Good first HD cam for weddings, Z5?
 

Hello all, looking to make the upgrade from SD to HD for weddings, currently using a VX2100 and if I stick with the Sony (which I have had no problems with) I will be able to use same batteries, lights, etc. I am thinking the Z5 is a good logical choice, good in low light, etc. I understand that tape will keep my workflow busy, but I am comfortable with that, although I could add the flash memory and cards and have a digital workflow? Any comments?

Thanks all.

That's the way I went...
 

And it has worked pretty well for me. If you are used to a Sony, it should be no problem. I have the 970 batteries and usually don't have to change batteries during the day. I will probably go DSLR on the next camera, but I want to have this camera for some of the run and gun corporate stuff that I shoot single camera.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or shoot me an e-mail. You can also see some stuff I have shot at Mark Five Productions on Vimeo

Thank you Mark, my pathetic dial-up here at work prevents me from all the fun stuff, but I will certainly check out your vids from home.

Yeah the Z5 is great for weddings and the batteries etc will work with it. I chose the Z5 back in July because I wanted to stick to Tape mainly for broadcast reasons. Its alot easier to give footage to news programmes and edit suites on tape rather than solid state/ harddrive. (I dont think some of them have ever seen a solid state camera in their life lol.)

But if you have no real reason to stick with tape and you have a powerful enough computer to edit on then maybe consider the NXCAM. Its the same as the Z5 except cheap solid state and bonus features like 720/60p. If I was buying a camera now I would be very tempted by one of them, although I would probably still go with the Z5 because of the tape feature.

Thanks Jonathan, thats exactly whats been driving me crazy, stick with tape or go with the NXCam? Sony has a $500 rebate on the flash recorder that fits on the NXCam, so its just $250. I keep thinking I should shoot with dual sources, tape and SD card (as with the Z5), or in the case of the NXCam, recorder and sdcard, but as it stands now, I am shooting to strictly tape only anyways!

Z5 ($3900) + Flash drive ($750) + 3 Sdcards ($600) =$5250

NXCam ($4000) + Flash drive ($250) + 3 Sdcards ($600) =$4850

Flash drive & SD cards on the Z5? How?

Bill,
Hopefully I understand it correctly, but I believe the HVR-MRC1 unit below fits directly to the Z5U and can record to SD Cards:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/580065-REG/Sony_HVR_MRC1K_HVR_MRC1_Memory_Recording_Unit.html

Nope, the MRC1 uses CF cards.

Now I see, I have my cards and letters confused. Basically i can still have the same result if I record to tape and CF cards simultaneously? I could improve my workflow by downloading from the CF card and have the tape as my backup?

Yes, that's exactly how I do it when I need an archival copy.

Z5 will allow you to smoother change in workflow. You don't also have to get card reader right away - can add it after few gigs. Once settled with new technology you could add NX and keep going tapeless with both cameras.

I've been using a Z5 for weddings for just under a year, shot bout 50 weddings on it, it is a workhorse camera, micuh like the z1

I LOVE IT

Get the MCR1 CF recorder, its AWESOME! Dont wait, get it right away.

It saves me about 4-7 hours per wedding, thats ALOT of time saved from not having to log in tapes. PLus you've got the tapes as a backup.

Low light on the Z5 is the best I've seen on any HDV camera (and I've used most of them)

Editing HDV is easy as pie on a basic PC (I edit on a dual core 2.4, 2 gigs RAM - not sure how that would hold up with the new AVCHD format on NX5 etc...)

The problem I now have is finding a decent B cam for my Z5 (currently an FX7, which on its own, looks great, when cut together with z5 footage, the FX7 looks crap!)

Short of an FX1000, I think the best B-cam for a z5 would be... another z5.

In summary, although I've not tried the NX5, I LOVE THE Z5

I came from the Sony PD-150, and went to the Z5 last February. I have logged on quite a few weddings this past year. I not only upgraded to HD, but also 16X9, 30p, CF flash, ect. I got a lot of bang for my buck! I love using this camera, and I have no plans to upgrade anytime soon.

Thanks everyone for all the help. This mornings reading has found another question. Will the CF card have many files that I need to piece together? I was reading an article that said every time I press stop/record, it shoots a new file. Is this a possible workflow issue?

Not an issue because that's the same as tape if you use scene detect, and you want separate files for each shot anyway for ease of editing and organizing. It does split long files (over 20 minutes) into pieces but the included software stitches them together flawlessly.