Wedding Videography tips and advice

[TrevorCameraman]

Hi everyone

 

In 2006 I had purchased a SONY Camera HVR-Z1E Full kit with editing software Avid Liquid 7 at the time. I shot a few corporate video's, events and a wedding for a while. I then landed a camera operator position / d.o.p with a major production house from 2007 till present. My equipment has been stored away since then. 

 

I need some advice on getting back into the wedding videography scene. A few months ago I purchased a Nikon d5100 for personal photography use but noticed that the video quality was decent for shoots. I would like to use both my camera's at shoots. Can anyone please advise me whether it is wise to mix hdv and dslr footage in wedding videography? 

 

My next step is to purchase a flycam stabilizer and slider (and eventually a CANON 7D haha!) for capturing the dslr footage.

 

Any advice and tips will be highly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

[Axel]

The Z1 is an HDV camcorder from 2005, the pro version of the F1 I worked with then. It is the first HDV cam. The resolution is 1440 x 1080i, which doesn't quite reach 720p effectively. It pushed the quality for SD-DVDs tremendously, but for modern expectations ...

There are more issues. Because of the interlace video, it always looks videoish. Back then people deinterlaced to get rid of the "i", but that looked convincing then. The tape recording forces you to capture prior to editing.

That said, the form factor, the perfect automatic program, the decent lens with perfect servo zoom, the phantom XLR inputs, made it the perfect camcorder for event videography. And it still will be - if DVD is your target.

I don't know the Nikon. In the german slashCAM DSLR & camcorder comparison it only gets a "c" in general, but only a "d" in 'subjective image quality'.

 

Quote
My next step is to purchase a flycam stabilizer and slider (and eventually a CANON 7D haha!) for capturing the dslr footage.

I had the 7D. In the comparison, it got an 'a' for handling, but only a 'b' for image quality (that was in 2009, I doubt it would get more than a 'c' today. The subjective image quality is not bad, perhaps a little soft, but the actual resolution is about 720p).

Compared to your Z1, all VDSLRs would get a 'd' for handling (for video). Be aware of that.

To overcome this (in part), one has to configure a *personalized* rig to be able to stabilize the camera. Since there is no reliable auto focus with a DSLR (even if it's fast enough, it can't know where you want the focus to be - search for 'shallow depth of field'), you are forced to focus manually, and only with a wide angle lens and hyperfocal distance to the motif you can use a flycam at all. I wrote *personalized* rig, because only you know, if you deem the naked LCD display enough for critical focussing (hardly, and if so, only with > peaking, but think of sunlight hitting the tiny screen), prefer an external monitor (this will extend the length of the rig and you will wish to have a  > follow focus) or press one eye to a > viewfinder, which requires additional add-ons, because VDSLRs don't have an EVF (some mirrorless system cameras have, I would personally recommend a Lumix).

You see, this is hardly a thing to solve in a fortnight. I forgot to mention that in comparison DSLR audio tends to be abysmal, another problematic area.

There are modern camcorders like your Z1, using cards and mostly AVCHD, with progressive frames and close to fullHD. I am not well informed about what gives you the most bang for the buck there.