For those whose work is mostly weddings and use HD cameras

[Philip Howells]

1) When did you switch to HD
2006

2) Why did you switch to HD
Because my first Z1 gave me the option. Why would anyone not want to get the best out of their gear?

3) Do you shoot in HD
All the time

4) Do you edit in HD
All the time

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)
Whenever a client wants to buy one. I'd rather have a temporarily redundant option for my clients than be embarrassed by a request I couldn't fulfill

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
Who can tell what business I've lost? It's like advertising; we all agree 50% is wasted but which 50%?

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD
Same answer as 6, I think so but having made the investment it's natural to hope it was wortwhile.

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point
Absolutely

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product?
Absolutely not. HD additional operating costs are marginal.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

1) When did you switch to HD
2006 ish

2) Why did you switch to HD
One look at the difference in image quality...

3) Do you shoot in HD
ABSOLUTELY!!

4) Do you edit in HD
ABSOLUTELY!!

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)
Not BR, but have done a few HD on regular DVDs that play in a BR player - look good enough!

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
maybe

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD
clients are impressed with the video quality, so it helps

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point
yes

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product?
No

Like I said, it’s non-scientific and just for my own edification.

Thanks for playing.

Even shooting high end consumer models, the image quality is simply too hard to ignore between SD and HD...

Steven - if you go tapeless (AVCHD), you need a "phat machine", HDV can be edited pretty well on any decent dual core machine. New cameras are getting better and at similar or better price points, used cameras are becoming "bargains" if you know what to look for. Last I saw the actual BR discs were getting fairly cheap, recorders are approaching the "magic" $100 price point - I don't watch that carefully, as they still are "coming down", along with players... when that $100 price point finally breaks, I expect we'll see a big surge on the demand side - and BR movies are being advertised much closer to standard DVD prices of late.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Dave

The only issue I have to look at is can the client REALLY see any difference between HD transcoded and edited then rendered to an SD DVD and HD edited native and rendered to an SD DVD??? Even on a brand new 42" LCD TV (the norm around here) it's pretty hard to tell IMHO!!!
I have NEVER had a request for BD from a couple which is a shame really!!! I'd love them to see their wedding in full HD!!
I simply went to HD for weddings because I couldn't find SD cameras in 16:9 to replace my old ones. At this point in time we just don't have an HD market as brides just don't seem to own a player!

Chris

[Warren Kawamoto]

1) When did you switch to HD 2005

2) Why did you switch to HD Wanted to upgrade our look

3) Do you shoot in HD Yes

4) Do you edit in HD Yes

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product) Yes. We do Blu ray and SD simultaneously, and archive both.

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD Not really

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD Yes

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point Yes. Our selling point is that even if the customer doesn't have HD equipment now, they can always upgrade later because everything we shoot and edit is archived in HD.

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product? No, we kept everything the same even when we upgraded to HD.

[Travis Cossel]

1) When did you switch to HD
June 2008

2) Why did you switch to HD
Wanted to increase quality.

3) Do you shoot in HD
Yes.

4) Do you edit in HD
Yes.

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)
Only one request so far.

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
Not really.

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD
Somewhat yes.

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point
Not really.

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product?
Definitely.

[Jack Tran]

1) When did you switch to HD? | fall 08 (reminds me of the good old days using the A1 + hv20/30 combo)

2) Why did you switch to HD? | future proofing

3) Do you shoot in HD? | all the time

4) Do you edit in HD? | all the time

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)? | sometimes (authored mpeg dvd for wedding ; finished 720P video files burnt to dvd for corporate stuff)

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD? | nope

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD? | i hope so, but i dont think so

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point? | nope, dont market technical stuff (ie the equipment we use), just finished videos/products

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product? | nope, raised price when i added extra 'cinema' accessories (ie adding dof adapter during the shallow dof revolution (now dying..))

[Sean Seah]

1) When did you switch to HD? 2007 (SD > HDV > HD)

2) Why did you switch to HD? Better Quality images, investing in the future

3) Do you shoot in HD? All the time

4) Do you edit in HD? All the time

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)? sometimes. Mostly to SD but I provide 720p versions upon request

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD? nope. It is not very big in Singapore yet but it would be in 2 years time

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD? | i hope so, but i dont think so

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point? | Yes, it is part of the marketing hype of i do not emphase on it

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product? | I started out providing services in HDV den HD. So I only increase prices when we put in a lot more effort (eg the no of DSLRs we shoot per job now)

[Susanto Widjaja]

1) When did you switch to HD?

2006

2) Why did you switch to HD?

never shot with SD.. started out with hdv already..

3) Do you shoot in HD?

All the time

4) Do you edit in HD?

All the time

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)?

not yet

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD?

maybe some. There were a few people who asked the question whether we shoot in HD, but not many at all..

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD?

in a way.. yes.. we look more prestigious with HD I suppose..

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point?

not really... maybe we should have... :P

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product?

no.. we always been shooting with HD..

Hope it helps :)

[Dimitris Mantalias]

Here goes...

1) When did you switch to HD
When we bought our first camcorders, back to 2006, we selected HDV models

2) Why did you switch to HD
It seemed like the future at that moment (and it was a right decision)

3) Do you shoot in HD
Yes, when our clients want their wedding in HD

4) Do you edit in HD
Yes, when our clients want their wedding in HD

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)
Yes, most of our weddings are now HD and we deliver BD. We delivered our first BD back in 2007.

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
I don't think so.

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD
Definitely yes!

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point
Yes, and I think we were the first ones in Greece to deliver HD (or one of the first, I can't say for sure), and that brought us some very important weddings.

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product?
When the client wants the HD, the price goes up. Editing and rendering times increase, and as people say, time is money.

[Buba Kastorski]

1) When did you switch to HD - 2006

2) Why did you switch to HD - I knew it's future, I am an early adopter

3) Do you shoot in HD - HD only, all the time

4) Do you edit in HD - always

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product) - always

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD - a few times

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD - absolutely

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point - you bet!

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product? - I did not.
I shoot weddings, and I started, and still do give away one "free" bluray disk with three SD DVDs, in times when people were charging up to $400 only for BD, I started to give it away for "free", I can tell that worked.

[Paul Mailath]

1) When did you switch to HD
Started in HD - 2008


3) Do you shoot in HD
Yes.

4) Do you edit in HD
Yes.

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)
not yet
I offer HD files on USB or media player

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
I think the market here is moving in that direction so I don't want to be behind

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD
don't know

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point
I certainly use it as a selling point

[Tom Hardwick]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

The only issue I have to look at is can the client REALLY see any difference between HD transcoded and edited then rendered to an SD DVD and HD edited native and rendered to an SD DVD

It's a fair question Chris. Of course on a well lit static scene using side-by-side half screen images, the A:B test would display all to a knowledgeable viewer. All of us here would spot the small differences I'm sure, but then we'd enjoy the challenge and know where to look. The average client is far more interested in your business ethics, turnaround, story-telling capabilities and price. He assumes the film will be 16:9, in colour, smooth and sharp.

My answers to the list of posed questions might surprise many as I use my Z1 and FX1 mainly in their DV modes. I don't have any qualms about doing the shoot and edit in HDV but when I KNOW the finished product is only ever going to be viewed as DVD, there's no point in taking risks. And shooting DV in a Z1 is less risky than shooting HDV, it's as simple as that.

tom.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Tom

To keep the project properties true I rendered 3 lot's of footage on a test DVD and to ME the one that was AVCHD transcoded to HDV (M2t files at 50mps) and then rendered to SD DVD actually looked better than the AVCHD... It would probably be obvious with side by side images but the client (more correctly the bride) is really only interested in how stunning the wedding party looked and has nothing to compare against either.

I see absolutely no problem shooting in SD if the end result is a DVD and your workflow is way faster!!! My cams only shoot in AVCHD so I have no option but to transcode!! Funny, if you take stills from the native and transcoded footage you can see the resolution difference but render both to MPEG2 ready for the DVD authoring and take grabs from that footage and it's very hard to see the difference!!
I uploaded some samples a week or so ago on the Panasonic AVVCD forum here for Abraham who was having HMC70 issues!!!

Chris

[Mike Wade]

[I don't have any qualms about doing the shoot and edit in HDV but when I KNOW the finished product is only ever going to be viewed as DVD, there's no point in taking risks. And shooting DV in a Z1 is less risky than shooting HDV, it's as simple as that.

tom]

I always shoot and edit in HDV using FX1s and a Sony A1 on Prem Pro2 and Matrox RTX2. What am I doing that is more risky than shooting and editing in standard DV ?

[Dimitris Mantalias]

Mike, I have avoided shooting in HD when the client wants SD, for two important reasons. First, the dropouts. When shooting on DV tape (as we do with our FX1s) many times you can have some tape dropouts, other times few, other times more. You can't really control the dropouts. You must have your camcorder heads clean and your tapes new and of high quality, but still the dropouts may appear. Now, due to HDV high compression (12 times the amount of DV) when you have a dropout that lasts for 1 frame in DV, you'll have it for 12 frames, that means half a second in HDV. Now, if you have a dropout of 1 second, well... you do the math. Truth be told, I had such a big dropout only once, and that was on DV. Imagine that happening when the groom kisses the bride! And as I said, you can minimise dropout with good camcorder care and good tapes, but still...

The second reason has again to do with HDV compression. When you have flashes hitting all the time from the photographers around (both amateurs or professionals), you can see the actual frames of the flashing to appear huge artifacts. This is a compression issue, I have seen it happening even on official Bluray music concert release, which was shot in HD, and it doesn't happen in DV.

Of course the first reason is the most important and now that we'll go tapeless, maybe we'll forget about the second and shoot only in HD. But again, it doesn't worth the rendering times if the client doesn't want the Bluray feature.