stopping , where she will walk from, any unusual things that will happen during the ceremony so you know in your head what is going to happen and in what sequence.

BTW: With gear make sure you have a backup for everything.. rig the groom with the recorder and get it recording long before everything starts..it's no good to wonder "Did I push record on the Zoom??" when they are saying their vows. I only saw one zoom mentioned?? What happens if that fails..you need a backup for everything ...spare batteries too!!! spare mics and spare everything really as it's a one-off event and you can't say "Whopps I never got the audio" or "I missed that shot"

Chris

[Evan Bourcier]

Ah good points Chris, thanks! I was also going to ask her about if she had a title in mind, if there were any specific moments she knew she would want captured.. I just ordered a manfrotto 577 plate, which is hopefully the right one hah, and an extra 16 gig card. How many cards do you guys go through in a wedding?

[Iker Riera]

i haven't shoot a wedding yet with DSLR but have shot similar events (parties, graduations, etc) and i'd say have at least 4 batteries and two or more 32GB cards for each cam (or it's equivalent in 16GB)

[Evan Bourcier]

Do you fill them up? I'm gonna have 2 16gig cards for each cam and 1 16gig for the h4n. I've never filled an empty 16gig before that I can think of.. I'm also bringing my laptop to offload the cards whenever we get a break. I'll have 3 total batteries for the two cameras... I'm only slightly worried about that. I've also never had a cam die on me, so I figure as long as we keep the batteries rotating and charging we should be ok.

[Donald McPherson]

With the T2i I am sure you will know about the overheating issues.

[Evan Bourcier]

I saw a thread about that, I've never had that problem though! I dunno if they fixed it for the t3i (what I have) or if I just don't generally shoot long enough clips or in hot enough environments... I shot on and off for a solid couple hours at a red sox game last Wednesday in 97 degree weather and had no problems.

[Nigel Barker]

The T3i (aka the 600D outside the US) does not suffer from the overheating problems of the T2i (550D).

Each 16GB card will hold approximately 48 minutes of video. Transcend 16GB Class 10 SD cards run about $12-13 each so I suggest that you get at least a couple extra of these for each camera. For goodness sake don't even consider wiping the cards & re-using them even if you do offload to your laptop. The T3i/600D batteries are pretty small so when shooting video you run through them at an alarming rate at least one per hour of shooting so to give yourself a safety margin make sure that you have the same number of batteries as you have 16GB SD cards.

[Evan Bourcier]

Oh lame, I hadn't seen those transcend cards so cheap.. I'll definitely order some of those soon.

Would you still not reuse a card if it had been offloaded to a laptop and an external for double backup? I've also never felt like the batteries died that quick, but I generally don't shoot super long shots documentary style so maybe what's why.

EDIT: Thoughts on this review of the transcend 16gig class 10 card on B&H?

"When I bought these two cards, I thought all Class 10 cards were the same. Not so. While these cards perform well shooting stills, they're too slow to shoot video with my Canon 60D. Since I bought the camera mainly to shoot video, it's a real problem. I should have known better[...] Don't make the same mistake I did. If you want to shoot video with the Canon 60D, get a card that can record between 20-25 MB/sec."

[Taky Cheung]

You definitely need more battery, or have the charger with you recharging whenever you could. I use my T3i on battery grip so I have double the run time with 2 batteries loaded. However, the battery meter is not accurate at all. When it is showing half empty, it means almost empty.

I have high capacity LP-E8 for sell. They are 1400mah compared to the stock canon 1120mah.

LP-E8 1400mAh High Capacity Canon Compatible Battery | L.A. Color Online

[Taky Cheung]

BTW, I heard enough bad stories about Transcend cards. Our own photographer won't use them. He once came back from a wedding with a corrupted transcend card which was new. Rather don't want to chance it.

[Nigel Barker]

Just as with brands of hard disk drive everyone has their own prejudices & if you get bitten then you likely won't ever touch that brand again. In our experience Transcend are decent quality & we are still using the four 16GB compact flash cards that we bought with our 5D2s over three years ago. We use Sandisk Extreme in the C300 & XF camcorders as they are on the Canon blessed list of supported cards for those cameras but the DSLRs are less fussy & as the Transcends are half the price of the Sandisk Extreme we use a bunch of them. I wouldn't trust any of the no-name cheapo cards.

[Greg Fiske]

My advice would have been to second shoot for someone to get experience. Its a once and a lifetime event and there is not much room for error. Otherwise I would find a couple that was not going to invest in video and do it for free. If you are charging, I would make sure liability insurance is in place, and you have your business license and tax id squared away. Everyone is happy in the beginning, but when the product gets delivered, that is when you get in trouble if you haven't taken care of all the things I've just mentioned.

I average 60-80 gigs per wedding. The main problem with people just starting out is stabilization, whitebalance, and shooting where the dynamic range is too great. You can do a whole wedding with the camera on a tripod. Handholding, you need to test, I can shoot focal lengths less than 60mm.

[Evan Bourcier]

Anyone have experience with the batteries Taky posted? For $14 I'd buy a few more, definitely more likely than the $30 otherwise..

[Iker Riera]

About the Transcend cards, i have about 10 of them in 16GB and 32GB versions, all class 10 and all have worked perfectly for me with Canons T3i and T2i at full 1080/24p.

Apparently there was a bad batch of cards that was shipped around august last year (i think) but it was quickly corrected. If you check out the negative Amazon reviews you can see that they are mostly from around that time frame when the bad card were shipped.

I've bought cards after that time and haven't had any problems.

Originally Posted by Taky Cheung

You definitely need more battery, or have the charger with you recharging whenever you could. I use my T3i on battery grip so I have double the run time with 2 batteries loaded. However, the battery meter is not accurate at all. When it is showing half empty, it means almost empty.

Have you tried the grip with two original Canon batteries? I'd like to know if it shows the inaccurate battery reading with them too or only with the third party versions.