First thing to say is that the v'finders are wysiwyg, so they do indeed show you the effects of gain, shutter speed, aperture, white-balance and Steadyshot.

Next - never under-expose a shot and hope that you can pull it in post. Adding gain-up at the scene of the crime is always better than struggling to fix it in post, I find.

And - don't ever think of shooting a wedding with auto exposure. White dresses and dark suits will ruin your shots by having the exposure fluctuate all over the place - better to be in manual and make smooth and controlled changes to the iris. You also don't need extra NDs on the Z1 - shorten the shutter speed by a stop or two - it's much better than adding filters and reducing the efficiency of your lens hood.

tom.

You can always invest in an external monitor like an ikan: V8000HDMI 8" High Definition TFT LCD Monitor or Marshall Electronics -- V-LCD70P-HDA. They can be mounted on the cameras hot shoe. That will be pretty useful since the HD1000 has two mounts. It'll make adjusting focus, exposure, and even framing easier since the camera's viewfinder tends to overscan.

Regarding the exposure and auto mode, follow what Tom says, don't shoot underexposed nor on auto, it'll be a pain to fix in post.

Welcome to the boards and congrats on your new endeavor!

Again, this camera is great if you push it. But in order to push it you need to know what you are working with in the image. There are some circumstances it just won't work for. If there isn't good light or if there is too much backlight this camera can not cut it...actually most HDV cameras cannot compensate for that. (Check out the Z5U/FX1000 boards for more info on which cams can handle that...) So how do you find out what you are working with?
Hands down no question, a large external HD monitor is the single best investment you can make. Recently I hired in a second cam on a live stage show who uses an EX1. Great cam, ~$6000 US but similar 3.5 inch monitor...he is a great shooter but my images with my HD1000U were much more consistent, why? because I could see when issues would appear and correct immediately. I applaud camera manufacturers for increasing the size and quality of on-camera monitors but when you are mounted on a tripod or steadicam, an external HD monitor is the only way to go. Especially if you are pushing your gear to it's limit.

As to your next item...
Wedding videography in general and HD wedding videography specifically, take lots of time and events to master. Here in the US, the HVR-HD1000U is currently around $1600 (US$). I would really caution you against overpricing until you have more time with the gear and process. Spend some time looking at the clips posted here and then check out the websites associated with those clips and see what kind of pricing they are charging and what kind of equipment they are using. I think you will find very few people using equipment in the HD1000U price range and charging high end production rates. It takes a long time learning and a lot of investing to get your rates where you want them (I am still working on it myself.) The equipment is only a small part of that equation. The other factors: experience; quality/grade of final product delivered; editing time; consumables; local market average rates; global/local economy; and your reputation would play much larger roles. Yes, we want a good ROI, living wages and a little money to put back for new investments/upgrades but I would really caution against raising rates too quickly.

Make sure you spend some time in the following boards on here. The wealth of information is astounding (and it's free!)
Wedding / Event Videography Techniques
Taking Care of Business - the business side of videography
DV / HD Post Production... and Beyond! - find your editor and learn more about ways to push it.
Show Your Work - always good to see what your colleagues are doing (and watch for a new wedding "show your work" sub-community coming soon to the wedding sub-forum.)
Distribution Center - The Digital Video Information Network - DVD/BD authoring and web rendering tips and techniques...

Best wishes and happy shooting!

Great links Bryan..we too are a wedding videography group based in Canada and uses 2 HD1000u for our shoots...they are great but lighting is a major concern..had the same situation with couples who did not want any video lights for the reception (they wanted to keep the mood), put in my 2 cents but eventually they are the customer and they know what to expect with no lights..

Here are some of our samples..a bit of post production work but well worth it...

Dario and Tanja- Part 2 on Vimeo

Remember its not the camera but the person behind it that makes the story !!

Kren, Welcome to DVi. I hope you find the links useful. If you haven't had time to check out the boards in detail yet, I would highly recommend getting familiar with the search drop down (in the forum nav) and the "New Posts" button. I am sure you will find lots here to learn from and to contribute to.

I really like my HD1000U and believe bang for buck it really is a great cam, that said, the lighting, oh man the lighting...it really is a pain when you frame the perfect shot and realize you have maxed out the exposure adjustments and can't squeeze anymore light out of it.

I always try to educate my clients on video needs but at the end of the day, the one who pays has final say. I do have a clause in my contracts to protect me though, in the event there is an issue. Never had to inact the clause but better safe than sorry, right? I look forward to seeing more of your video samples.

I didn't know, but now I do - that the HD1000 uses CMOS rather than CCDs. The rolling shutter has a lot to answer for with those electronic flash frames.

I have never had much issue with the CMOS rolling shutter. The few times it has been overly noticeable to me the client didn't notice at all. I must say I am glad to not have any CCD smear issues, especially on live stage events with all the colored lights and strobes. But I guess I have been lucky with my wedding events that most of the photogs were discreet with the flashes. I have noticed a lot more rolling shutter flash footage on the news so maybe people are just becoming accustomed to it....

Well you need to take into consideration that the "general" public aren't as nit-picky as us. We do have the tendency to extract samples from almost every CMOS chip camera available that are exposed to flash photography, or similar situations, and analyze them in every way imaginable...from slowing them down to screen capturing the split screen.

The majority of clients won't notice the effect unless you point it out to them, otherwise to them it's just a piece of video with snippets of camera flash or strobes.

Very true! We do over-analyze but I have seen some footage on here that the photog must moonlight as a paparazzi because the strobes were insane! and the image was breaking down due to it but I have not had that happen to me before. CMOS can be a real trade off but the extended battery life and end of smear makes it a real upgrade for most of the stuff I shoot. To each, his (or her) own...