60I or 24F
 

Whats the settings that you are using to film weddings. Also, please give advantages or disadvantages to each.

Any one have any input on this?

We have experimented with just about every setting for wedding footage. Currently we use 30F on manual mode with 0 or -3 gain for most settings. Sometimes the receptions are too dark to get away with low gain, so we'll sometimes use a higher gain setting with the high gain preset (this is on a Canon XH-A1).

For the shots that are dark with a lot of grain, we just started using Neat Video. It does a pretty great job.

We've tried 24F and let people look at it, and we just don't get good results going to DVD with 24F footage. Not saying that others don't, because I've seen some great stuff shot in 24F and delivered on DVD. That's just our experience.

I use either VIVIDRGB or PANALOOK presets, personally.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Aaron:

Does shooting at 30F without camera lights allow you to get a brighter picture as oposed to shooting 60I? I also have the XHA1. I have only shot 60I with it. Over the weekend I had to shoot an event with low light and the results were less than desirable. The picture was'nt bad but it was a little grainy. I have been hearing alot about Neat Video. I may try it. Does it slow the render time down alot?

Kevin, Frankly, Neat Video is amazing; it allows you to shoot in darker conditions than you otherwise could. Although gain is never a good thing, it can save the day when the lighting conditions are too dark. I agree, 18db is not desireable. But a video that is too dark is even worse. You can clean up 18db footage surprisingly well with Neat Video.

It does slow down rendering times quite a bit but when you need it, it can save the day.

I don't know that the image is brighter with 30F, but it is a lot sharper and crisper. We slow down our footage a lot, and not having to deal with interlaced frames seems to help the look of slow-mo.

I'm still new to Neat Video, having only had it a couple of weeks, but it helps a lot. I even use it on footage that doesn't "look" grainy, and it makes it look better. I guess there's always a certain amount of grain on featureless colors with the HDV compression, and Neat Video takes care of that.

It does slow down the export process considerably. I have only used it for short 5-6 minute clips so far, and I'm afraid to see how long it will take for a feature-length wedding.

Here's my take.

I don't do 24F as slomo is unwatchable. 60i is too video-ish. 30F is a good take in between. The progressive footage gives a rich film-alike look but you don't have to deal with 24F editing/authoring issue and motion stuttering.

During the photo session, I will shoot in 60i as the entire chapters will be in slow motion. You get great beautiful slow motion video in 60i.

Hi Kevin,

See my related reply here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/1429811-post7.html