Wedding CAMERA outside events ??
 

Help, I have read so much about which camera to get for shooting weddings, I have become even more uncertain.

I will hopfully be shooting 4 weddings this year along with a few outside horse events.

I have around £5000 to spend.

I need help in deciding which camera to buy, im fairly new to this in general.

F1, Z1, HD100, XL2 SD or HDV?????? PD170 for low light??

Im tending to lean towards HDV has you can film SD aswell and I want to be fairly future proof.

Any advise would be gratfully recieved.

I live in the UK so if there are any readers who could recommed an equipment supplier that would be of some help.

Thanks in advance

Mark

I wouldn't buy any camera now which can't at least shoot true widescreen SD Video, so I'd recommend any of the HDV cameras or the XL2 over the PD170. I'm happy with the FX1 for weddings and other purposes, but it does struggle in poor lighting so you'll need a decent on-camera light if you're shooting in a setting with minimal ambient light. I use the Bescor KLK-624D kit and suggest replacing one of the two bulbs with a 10W one for less obtrusive shooting at close range. Even with a light some situations may result in dark footage on HDV cameras, so that's a trade-off to consider before buying one. But in any reasonable amount of light HDV looks great, especially when viewed on a computer screen or HDTV display.

Mark,
Keep in mind that the HDV cameras downconvert to SD very, very nicely, and retain most of the quality that you see in the HDV stream. JVC, Canon, and Sony all downconvert quite well. Depending on your NLE, you'll probably be happiest converting in the post-process vs in-camera. Both flavors of HDV (720p and 1080i) convert nicely to SD.
The XL2 is "widescreen" at the sensorblock, being 960 x 480, so it's "true widescreen" if that's what you want. All flavors of HD are widescreen, so you're starting with at least that much resolution on the block. I'd have a really hard time being convinced to buy a standard def camcorder these days with all the great offerings in HDV that can do both formats.
Sony cams can do DV, DVCAM, and HDV. Canon and JVC both offer flavors of 24p.
For the price, the FX1e is very hard to beat, and you'd have cash left over. If you're schooled and skilled in shooting 24p, the Canon is the best by far, but also more expensive. If you're in low light, I'd have to choose the Z1 or FX1. If you're in good light, want 24p, and can shoot it...the JVC is your best option. Be sure to factor in the Anton Bauer battery back for the JVC if you go that route, because the on-body battery is basically useless.

Thank you very much for well laid out advice, I think it makes sense for me to start with one of the Sony’s. I would like to get the FX1 and spend some change on some UHF microphones, tripod etc...But I am a little concerned about the lack of XLR inputs on the FX1 but have notice kits for the FX1 giving XLR inputs are they any good?. Also what kit as far as Microphones, tripods lights are concern would you recommend. Thanks for your time in replying.

Regards Mark

Either the Beachtek or Studio Devices boxes for the FX1 are just fine/great. I've got the Beachtek, and sometimes wish I had the Studio, but both are just right for fitting under the cam.
We have an audio forum here on the DVInfo.net that you can check out, it's got a lot of audio guru's in there that can assist you in the decision of buying a converter.

Mark, for a supplier, I had good experiences in the UK with WTS broadcast, (www.WTSbroadcast.com) I'm sure they'll help you ge the most from £5000. They might not have the FX1. Ask them for a quote, they did much better for us than the prices listed on the website on a couple of sony Z1s

As for using the Z1 in low light, in SD it becomes a bit of a wash, as if you downscale the HDV footage to HD, even pushed up to +6 or +9 the noise is pretty much negligable (obviously this is not the case when viewed in HD). Even at +18, in SD I would say it holds up pretty well, especially when Colour Corrected a little.

Obviously once your work is remastered in HD, any material shot with the gain up wouldn't necessarily work so well.

With the horse events I think you really need to look at the Sony's, as the 50hz interlace look would be much better for high motion events. However, one area of limitation is the lens, the telephoto end of the Z1 (I guess the FX1 is the same) isn't that long. For the weddings I'm guessing this won't be such a big deal, unless a couple are getting married in a cathedral, but for the horse events it might be a handicap.

What would be the advantage of downconverting in-cam
vs. in post when using Vegas?

And do you expect any new HDV cam announcements at NAB?

Vegas is the only NLE I've experienced that makes a much better image downconverting than the camera does. It's slower by a bit, depending on your system, but it's a pretty visible difference.
I'm not expecting any new cam announcements at NAB, save it be for JVC delivering what they announced earlier. But then again...I wasn't expecting the Z1 when it was announced either.

Is there much difference in the FX1 footage between
downconverting from HD to SD in Vegas vs. shooting
the FX1 in 16:9 SD mode?

Mark,

If you edit in HD THEN convert your edited master, you could deliver an HD copy sometime in the future - WHEN the pieces come together.