I currently only shoot with a Sony VX2100. I know its risky to shoot with one camera but I can't afford to invest in another camera right now. When I do invest in another camera in the near future I am interested in going HD. I would assume that buying an HD camera wouldn't actually solve my problems. I've heard that filming with an HD camera along with a SD camera looks unusual when in post together.

I wasnt able to find a specific thread with this subject. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts or experiences with this.

Off the top of my head I would say there are two ways you can do this. You could just switch to shooting HD with your new camera and keep the sd handy should something go wrong. You can advertise now that you do HD and charge a little more. Should you ever need the backup sd then you could give the bride a discount and convert the HD stuff to sd and give them a full sd package.
Or you can set the HD cam to shoot sd and setup both cams as a two cam shoot and still go sd wedding packages till you make enough to replace the sd cam with a second HD cam and offer HD at that time. Keeping the sd cam for emegency backup. You can always downgrade your footage if the need arises. Most brides are still very happy with "just" regular DVDs and not bluray (for now at least)

Thanks Darrik. That definitely sounds like a good way to move ahead.

Sean,

I did that with exactly the same setup - used my VX2100 as b-cam and FX1000 as main. Differences in footage after converted to SD where VERY noticeable. Mostly due to VX2100 shooting in interlaced mode and FX in progressive.

I'd say do not do it - wait till you have money for two HD cams. Or just don't advertise dual cam option and use VX as backup only.

I used canons and they were not noticable.
but yeah hopefully you stick with single cam and then just use for backup in case of failure and at that point a bride would probably be alot happier having half progressive and then still getting the second half of her day in interlaced (esp with a small compensation discount etc....)

Well since you currently only shoot with one camera, wouldn't you just be upgrading from SD to HD? Wouldn't your SD camera now serve as your backup and/or B-roll shot? Just because you buy another camera, doesn't mean you have to do 2-camera shoots. You can. You will be able to sell it. But if the SD is just going to do B-Roll. I'd say, "Market yourself as an HD shooter and shoot HD". For the few cutaways that are in SD, I'd don't think it'd be that much of a difference.

Yeah, I think I would feel a lot better upgrading to HD and use the SD camera as a backup. The VX2100 is still in great condition, which makes it hard to use mainly as a backup. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to advertise the prices with HD costing more. I would keep the 1 camera setup until otherwise requested and look into renting in that case.

For sure.

And will you current editing system be able to cut HD smoothly? That's the other aspect that needs consideration.

I run the current Final Cut Studio. My problem would be the mac desktop i got in 2007. I'm afraid the processing speed isn't enought. Dual core 2.0 ghz. I'd like to have at least 2.4 so it runs smoothly.