it's so small...
 

A few weeks back I walked into a bride's home to begin shooting the prep stuff and the first words out of her mouth were, "wow, your camera is so small". My main camera is an FX7 that had a stedicam Merlin strapped to the bottom of it. It's not HUGE but it's not that small.

The second words out of her mouth, "I really thought your camera would be bigger".

This is the second time in the last year a client commented on the size of my cameras. Does size really matter? I mean they booked me based on the quality of my work, or at least that's what I like to tell myself. Anyone else get these kinda comments? I know some of you are showing up with HV20 sized cams, do you guys ever get that?

I tried to diffuse the situation by saying something to the effect of, there's no way I'd ever show up with a full size camera due to the cramped conditions we often have to deal with. That's all I could think to say.

A long time ago as a teenager I learned "it's not the size of the boat, but the motion in the ocean." Tell her it might look small, but it delivers a big picture. Then explain how much more comfortable and at ease the wedding guests will be in front of such an unobtrusive little camera.

I guess it's similar impression with photo cameras. Ppl tend to think that newer, better, bigger model will result in better images. We all know that's very misleading thinking.

You could always say: "My skills will guarantee the final results you paid for, not the equipment." or make improper joke: "I don't need to compensate for my size." j/k

I've run into this from time to time, I try to play it off as no big deal, but as the same time I try to get my point across with something like, "yeah, modern technology is great. My old standard def camera was huge, but these new High Def cameras are much smaller, and produce a much better picture."

As men who have been challenged in certain departments will like to tell you "its not the size, its how you use it"

I mean I use a 5D Mark II, which is smaller than your camera, but maybe the accessories make it seem larger.

Ethan,

Thanks for the laugh... seriously though, I do feel inadequate if I just use my HV30 for something. In fact I usually pre-empt any comments with a proviso about using it in tight spaces. I shoot a fair bit of real estate and refer to it as my bathroom camera.

Maybe you should just buy some old shoulder mount clunker on ebay to drag around with you for show. Or pimp it out your FX7 with a dead cat and a matte-box, or a big lens hood and stuff. Duct tape some cables hanging off of it - throw on a big viewfinder shade.

Hi Guys

I have never had a problem as I'm a shoulder mount camera fan!! However yes, client's DO look at size ... when I was still using SD 4:3 cams I had my little DVC20 on my shoulder (worth all of $1500) and the groom came to me and said "Wow! that must cost at least $40,000"
I think we are automatically compared to the TV station ENG cameramen so people are disappointed when they see a smaller than ENG camera!! In the very old days I shot weddings on a Panasonic MS4 SVHS camera and yes, people were impressed with the size!!

Of course it's the results that counts not the size so just ignore comments and have witty comments to hand for any size questions!

Chris

Somehow the mental image of that made me laugh. Maybe someone could start a company that makes fake "stuff" to hang on cameras to give them the "pro look". How about a name like "The Faux Pro"? Small cameras like the HV-30 and 5D MKII really need a wad of stuff to give them that impressive "look."

Years ago a buddy told me to buy a big camera because clients don't take you that seriously if you show up with something very small or something they could buy at Circuit City.

That's because people are fairly ignorant.

I would have quipped back with all women say size doesn't matter... but apparently it does!

A Realty Agent I do work for has a sticker on the back of her 4x4 saying "I lied!! Size does matter!"

I guess you could always carry an old ENG camera with you when you meet the bride and then on the actual shoot (when they are too flustered/nervous to worry) shoot with the real thing.

I have a friend with an old 35mm SLR and it has (his description) "a honking great lense on it so people always ask me if I'm a professional" His view is that if your gear doesn't have "respect" some client's won't hire you so he always carries the big SLR but never uses it!!

I guess eyebrows just might be raised if you shoot a wedding with a palmcorder that is smaller than the handycam's that the guests are using but unfortunately people DO seem to still work on assumption that bigger is better. A tiny HV20 swamped in accessories will not only look silly but will probably hamper your efforts anyway.

Chris

Here's a couple of pimped out hv series from another site. The one looks like a plastic meat container matte box.

Ok that plastic meat package mattebox is the best.

for us its the opposite, we use 2 Sony HD1000u's and always get compliments about professional looks; however in my head i'm thinking ,wish we could afford the 5D.....

Meat package matte box!

That is the most awesome thing I have seen today!

I do believe that a professional appearance does matter. That's probably the number one reason I decided not to shoot with an HV30. I think many smaller cameras still look very professional, like the Sony FX7 or the JVC HM100, but cameras like the Canon HV20/30/40 or JVC HD7/HM400 while having a great image, look like a consumer camcorder you picked up Best Buy.

Nothing changes. Back when I was a wedding dance DJ, I used a Bose 801 speaker system. If you've never seen or heard them, they are fairly small, very efficient speakers. I'd always get comments like "where are the rest of your speakers?" and "oh man, we wanted loud music!" After the music started, the only comments I would get are "wow, those are amazing!"

Unfortunately, the B&G don't get to see the end results until weeks or months later, so for the duration of the wedding day they're just wondering why your stuff is so small.

Ain't no fool going out to sea in a canoe! ;)

In general, my experience is that if you have a large shoulder mounted camera, everyone tends to stay out of your way because they know you're the professional. With smaller cameras, people forget you're the professional and tend to get in the way more frequently.

It's amazing how true that is. The shoulder mounted cameras have the most "influence" for sure. You're still OK with anything that isn't smaller than an FX-7 especially if you have a good tripod and other equipment. If it's smaller than that, you're just one of the guests.

It's sad but true that more than half of all business is marketing, and this is even more true of TV. It's not by accident that Sony lists one of the top attributes of the HD1000 as "professional appearance"... they're not stupid and they know you aren't either, but they also know that your clients want that pro look because they don't know any better.

It doesn't matter that you're a pro who could get great video out of a Flip Ultra because you know what you're doing. When the client sees you with the same camcorder that Uncle Harry bought at Wal-Mart, all they will ever think is, "I'm paying how much for this?"

I get the "where is the video dude" question all the time with DSLRs.. In Asia, the bigger is better mentality still exists strongly. I'm lucky that my clients have been more impressed than surprised when the see the full rig in action.

I've lost so many shots with the HV30 on news, documentary, and event assignments that I've reached a point where I would never use one as the A cam on such assignments again (even though it's my only camera).

I need to be able to manually push in, focus, pull out, set exposure, frame up, and maybe white balance... all in 5 seconds (10 if including a quick and dirty white balance or practice pan), and all while recording. On an HV30, that's going to be 20 to 45 seconds, by which time I've probably lost the shot.

I did a 30-minute documentary short on the HV30 for the state of Connecticut that was all ENG-style shooting and with most of the interviews being hurried and impromptu. Lighting conditions were drastically varied and constantly changing, so manual exposure was necessary, and I was constantly having to re-white. The environment was noisy, so manually control of gain levels was necessary. There were a lot of people moving in and out of frame, so manual focus was necessary. This is all very cumbersome on an HVxx. Never mind that there is no LANC. Needless to say, I was very frustrated.

I was on an event shoot where the company president saw the HV30 and said, "You're going to shoot with that thing? I thought that was your practice camera." I was reassuring, and bragged about the image quality that he would receive. Well, I was asked to take the audio feed of the speaker's podium mic from the sound system, which I did. I monitored the audio through the AV/headphone jack, and played back the tape. Everything thing sounded fine. Then I was asked to output my video live to a projector to be screened live behind the speaker. I was no longer able to monitor my audio because I had to dedicate the shared AV/headphone jack to the video feed. I thought it would be no problem because I had checked the audio previously and could still watch gain levels on the LCD.

It was a disaster. A ground loop had been created with the two systems (external audio input and video projector) being hooked up to the HV30. It probably goes without saying that the audio was ruined (Soundtrack couldn't fix it.). My big mistake was not having played back tape of a test of the whole setup, but once I was rolling I had no way to check or monitor it.

Never again.

Hey Ethan I have a XHA1 for sale as of Jan 18 if you need a bigger camera ^_^

Dave,

I have the XLH1 and an HV30, and while I like the HV30 for some things - most of them have to do with it being very small and easy to carry. With the HVxx, you have to become very skilled with it to get in and out of those menus in a hurry. You pay a lot of extra money for all those dials and buttons on the H1- but they are so worth it for ENG style work.

The H1 is a bit of a tank at 10 pounds but you don't have to worry about people not being impressed by it.

Well Ken, somewhere between the XL H1 and the HV30 is the camera for me. The HV30 controls are (as Philip Bloom might say) fiddly.

I'm still a college student (abeit a 56-year-old one) but have managed to get the opportunity to do a couple of solo documentary projects, which turned out usable to the clients. Obviously I haven't made all of the mistakes yet, but have rolled about 80 hours of tape on assignment, enough hopefully to not butcher the next product.

I'm getting ready to do some grant writing for a project and hope to budget about $3,000–4,000 for a camera, but this won't be for at least 6–9 months, by which time there may be more choices. I like the hybrids but they are also fiddly. I'd like to do sports too, so would be looking for a "proper" video camera (another Bloomism).

You have to appreciate the smallness factor of the HV30 in tight or intimate settings though, or where you're trying to minimize your presence in the environment.

Hey,

I'm 54 just starting out in the business after taking an early retirement. I went with a used XH-A1 and love it. Have a shoulder mount coming for it tomorrow or the next day. I have a couple of HV-30s too. XH-A1 isn't that great for handheld, even on a monopod, it's not comfortable after a few minutes. The shoulder mount might help. I ordered a counterbalance weight to go on the back of it.

HV-30 works well for handheld on a HEAVY Bogen monopod. The heavy monopod moves the center of gravity to below the camera, making the shots much more stable. Extending and shortening the monopod moves the center of gravity up or down, just hold the rig by the center of gravity. Gives a lot of the benefit of a stabilizer rig for much less money. Extending the monopod gives you the ability to get some overhead shots, but may have to use a software stablizer like Mercalli or DeShaker in post.

My HV30s have an Irv Focus Ring, Step-up Ring, Lens Hood, and Rode Videomic attached. Sometimes other gizmos attached as well. Wearing headphones with everything on the monopod seems to pass most people's visual inspection, especially when they've seen the A1 all decked out too.

I highly recommend a used A1. I love the layout of the controls, the 3 rings, etc.

That's what she said.... ROTFL. Literally. Sorry couldn't resist. I use a HF S10 and XH-A1. So my XH-A1 helps me "look" professional with the shotgun/dead cat attached and the wireless receiver on top. I do think that it is important to create a professional image in the eyes of the clients and the congregation there. I want people to know that I am the professional videographer and not just uncle bob with a handy cam. This way I might get booked for another wedding/event just for being there and looking professional.

If you are having the problem of clients thinking your camera is too small you should cover that base before the wedding. Explain to them that electronic equipment is getting smaller and video capture is no different. Better quality less space consuming. Heck, less back breaking.