ea50 wedding footage

[Nino Defra]

it works ... try again

[James Manford]

Originally Posted by Nino Defra

it works ... try again

Looks good to me.

What is it that you find so difficult? Don't you think the shots where the background is slightly blurred raises the production value of what you give to your clients? it's something the XHA1 can't do.

[Nino Defra]

is in fact why I bought it, is the management of wedding reportage in my case it is more difficult to hold and manage mainly focus ...

[Chris Harding]

Hi Nino

The Auto Focus works pretty well for me for run 'n gun shooting and have you tried the spot focus at other times? It's very good indeed!!

I find the EA-50 way easier to manage than my old big Panasonics !!

Chris

[James Hollingsworth]

This has been a really interesting read and I have lots I would like to say. I am only a cameraman though and no technician! With regard to weddings, I shoot with an EA50 as the main camera and a VG30 as the second camera. For the ceremony and speeches, it is the EA50 that I operate and the VG30 locked off wide. Admittedly, I have only shot 2 weddings in this way but I have shot hundreds using a Z1 as the main cam and a V1 as the locked off cam, so plenty of wedding experience. I have to say that I have my reservations about the EA50 for weddings. Firstly, the VG30 is simply superb and will definitely not be sold on. Image wise, it has the large sensor that the EA50 has along with all the available lenses and is tiny in comparison. Great for professional and family use, I think a very unique camera indeed. Okay it doesn't have the remarkable sound that the EA50 produces but for weddings I always record the ceremony and speeches on an external recorder anyway. It is also much smaller which I think people often appreciate at weddings. I agree with James' comments about using a handicam at a wedding but Noa's set up for his 730 transforms the look of the camera into something very professional looking. This brings me to the crux of my worries. Noa has said that he is shooting both the ceremony and the speeches with his 730 so why have an EA50 for the artistic stuff when the VG30 can do the visuals just as well? I would seriously like to know more about the 730 Noa as maybe it is genuinely better for shooting a ceremony speeches. Why? Because we all know that when shooting a ceremony, we need to be able to zoom and we need a fast lens that is going to be able to work in dimly lit situations (unless of course we are outside at a zoo, as Chris was lucky enough to be). In my experience on two weddings with the EA50, the power zoom 18-200 just does not cut it. I have been forced, particularly with the speeches to use my Sony 35mm 1.8 which is of course a superb lens and the first one anyone should buy for these cameras but is prime and only has the digital zoom which is good but not all the way in as it does pixellate. Presumably Noa, with the 730, you are able to zoom in for close ups without going to 18db etc, is the zoom a smooth zoom such as my beloved Z1 or one of these nasty jerky ones? Also what is the XLR set up you have on the bottom of the camera? Presumably the 730 has enough manual options to be able to control the exposure/gain.
I don't know, but in summary, it seems to me that if the 730 is better in low light and has a reliable zoom then why battle with the limitations of the interchangable lens on the EA50 for the ceremony/speeches. Then when outside and you want those awesome shots that the large sensor gives us, why bother with the larger more expensive EA50 when you can slip in your camera bag its little cousin - the truly remarkable thing of beauty that is the VG30! That's it, no doubt much more discussion to come.

[James Manford]

Originally Posted by James Hollingsworth

This has been a really interesting read and I have lots I would like to say. I am only a cameraman though and no technician! With regard to weddings, I shoot with an EA50 as the main camera and a VG30 as the second camera. For the ceremony and speeches, it is the EA50 that I operate and the VG30 locked off wide. Admittedly, I have only shot 2 weddings in this way but I have shot hundreds using a Z1 as the main cam and a V1 as the locked off cam, so plenty of wedding experience. I have to say that I have my reservations about the EA50 for weddings. Firstly, the VG30 is simply superb and will definitely not be sold on. Image wise, it has the large sensor that the EA50 has along with all the available lenses and is tiny in comparison. Great for professional and family use, I think a very unique camera indeed. Okay it doesn't have the remarkable sound that the EA50 produces but for weddings I always record the ceremony and speeches on an external recorder anyway. It is also much smaller which I think people often appreciate at weddings. I agree with James' comments about using a handicam at a wedding but Noa's set up for his 730 transforms the look of the camera into something very professional looking. This brings me to the crux of my worries. Noa has said that he is shooting both the ceremony and the speeches with his 730 so why have an EA50 for the artistic stuff when the VG30 can do the visuals just as well? I would seriously like to know more about the 730 Noa as maybe it is genuinely better for shooting a ceremony speeches. Why? Because we all know that when shooting a ceremony, we need to be able to zoom and we need a fast lens that is going to be able to work in dimly lit situations (unless of course we are outside at a zoo, as Chris was lucky enough to be). In my experience on two weddings with the EA50, the power zoom 18-200 just does not cut it. I have been forced, particularly with the speeches to use my Sony 35mm 1.8 which is of course a superb lens and the first one anyone should buy for these cameras but is prime and only has the digital zoom which is good but not all the way in as it does pixellate. Presumably Noa, with the 730, you are able to zoom in for close ups without going to 18db etc, is the zoom a smooth zoom such as my beloved Z1 or one of these nasty jerky ones? Also what is the XLR set up you have on the bottom of the camera? Presumably the 730 has enough manual options to be able to control the exposure/gain.
I don't know, but in summary, it seems to me that if the 730 is better in low light and has a reliable zoom then why battle with the limitations of the interchangable lens on the EA50 for the ceremony/speeches. Then when outside and you want those awesome shots that the large sensor gives us, why bother with the larger more expensive EA50 when you can slip in your camera bag its little cousin - the truly remarkable thing of beauty that is the VG30! That's it, no doubt much more discussion to come.

Valid points.

But I bought my EA50 to compliment my VG20 purely because it looks like the bride & groom have paid for a professional and so their guests won't doubt me.

Living in London I do a handful of Asian weddings ... they definitely value bigger cameras to go with their flash wedding. With asian culture it's all about money from what I can tell. Who splashes out the most. How expensive the brides dress was ... the fleet of cars the groom arrived in etc.

So even down to the camera man, they have to somewhat look the part when they film at the function.

95% of Asian weddings are never discreet.

[Noa Put]

Something worth discussing about :)

Now I can say I bhought the ea50 as a replacement for my xh-a1 which has been sold now, I had two cx730, a xr520 and two t2i's but I couldn't see myself accepting a more "serious" job and arriving at a company with my handicams.

My experience at weddings is also based on working solo where you need to make certain choices to cope with the fast paced, "make it happen now and don't screw up", situations throughout a weddingday.

I toke the ea50 with me this Saturday again and now I"m pretty sure where I need to deploy it and why and when to use my other camera's instead, so here is my take on it:

My Sony cx730's:
They are simply brilliant little camera's but don't expect it's all gold that shines.

They image is sharper then my ea50,

They produce virtually no grain at gains up to 24db (cleaner then my ea50 at comparable gains). The image does get softer at those high gains but it's still acceptable.

They have a image stabilisation that is impressive and better then the ea50,

They have a very good autowhitebalance, in mixed light they pretty much nail it each time.

They have a very good autofocus, even in dim light.

The zoom can be butter smooth.

The wheel in front of the camera gives you access to one function like focus or exposure etc, but only one at a time.

You do have 3 preset touch buttons on the lcd screen. It has zebra's, peaking, expanded focus, about everything you would normally expect in a camera much more expensive.

It has a build in videolight.

The colors are not oversaturated like with many handicams, they are a bit flatter but still accurate and they allow to do some post colorcorrection, the lcd screen also gives a very good represenation of color like it will show up in your NLE afterwards.

It also got a realy wide wideangle lens (26,5mm)

In terms of operation the camera is very easy to use, I have exposure assigned to the wheel in front as I want that controlled manually all the time. Then I have whitebalance assigned to one of teh buttons on the lcd screen so I can quickly change between a preset or auto. I have focus assigned as well to switch between auto and manual where I controll the focus further on the lcd screen and I can switch the ois on or of as well with a preset button.

So, what's not good then? The image gets soft in the edges at certain focal lengths, it looks like it's out of focus but the image is still sharp in the centre, this out of focus area usually occurs on one side only. I have read reports from nx70 users they had the same problem so it's not a issue with my camera but something in teh design of the lens or whatever, my xr520 does not show this problem.

On a tripod you MUST turn of the OIS, this is standard procedure if you are working on a tripod but the ois from is cx730 is very sensitive and your image will bounce all over the place if you leave it on. This is not a camera flaw but something you need to be aware off.

The focus aids such as touch focus is not accurate, my cx520 is much faster and more precize, if I want to maintain focus while zoomed in I first frame a full object and let the camera focus and then switch to manual where I can adjust focus in increments with a plus/-button when needed.

On the front wheel you can press a button to select functions, to go from auto to manual, to assign the wheel to another function etc, only that button a very unresponsive sometimes, the button on the xr520 is much better.

The autofocus is very good but IF it looses focus it's completely lost and you need to either zoom out, point somewhere else, wait for it to recover or switch to manual and then change it. I do see a occasional hunting in dim situations but it's quite rare, if I doubt I switch to manual anyway.

The sound is ok"ish, not nearly as good as the ea50 but better then my dslr.

Eventhough the zoom can be butter smooth it requires a delicate touch, push a bit to much and your zoom will jump.

The exposure ramps very quickly, start zooming in and the gain goes through the roof to compensate, so during speeches I move the camera closer to the subject and leave it running unmanned, you can zoom ofcourse and there is no grain issue to be worried about, even at 24db gain, so you can stretch it a bit before it becomes a problem.

It is my first choice crashcam if I need to get a good professional looking image in a fingersnap when I have no time to think and get it right from the first time.

This is why I use these in during the legal marriage in the townhall (we have these before the church, they last about 15 minutes) and church, fast to set up and they produce an excellent image.

So where does the ea50 fit in? The major benefit I get from this camera is that I can shoot handheld with a fast 85mm lens that is not stabilised and this a big one for me, something I cannot do with my dslr's. Currently I shoot handheld during bride prep but I need to have a faster zoomlens, the stocklens is great as long as there is sufficient light but it fails miserably when that is not the case, at f6.5 even 3200 iso is not enough to compensate when it's too dark and you get a very noisy image.

At the photoshoot I use the stocklens, usually there is plenty of light and then it's a great performer and I need something that allows me to quickly reframe, don't have time there to change lenzes, I also use the zoom manually for quick reframing.

At receptions my main lenzes ar the 24 f1.4 and 85 f1.4 from samyang which I use handheld in a crowded reception room and I now use a monopod later on (when I use the 85mm) in the evening for talking heads.

I also love the sound quality, I now record to both internal mike ans shotgun so I can choose, I get much clearer sound from people talking.

So it does have a permanent place in my toolkit now, I only want to get rid of my 2 dslr's, I really need something that can do 50p so I can slow down footage on the steadicam and for that I was thinking to get a vg30 body, it would complement my ea50 perfectly but that's when I have sufficient funding. :)

[James Hollingsworth]

A worthy response. Those 85 mm and 24mm lenses you talk about, presumably we need the adaptor to use those who do they go straight on to the E-mount?

[Noa Put]

Samyang lenzes come with emount as well, my 24mm is such a lens, my 85mm is for canon dslr's and requires an adapter for the ea50.

[Justin Turner]

Noa how do you set the ea50 up to record both through the shotgun mic and internal mic? I didnt know you could do this. What happens in post? Is one recorder through the left channel and the other through the right and you just select the one you want to use?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I just followed the manual on how to set up for the shotgun mic only but wanted to do what you are doing. Still a novice with video cameras!

[James Hollingsworth]

The CX730 looks great to me. I am curious though Noa as to the accessories that you have attached. Specifically what shoulder mount, audio box and LCD hood you have attached. Could you point me in the direction where I might purchase this set up?

[Noa Put]

I have a phantom power mike (a audio technica at897) plugged into input 1, on the side of the camera where you controll your audio I have "input 1" set to "mic+48v "and the switch set to "input 1" (instead of "internal mic") and below that I have "input 2" set to "mic" and beside that the switch is set to "int mic".

In Edius 6.5 I can drop this on a stereo track and just select channel 1 or 2.

[Noa Put]

audiobox is a beachtek dxa-5da (have you seen the video I made of it on page 2 of this thread?) Lcd hood is just a general cheap loupe with some own modifications to slide it over my lcd screen. The shouldermount was from filmcity, those Indian guyes that I got through ebay (payed around 100 dollars for it) which I did modify, I can't find it back anymore though so think it could have been discontinued.

edit: got it: http://proaimshop.ru/film_mini

[James Hollingsworth]

Thanks Noa, yes saw the video of the basic set up of the camera but not one specifically referring to the audio set up.

[Justin Turner]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I have a phantom power mike (a audio technica at897) plugged into input 1, on the side of the camera where you controll your audio I have "input 1" set to "mic+48v "and the switch set to "input 1" (instead of "internal mic") and below that I have "input 2" set to "mic" and beside that the switch is set to "int mic".

In Edius 6.5 I can drop this on a stereo track and just select channel 1 or 2.

Thanks Noa, all set up now!