Best Camera for the Money?

LeslieD wrote on 11/7/2008, 4:48 PM
Up until now, video editing has been a hobby for me, but I'm looking into getting into it as a career...More specifically wedding videography. It seems to be "falling into my lap" and I feel like it's a fit for me. I've been using a Panasonic PV-GS200 camera to capture my video. But it's obvious that I'm going to have to make some investments in some more professional equipment.

Any suggessions for a professional camera? Are there any cameras that are ideal for wedding videography? Best professional camera for your money?

Thanks in advance!
Leslie

Comments

farss wrote on 11/7/2008, 5:07 PM
For weddings the SOny HVR S270 would be a good choice as it'll record HDV to the large format tapes. That gives you 4.5 hours without having to change tapes. Also the camera uses the larger Sony V Lock brick batteries. You can buy 3rd party batteries with a D Tap that makes powera an on camera light very simple.

Being a shoulder mount camera it is just so much easier to use, on your shoulder. Despite throwing large sums of money at a variety of rigs and rods and shoulder pads and battery mounting options we still cannot get the EX3 to sit right on the shoulder. That becomes a very big issue when you're using a camera all day weekend after weekend. For that kind of work there is no such thing as cheap or expensive. The whole camera and it's ergonomics either works for you or against you. The best image quality etc, etc means nothing if you can't hold the camera comforatbly for long enough to get the pictures.

Also if you're going into the wedding business get a good wireless mic system. We favour the Sennheiser G2 EW500 system, they've been 100% for all the wedding shooters.

Bob.

musicvid10 wrote on 11/7/2008, 5:15 PM
**We favour the Sennheiser G2 EW500 system,**

And if you're in the USA, don't fall for any bargain-basement prices on Sennheiser G2's in the "C" band (700+ Mhz) frequency range. The band has been outlawed to allow auctioning of the frequencies to cell providers by the FCC in the future.
farss wrote on 11/7/2008, 6:28 PM
Ah yes and be warned. In the USA we hear there's a lot of "Sennheiser" G2 kit that is NOT made by Sennheiser. How to tell is very simple. The real Sennheiser units are made in the USA not Germany. The daft Chinese cloned the first batch that were made in Germany, they even copied the Sennheiser label.

As for spectrum allocation I'm not certain where that's upto anywhere in the world. We hear rumours that Sennheiser will have a new system sometime that uses spread spectrum digital links but that as been noted here several times is not the panacea you might think it is.

One tip, if you do buy the Senny kits, swap the stock mic for the MEK Gold mic. It's quite a bit more expensive and it's worth every penny. We've had the lids of the Pelican cases crsuh them and they still work. Replaced the windshield and as good as new. The leads are kevlar reinforced wire and we've not had one fail on the six units we have and being in rental they do take a beating.

I should mention that the 500 series is bank switchable so you can use them anywhere in the world. If anyone in Australia wants any Senny kit at cost feel free to drop me a PM. I think I can also arrange the same deal on any Miller tripods as well although freight would be an added extra if you're not in Sydney.

Bob.
DGates wrote on 11/7/2008, 7:32 PM
There's still a lot of people shootings weddings in SD. One of the best wedding camcorders has been the Sony VX2100. These run about $2300.

Except for the Sony EX1, most HD camcorders suck in low light. The VX2100 is about as good as you can get if budget is a concern.

Otherwise, if money is NO problem, get the EX1 for $6500.
TeetimeNC wrote on 11/8/2008, 3:17 AM
I just shot a wedding with the new Panasonic HMC150. This cam has near incredible low light performance, can go as wide as 28mm which is great inside smaller rooms, and is tapeless. At the highest quailty setting, I get 1.5 hours on each of my 16GB sdhc cards. This cam records AVCHD at 24 mbps, which is visually stunning. Only downside at the moment is editing the AVCHD. You'll need a fast quad processor and your NLE support for AVCHD is still a little rough around the edges. I am certain SCS is committed to further improving Vegas support for this format.

Jerry
Laurence wrote on 11/8/2008, 5:00 AM
Only downside at the moment is editing the AVCHD. You'll need a fast quad processor and your NLE support for AVCHD is still a little rough around the edges.

That or you can use http://vasst.com/product.aspx?id=bf3e2d5a-7c2e-4969-a8dd-7cee2cefba30AVCHD UpShift[/link] from http://vasst.com/vasst.com[/link].
Konrad wrote on 11/8/2008, 7:44 AM
The worst camcorder for weddings at any price is one with a rolling shutter. Does not play well with still photographers using flash.
DGates wrote on 11/8/2008, 4:09 PM
The rolling shutter is more bark than bite. Yes, it's there. But it's not enough to overwhelm the positives of the EX1.

This is from hearing those that actually forked over $6500 for one, not people just dissing it without actually using it.