HMC40/80 settings at weddings

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

I need some advice after upgrading to the HMC80 from the 70 (which had only 1080i mode and not much manual control)
I had to shoot a wedding before getting used to the cameras so for safety I just shot at 1080i and full auto..however I have a 2 week gap before the next one soooooo.........

Bearing in mind that I don't really need any cinematic effects as my footage is documentary style which modes would 40 or 80 owners suggest for basic weddings and whether to stay with full auto or not.

I guess what I really want to know is what sort of practical motion can 1/30th or 1/15th shutter speeds handle without "ghosting" A wedding ceremony has very little movement but on the dance floor people might jump around a bit (Actually being PAL my shutter is 1/25th and 1/12th ) I'd rather use a lower speed shutter in poor light to keep the gain from going crazy

I'm itching to play in manual with shutter speeds/manual iris but also need to know which of the 6 modes is overall best since I'm delivering the end product on DVD. Also stick with the default scene file?????

Any suggested settings to get me in the ball park would be appreciated

Chris

[Dave Haynie]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

I need some advice after upgrading to the HMC80 from the 70 (which had only 1080i mode and not much manual control) I had to shoot a wedding before getting used to the cameras so for safety I just shot at 1080i and full auto..however I have a 2 week gap before the next one soooooo.........

Pansonic's had this weird need to always have a low cost shoulder mount camera. And usually they've been pretty weak, but the HMC80 looks to finally be a decent one. And yeah, it's built from HMC40 DNA, so the comparison is valid.

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Bearing in mind that I don't really need any cinematic effects as my footage is documentary style which modes would 40 or 80 owners suggest for basic weddings and whether to stay with full auto or not.

Basic wedding, no problems. Weird wedding in a totally dark nightclub, with circus acts and other oddities.... it's a challenge. Here's the ceremony from a wedding I shot last year with the HMC40. And this was about the most light I saw all evening:

YouTube - Wired Wedding, Laura and Dale

This was shot at 24p and 1/24 second.... the 360 degree shutter if you will. This is also a same night edit... no NR or other effects applied here. When a camera lets you shoot below that, you're absolutely cutting the frame rate by half as well... if I did 1/12th, my real frame rate becomes 1/12th second, just doubled when recorded. You WILL see that as some weird special effect. Which might be ok for some special things, like crowd shots, but overall, not acceptable for most video. I've also shot very dark dance scenes with one camera using Nightvision, naturally producing that as B&W, not the actual goofy green look, but that's as well only an effect. I guess the "color nightmode" is just another flavor of nightmode, but I'm skeptical of the usefulness.

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

I guess what I really want to know is what sort of practical motion can 1/30th or 1/15th shutter speeds handle without "ghosting" A wedding ceremony has very little movement but on the dance floor people might jump around a bit (Actually being PAL my shutter is 1/25th and 1/12th ) I'd rather use a lower speed shutter in poor light to keep the gain from going crazy

The HMC40 can go to a surprisingly high gain without getting horrible. And I add some selective noise reduction on the final video (Neat Video), and it looks quite acceptable in Blu-ray, unnoticeable on DVD.

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

I'm itching to play in manual with shutter speeds/manual iris but also need to know which of the 6 modes is overall best since I'm delivering the end product on DVD.

Go ahead and play, just don't do it on a paid shoot and/or with the "A" camera. I also had a TM700 with me, and that's the one that wound up being placed up in the rafters and other places. Helps if the nature of the wedding also supports these kinds of things... the crazy dark San Fan nightclub shoot opened a number of doors for creative effects that actually enhanced the final video. The one I actually used IR video on, as well, was in Florida and kind of a wild party scene... with the B cam on IR, and some odd prespectives, I was able to shoot a very dark dance situation. Overall, I'd prefer on-camera lights, or better still, a well lit room, but lights can get too disruptive.

I've solved the problem for next time by buying a Canon 60D this year. That bad boy and a f1.8 28mm lens makes for some serious low light potential.

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Dave!!

A most comprehensive answer and lots of hints there too. The YT sample was actually pretty good with no motion blur I could see.

Yep, I will play with shutter on non-critical jobs first...you can't say "Oops I need to re-shoot that" at a wedding!!!

I'm still fighting an issue with the image pixellating if I shoot progressive but I think it might have been something to do with face detection being enabled!!!

Thanks again for the input

Chris