Re: Canon HF G10 - Max useable gain?
 

Angelo, your locked off shot was framed perfectly for your circumstances, at least it seemed so. In contemplating how to shoot my friends I considered a wide shot from the side just like yours, which is why I am so interested in your setup. That shot seems like a great place to start.

For the second locked off camera, the opposite side seems like a natural idea, but I had also thought about rigging up a GH2 with a wide angle to hang from the ceiling in front of the band, and pointing downward.

But it might be better to situate it low to shoot upward. On second thought, I could use a fourth camera and have one up high pointing downward, one shooting from lower shooting upward. Then use my fourth camera as the roving camera.

I need to check out the venue this week and see what the ceiling is like. The band is actually a bluegrass band, and they don't move around too much, but there are about 5 people, no drummer, so lighting is an issue, as the people in the rear are kind of in the dark, but I have plenty of lights.

The sound is a whole other issue, I have only a cheap Olympus recorder, no good for this. My XA10 has XLR. and I don't see why I couldn't go from the board into one channel, and use a shotgun on other channel, and lock that camera off, using my GH2s with shotguns for other shots. Lots to think about, I appreciate your sharing, thank you.

Re: Canon HF G10 - Max useable gain?
 

Sounds like you have a few great options Jeff,

I used to bring the soundboard feed in to my camera - but once I got the Zoom H4n, it was much easier to just record audio outboard. I've even done shows with an XLR cable dragging from my handheld NX5 the whole time. I also used to use 2 wireless systems to bring the board feed + room mic to my camera. But it was too much hassle, especially with all the RF transmission and interference in busy cities like NYC.

So I decided to go outboard, and it's been much easier, more reliable, and better sounding.

I highly recommend the H4n for it's 4 channel mode. At weddings, I plug in 2 wireless receivers to the line inputs - and I position the on-board mics to get nat sound in the church. Then the H1 is my lectern / backup recorder.

Re: Canon HF G10 - Max useable gain?
 

Wow, what an idea, a 2nd wireless, it never occurred to me. Great idea.

Angelo, does the zoom have to be adjusted to match video on the timeline, or does it match up pretty well? Any speeding up/slowing down needed?

Re: Canon HF G10 - Max useable gain?
 

Oh, yeah. I have 3 wireless channels running + 2 room recorders. I cover all my bases. Groom / Priest / Lectern are wireless. 2 receivers go in to the Zoom H4n, and 1 receiver goes to my NX5 camera. The receiver also helps as a counterbalance on my Redrock Micro shoulder rig.

The Zoom H4n syncs up perfectly to the video - no adjustment needed. Just find a sync point, and the whole timeline stays in sync.

However the Zoom H4 (it's predecessor) has a terrible internal clock - and it does NOT sync up well. I had one, and had to constantly mess around with the speed to make it lock up to video - usually around 100.1%. Not a huge difference, but when you are trying to sync up a 1 hour concert - it would drift by several seconds by the end of the show. So if you buy a Zoom, don't buy that model. The H4n is reliable though.

If you do get an external recorder - make sure you set it to 16bit / 48k - this will avoid any sample rate conversion since video in inherently has a 48k sample rate, not 44.1k.

I am selling a Sennheiser wireless pack if you are interested. Email me for details: info@ironbirdstudios.com.

Thanks,
Angelo