For those whose work is mostly weddings and use HD cameras

[Mike Wade]

Hi Dimitris,

We have been shooting solely in HDV for 3 years and have not had the problems you outline. We prefer to film in HDV as it enables a greater degree of post work before the picture starts to degrade.

We find that dropouts tend to occur at the beginning and end of a tape and have taken to not filming anything of importance on the first 5 and last 5 mins. This seems to have reduced dropout to negligible proportions. And we use Panasonic 80 mins tape not the Sony HDV tape.

As for the still photo flash problem we haven't really encountered this at all.

Loved the samples on your site by the way - great stuff !

Yiamas,

Mike

[Don Bloom]

Wow, thanks to all that have responded to my survey. In the next couple of days I'm going to do the numbers just to see what they say.
I will say that when I decided to do this I didn't think anyone would respond and it has gone beyond my expectations.
Thanks again to all.

[Dimitris Mantalias]

Originally Posted by Mike Wade

Hi Dimitris,

We have been shooting solely in HDV for 3 years and have not had the problems you outline. We prefer to film in HDV as it enables a greater degree of post work before the picture starts to degrade.

We find that dropouts tend to occur at the beginning and end of a tape and have taken to not filming anything of importance on the first 5 and last 5 mins. This seems to have reduced dropout to negligible proportions. And we use Panasonic 80 mins tape not the Sony HDV tape.

As for the still photo flash problem we haven't really encountered this at all.

Loved the samples on your site by the way - great stuff !

Yiamas,

Mike

Hi Mike. We must be unlucky since we have at least a couple of dropouts in every wedding, which are not much considering that each wedding needs at least 5 dv tapes. Even in HDV though, the dropouts don't ruin more than half a second so it hasn't ever been a real problem, only something I keep thinking about it (once a dropout occured 15 secs before bride and groom meet each other in the church, scary). I usually have the dropouts in random places, but truth is we use the Sony tapes, so this might be the problem. Maybe we should try the Panasonic once we use all our stock Sony tapes! :)

Thanks for your comments too Mike!

"Yiamas"! I suppose you have visited Greece for vacations? :)

[Tom Hardwick]

Spot on Dimitris - dropouts. I can repair individual DV frames in Photoshop (and have done so) but missing half second HDV dropouts are gone for good (or bad actually).

[Terry Esslinger]

I too have had drop out problems with my FX1. Would recording on a Sony HVR-MRC1K with the FX1 thus essentially eliminating the tape resolve the drop out problem. Since the drop out problem is essentially a tape based problem I would assume that it would. What other problems might I assume by spending the extra $1000. Besides my wifes ire?

[Dimitris Mantalias]

We will buy a couple of HVR-MRC1K soon. Not only the dropouts will be eliminated (although we will be record at tape too for security reasons) but we will have the material ready for editing. I think it's worth it.

[Chad Whelan]

When did you switch to HD
end of 2008 was my 1st hd shoot

2) Why did you switch to HD
gut feeling the time was right for me as a business.

3) Do you shoot in HD
yes

4) Do you edit in HD
yes

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)
the moment i switched to hd I went all the way, so yes

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
yes a certain percentage, that is hard to judge though

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
Absolutely

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product?
at first yes as an upgrade charge, now no

[Jeff Kellam]

See answers below.

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

For those of you that shoot mostly weddings and use some sort of High Definition camera(s), I’m doing a very non-scientific survey for my own purposes only.
Would you take a few minutes and answer the following questions.

1) When did you switch to HD
2003

2) Why did you switch to HD
I wanted the best possible resolution and I am interested in technology.

3) Do you shoot in HD
Yes

4) Do you edit in HD
Yes

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

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
No

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
No, those were DVHS days for delivery, I knew that wouldnt fly.

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.

[Tomislav Koren]

Hello Don, here are some answers that are totally different from others, I'm from Croatia, Europe, here are some other values appreciated:

1) When did you switch to HD
april 2009

2) Why did you switch to HD
Had to replace HL1s, HL H1A bought next to old and trusty XL2. It was only logical solution.

3) Do you shoot in HD
No. There is absolutely no demand.

4) Do you edit in HD
No.

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product)
No. Customers with blueray players are rare, and they too avoid BR for compatibility with relatives.

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD
No.

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD
No. No.

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point
Yes. It wasn't accepted.

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product?
I thougt about it, I was considering 10-20% raise, but even with actual prices there was no demand for HD.

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

I believe this results are specific for Croatia, since we're not part of EU, but interesting is that I did tape some weddings in EU (Slovenia) and there was no demand for HD also. Maybe

Thanks for playing.[/QUOTE]

You're welcome.

Tomislav

[Chris Davis]

I don't shoot weddings anymore, but instead corporate events. I still thought I'd throw my voice into the mix.

1) When did you switch to HD: April 2008

2) Why did you switch to HD: It was a natural evolution of my business. Businesses need to adapt and grow and it was simply time to get new cameras. HD is the current technology, so why would I not buy HD?

3) Do you shoot in HD: Yes, always unless the client asks for the original tapes in DV format.

4) Do you edit in HD: Yes.

5) Do you produce an HD (Blueray finished product): When requested, but most often it is delivered as a digital file.

6) Do you feel that you would have lost business if you had not switched to HD: No.

7) Do you feel that you have gained business or market share by switching to HD: No.

8) When you made the switch to HD did you market HD as a selling point: Not particularly - most of my clients don't much care if it's HD or SD.

9) Did you raise your prices based solely on shooting/editing/producing an HD finished product? No, I raised my prices solely on the fact that my skills and capabilities are expanding. HD just happened to be part of that.