Making The Switch Lots Of Q's
 

I know some of this is probably covered elsewhere. I am going to be jumping into a Mark II set up relatively soon.

I am not selling my XH-A1 just yet. I was considering holding onto it for audio purposes at a church for a wedding. Perhaps setting it up as a second/back up camera that handles all the audio for a ceremony.

What are the alternatives with using the Mark II for audio? I've read a few things on here about the Beachtek stuff..how is that working?

I am also wondering about lenses, what are good starting out lenses?

Also wondering how this will work with my glide cam, tripod, etc.. is this a complete start over?

Thanks...

Regarding audio, check out this series:

Part 1: Boom Mic - vimeo.com/5370880
Part 2: Camera Mounted Mic - vimeo.com/5388476
Part 3: Wireless Lavalier - vimeo.com/5443143
Part 4: Foley - vimeo.com/5453690
Part 5: Noise - vimeo.com/5474562
Part 6: Conclusions - vimeo.com/5903379

Peter,

I'd absolutely hold on to the A1 for now. With the 5d2 you will find that you can get stunning images right out of the box - BUT, as far as covering something like a wedding exclusively with a 5d2 - will take alot more experience. This is especially an issue with focusing fast lenses set to wide apertures and shallow DOF. I do shoot weddings with mine but use the 5d2 mostly for the beauty shots. Flying a 5d2 is tricky as well, though I've seen some great stuff. I use a GC2000 and need to keep working it. I use either the 17-40 f4L or the 15mm fisheye, and often can't make up my mind in time to properly adjust my GC.

Jon's Audio series is excellent and while I'd heard and read about it that's the first time I'd seen the videos. Personally, I've been reluctant to plug my XLR's into my 5d2 without a Beachtek or Juicedlink, so I haven't done much audio recording on the 5d2 preferring to use my other cams that are better designed for it.

I originally picked up the body only as I had some decent glass but recently picked up the 24-105 f4L kit lens, and it is a very decent starter lens. My next favorite would be the 70-200 f2.8L, though many say the 70-200 f4L is good enough

I have the Beachtech and I have to say I'm pretty dissapointed. I have yet to find a mic that sends a hot enough signal to where you don't have to run the thing wide open (lots of noise) to get a decent signal to the camera. It works pretty well with my Sen G2 set up, but I can really play with the gain on the transmitter/reciever set up with it though. If you are thinking of just pluging a mic into the Beachtech you will probably not be that happy with it.