Time to Replace Cameras -where to now?

[Chris Harding]

Hey Steve

I usually shoot the B-Cam at full wide and focus it never an issue. It's the A-Camera that was giving me issues sadly and that is the tighter shot! That cam is on the tripod about 15 -20' away and zoomed so the couple is nicely framed with the priest and then during vows, even tighter!! I always try to get focus peaking "sparkles" on eyes too!!

Chris

[Aaron Jones Sr.]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hope the FS100's are doing well???

Chris

Thank you Chris. Yes I love them. shot my first wedding with them... I didn't do as well as i wanted as there is a bit of a curve getting use to the full manual and positioning. I do think I made a great move for me and hope to show you guys some of my work with them soon.

[Chris Harding]

Great!

I actually took your advice and broke one camera up for sale and the one body only went today ..I advertised last week as a "package deal" with all the bits and pieces and no takers .. you tend to get more if you sell individually!!

[Rob Cantwell]

the 'want v need' issue will always be there but I think you have to evaluate too, I started out with two cams that I no longer have as I didn't get satisfactory use from them!
They looked the part ok but just didn't live up to the marketing and I quickly realised that i didn't need them.

I have two CX series small Sony cams that are great and I am sometimes struggling with focusing issues on my PMW 200 and a Canon 70D (which I wanted), the two small Sonys outperform the other two consistently in lots of areas, in terms of 'Fire & Forget' these cams with their internal memory and big batteries will run unattended for up to eight hours if necessary.

I wanted to get the EA50 when it came out first, but decided that i didn't need it!

Chris what are you going to want/need next?

:-)

[Chris Harding]

Hey Rob

Want just isn't going to happen .. it doesn't make economic sense .. just the same as I WANT a Lamborgini but I know I'm not going to get one. I'm getting older and feel gear is getting heavier (it isn't but it feels like it) so I need to downsize a bit. At this stage (it's our Winter "shutdown period") I have the luxury of having no weddings as it's cold and wet until August so I have a 6 week window to look at solutions.

I'm looking so far at Panasonic's new bridge camera (FZ1000) which shoots stunning video including 4K and slomo but with a fixed zoom I will struggle with dancing so would have to use a video light. The main issue with the EA-50's is that with decent lenses up front the cameras are VERY front heavy and kill my poor ageing arms and back!

Chris

[Anthony McErlean]

Originally Posted by Rob Cantwell

I have two CX series small Sony cams that are great and I am sometimes struggling with focusing issues on my PMW 200 and a Canon 70D (which I wanted), the two small Sonys outperform the other two consistently in lots of areas, in terms of 'Fire & Forget' these cams with their internal memory and big batteries will run unattended for up to eight hours if necessary.

:-)

Hi Rob, do you mind me asking what are those cameras?

Thanks

[Peter Rush]

Well I'm taking a big step here - after yesterday's wedding juggling the A7s for bride prep, the CX730 to follow the bride/bridesmaids down and into the ceremony area and the EA50 for the ceremony I thought 'I must be mad!!!' 3 cameras and that's before the ceremony starts!

So I've just run a side-by-side test and I've found that my A7s with kit lens that came with the EA50, outperforms my EA50 with Canon L 24-105 F4 (shooting at 2.8 thanks to the adapter) in low light. As I've been using the Canon/Metabones/EA50 setup for ceremonies for over a year this makes me very happy - I was thinking I might have to be the very expensive full frame Zeiss 24-70. It does mean that I'll be using the A7s in APS-C mode for most of the day but that's not a bad thing as I don't really go for the ultra shallow DOF stuff.

In a nutshell then this setup will do for low light and moments that need autofocus. It's a lot lighter rig than the EA50 and stabilises nice with my eye against the cup. The downside is the 29 minute recording restriction and the fact that the A7s eats batteries and they are slow to charge. Also only one card sot is scary as my EA50 has the FMU. I'd like to have a strap on it also but it's the same camera I use on my steadicam so that's a no.

The Swivi viewfinder just about fits (was for my 5D) - I need to make a rubber gasket about 5mm to finish it off.

Another plus is power zoom if I need it - dare I take a risk at the next wedding???

Pete

[Chris Harding]

Hi Pete

Go for it!! I'm using the FZ1000 as my main camera now ..I just have to remember to reset after 20 odd minutes but that has become a habit for me anyway so I see no issues. The only thing I have done is turn continuous focus OFF on this camera so I set it up on the tripod use the half button press to grab focus and I know I will not have an issue with focus shifting from the couple to the altar during the vows. For readings and such I will just swing the cam over to the lectern and again to a half press to focus so it locks there for that duration!

My second camera has continuous focus ON so I can use it for the bridal procession and then wide shots and guest cutaways. My third cam is still the little action cam front and centre at the first pew so I get wide shots of everything as well as speakers walking up to the lectern.

I reckon you will have NO problems using one A7 for the bride and groom and then handhold the other but I would seriously turn auto focus off on the static camera. I assume you have seen my rig photos on the wedding forum ... much the same as you except one camera has two receivers attached.

It will make your life a whole lot easier !! Where did you get TWO PZ18-200 lenses ?? I thought you only had one EA-50???

I think it will work perfectly and so easy to carry too!!!

Chris

[Peter Rush]

The A7s has a little button which when you hold in overrides manual focus and engages auto for the duration it's held in - the autofocus is very smooth. I have this lens from my EA50 but I also have a VG20 which has the non-motorised version of the same lens. I may still go down the route of getting the Zeiss 24-70 F4 which will be fast enough on the A7s but I'll trial this setup first. My other cameras are still the CX730s

My next wedding is a hotel which will be a good trial but the week after it's a full Catholic mass - over an hour. Re-timing will slow my workflow down but the benefit of not faffing with several cameras (and the EA50 is not particularly light) makes up for it :)

[Noa Put]

I understand your pain in having to deal with too many camera's :) During brideprep I now use a panasonic gh4 with a 42,5 f1.7 which is stabilized for all beautyshots and a rx10 for general stuff that is going on, non of these 2 camera's have anything added and are used as bare as they are which works fine for me, I use both handheld now all the time.

Once I do longer continuous recordings like a ceremony I use two cx730's and one ax100, they are failasfe camera's and allow me to come home with good footage from beginning to end. I also use just one tripod that has a clamp attached to it with a separate head so I can mount 2 camera's on it.

Once reception starts a gh3 with 12mm f2.0 gets a permanent place on a steadicam and I again use the gh4 and rx10 handheld maybe 90% of the time and only use a tripod during speeches.

I have managed to trim down my gear to a point where I can move to and from locations with just one bag if needed.

My ideal setup however would also be a a7s which could replace my rx10 and gh4 if it had a stabilized fast enough zoomlens with decent autofocus but I am not going to be making such an investment anymore as I plan to build down my weddings to a point where I will stop doing them altogether.

[Peter Rush]

Off topic a little but I'm tempted to loose one of my light stands (less weight to carry to and from church etc) and use my manfrotto magic arm clamped to my main tripod with a CX730 on it, it will be the same viewpoint as my main camera but set to wide. I had a PITA vicar recently that would only let me have one camera so this is how I got over it (she didn't notice) and it worked nicely but I did get a little movement in the arm and hence my CX730 when repositioning my main camera - do you get this Noa?

Pete

[Roger Gunkel]

@Noa, nice to see you are using a clamp on the tripod now for a second camera. I have been doing that for quite a while now and it is so useful to be able to use the main head mounted camera for the close and moving shots, without affecting the clamp camera which I usually have set up for a wider general shot. I'm really surprised that others haven't adopted this method. It's so much easier to move the setup and of course you can instantly unclamp to put the camera on something else.

I also use a clamped camera on the DJs lighting rig for the first dance overview, and sometimes during the signing of the register I will quickly clamp it on a pew or screen for an alternative view of the processional.

@ Chris, so you have promoted the FZ1000 to your main camera! I may well do the same thing, with the little Pannys covering the break in the recording time if necessary. I also have five school filming jobs over the next two weeks that I will film with 4 cameras, so I will try to use the FZ1000 to record whole stage in 4K to see if it is possible to have a one camera plus backup solution for that type of production filming. That would mean that with two FZ1000s, Claire and I could film independently at different schools, doubling the work and the income:-)

Roger

[Noa Put]

That's the way I work now, I have a clamp on my main tripod, a very simple mefoto traveltripod which folds up very small so easy to transport yet sturdy enough to hold 2 camera's, I set my ax100 wide with teh altar and lectern in one view and use a cx730 zoomed all the way in at the lectern, then I use one other cx730 to walk around and shoot handheld. We don't have those position restrictions here like you do so that's not an issue, once I have fixed the position of that tripod I usually don't touch it anymore during the ceremony.

[Roger Gunkel]

It's a great way of working Noa and I wouldn't be surprised to see more adopting it over the coming months. For me, size, speed, and portability are what wedding filming is all about.

Roger

[Chris Harding]

I think it will work well Roger

You really don't need a big camera as your main unit ...the most important thing on the camera is to make sure you cover the audio side well and I'm doing that with two wireless units ... I will replace the current units when funds permit with two of the new Rode 2.4GHz systems as they have no frequency issues. The other of course is to make sure continuous focus is turned off so the camera doesn't decide to switch focus from the couple to the altar behind them in the middle of the vows and with the record limit you also need to decide when you will do a stop start. I usually do one after the readings, then a second after the homily and then a third once they are ushered to behind the altar to sign the register. My main cam stops at that stage and I do the signing on the B-Cam and then a final clip when they do a final blessing and exit. It's unusual that any of those go for more than 15 minutes at best!!

Chris