View Full Version : Renting 3rd Camera for Wedding


Brock Burwell
August 6th, 2016, 11:54 AM
I asked this question about a month ago before I shot my first wedding and got some good advice and I was basically wanted to ask again as the scenario has changed a bit.

I am shooting a wedding in a few weeks and I am needing to rent a 3rd camera. I currently own a 6D and a GH4 with a large number of lenses.

It's an outdoor wedding with an inside reception. I really would love to rent the Sony a7sii because I am considering purchasing it, but I've been scared off a bit by people saying it will be a challenge to grade all three cameras in post, which makes sense. Perhaps with me using a metabones adapter on the GH4, it may not be as challenging as the depth of field won't be too big of an issue.

The bride hired me to only create a highlight video of the ceremony and the reception. She does not want to receive a full length video of her ceremony.

The idea is to have the 6D in the back middle capturing everything. My wife or I will use the GH4 with our metabones adapter and Canon 70-200 to walk around and get footage during the ceremony. Then one of use will do the same with the camera we rent. Once the ceremony is over, the 6D will go in the bag and we will just use the GH4 and the rented camera at the reception. The last reception we did was very low light and the GH4 struggled a bit. I'd love to try out the a7sii in that setting to see how it works.

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Below is the video I did for the bride and groom last month.

Zack & Brianne // 7.9.16 - YouTube

Gary Huff
August 6th, 2016, 04:11 PM
The A7S Mark II and the GH4 are far more detailed of an image than the 6D. I, personally, would not use a 6D as a wide, as I feel it will make it stand out more.

Craig McKenna
August 7th, 2016, 06:01 AM
How did you capture audio for your wedding film? The background noise is something serious... I'd definitely recommend investing in audio capture before taking on another camera... I think that your 6D and GH4 will do you just fine, though I understand the need to rent another camera for the set up that you are considering.

That said, an outdoor ceremony may bring vows that you will want to use, and I can imagine that your audio could suck if you don't take measures to secure it for the highlight. If it's purely going to be a music video, then happy days, but if not, then you want to capture that audio better.

You could use something like SoundSoap to rid the background noise too. Otherwise, great visuals and grading!

Brock Burwell
August 8th, 2016, 03:44 PM
Which part of the audio do you think there are issues with? The only reason I'm asking is because I mic'd up the groom and the minister but no one else. I went to the rehearsal but was given no indication that the father of the groom would be speaking. The only reason I got that audio is because I was tapped into the sound board.

The other part where audio was a bit off was when they were praying in a circle. That one happened so fast that I had no idea that they were going to do that so it was all from the shotgun on my camera.

If you think the audio from the minister is bad, then perhaps I should reconsider how I mic them up.

Brock Burwell
August 8th, 2016, 03:46 PM
The A7S Mark II and the GH4 are far more detailed of an image than the 6D. I, personally, would not use a 6D as a wide, as I feel it will make it stand out more.

Hmm...I figured since the 6D is actually a lower quality camera, that I could put it in the back and it would help hide it's low quality. You think I should put a GH4 in the back and walk around with the 6D?

Steve Burkett
August 9th, 2016, 02:13 AM
A GH4 set to 4K was made for wide shots, whilst the 6D is more suited to close ups. Being Canon, skin tones are better and more flattering to people. So I think it's a better camera for those Guest's reaction shots and closeups of the couple.

Craig McKenna
August 11th, 2016, 05:54 AM
Which part of the audio do you think there are issues with? The only reason I'm asking is because I mic'd up the groom and the minister but no one else. I went to the rehearsal but was given no indication that the father of the groom would be speaking. The only reason I got that audio is because I was tapped into the sound board.

The other part where audio was a bit off was when they were praying in a circle. That one happened so fast that I had no idea that they were going to do that so it was all from the shotgun on my camera.

If you think the audio from the minister is bad, then perhaps I should reconsider how I mic them up.

The Father of the Bride - that explains it! Did you try any de-noiser software, because the audio from him sounded audible and fine, but the hiss was quite present.

The other issue I had with the minister was that the audio only comes through the left channel for some reason? I listened with headphones, and the right ear cup only gives me the music... I'd look into that.