Wedding video with T2i help?

[Henry Hoang]

Hello every one, i am a beginer in dslr videograhpy, i planing to shoot wedding video with 2 canon t2i. There are many things i dont know about the equipments for this bussiness. Here is my equipments:
1. 2 t2i
2. lenses : tamron 18-270, hellios 44m f2, vivitar 28-70 f2.8, smc takumar 50mm f1.4, tokina 80-200 f4.5, pentax smc 55mm f2.
I dont have tripod, i gona buy 1 from ebay but i dont know which one is good and cheap. Shoulder rig or handhelp, i dont know which is good enought. Sound recording , a short gun mic is good enought?. Follow focus and focus rings, could you pls advise what brand is cheap and good. Please give me an advises for those equipments, i think i need more than that. Thanks so much for any helps.

[Johannes Soetandi]

Hi Henry, I'm sure if you look around you will find answers to most of your questions. But the first question is, have you ever done wedding video? or are you familiar with filming especially on DSLR? If not, it will be very tricky and I suggest you have as much backup cameras as possible.

I haven't tried most of your lenses so I can't comment much on it except that you had most of the focal length covered from wide to tele, which is good. Performance wise, I'm not sure.

With DSLR you will definitely need a tripod, and I suggest not buying the cheap one if you're serious in the business. I've been using Manfrotto 190XPROB and it serves me well so far. I also would recommend a monopod as it's easier to use in most situations, I use Manfrotto 560B using a fluid head. You can add steadicam/shoulder rig after you have atleast the two that I reckon is most critical.

Shotgun mic is good only when you are standing close to the object, mostly during preparation shot. But in ceremony, you wouldn't be able to.. so you'll need either a lav mic (use Senheiser) or a digital recorder (eg. Olympus DS-30) to mic up the groom/officiant. I also set another digital recorder to get line out audio from the mixer.

Apart from those, you will need to consider spare batteries and SD cards, and make sure you have enough to cover for the day.

It's hard to answer all your questions in one thread. I suggest you search the forum as there are many many answers in previous threads that I'm sure you will find very useful.

[Henry Hoang]

Thank Johannes Soetandi
I were not taking any videography before, however, I have edited many wedding video for some wedding studio. Now i am planning to open my own busseniss, I have 2 friends in corporated with me.So i will have like 2 t2i and 1 60d, and i have one guy for photography. About my equipments, i already have 2 battery grip with 6 batteries. I have question about lenses, I gona buy tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and sigma 30m f1.4, did you have any experiences about those. What do you think about matte box, it is necessery for out door shooting and ND filter?. One more thing, do you think follow focus and focus ring is important?
Anyway thank you so much for your quickly answers.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Henry

My mate John has already given some good advice but there is still plenty more gear you will need to do a successful wedding shoot. As John says, forget the shotgun..it's fine for ambient audio at the reception but you will need either radio mics and/or DVR's. Now what about lighting?? When the bride and groom do their first dance and the house lights are dimmed down to almost zero, what will you do????

Basically work on the fact that you need everything TWICE!! 4 batteries, multiple cards, 2 mics/DVR's (I carry 4 sets!!) I have two on-cam lights and two sets of softbox lighting!!! It's a wedding remember and you cannot reshoot anything so you need a backup for everything you plan to use.

I'm using Weifeng tripods which are half the price of Manfrotto but twice as heavy unfortunately..my first one is now 2 years old and still is perfect...for goodness sake don't buy a cheap, super light "professional" tripod off ebay!! The Weifeng E717's are only $240 and are very sturdy and tough... they are basically a copy of the Libec unit with 5 aluminium tubes on each leg and have a bowl head which makes levelling so much easier!!!

Chris

[Johannes Soetandi]

Weifeng tripods? The first I heard of it Chris haha, might check it out if I ever need another tripod

Originally Posted by Henry Hoang

I were not taking any videography before, however, I have edited many wedding video for some wedding studio. Now i am planning to open my own busseniss, I have 2 friends in corporated with me.So i will have like 2 t2i and 1 60d, and i have one guy for photography. About my equipments, i already have 2 battery grip with 6 batteries. I have question about lenses, I gona buy tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and sigma 30m f1.4, did you have any experiences about those. What do you think about matte box, it is necessery for out door shooting and ND filter?. One more thing, do you think follow focus and focus ring is important?
Anyway thank you so much for your quickly answers.

I had 17-50mm f2.8 Tamron as my first lens and was happy with it. Sigma 30mm f1.4 have also gotten really good reviews. Those lenses would be good to use.

I dont feel it necessary to have matte box as most lenses have a lens hood anyway, which will help. ND filter is useful to give nice DoF but you can still produce good images without it anyway. I've used a cheap ND filter and it looks horrible, so invest on a good one if you ever want to buy one.

I cant answer much on follow focus and focus ring.. I personally dont think its necessary for my style of shooting. I like to keep my gear light and easy to handle.. swapping between tripod/monopod/steadicam/slider. Having all those gears will take time to setup and will slow me down on the wedding day.

You will definitely need to consider your audio. It's almost useless having good footages but bad audio. There are some good threads in the forum that talks about it. For lighting, I use the 2 x 126 LED continuous light in eBay on a light stand if it ever gets too dark during reception. It's cheap and pretty useful.

My advise is to try keep it simple and get the basic right. I tried to over complicate myself on my first wedding, which I regretted.. and even after a few weddings I've done, I'm still trying to get the basic right (audio, exposure, light, focus, coverage). With weddings, things can get easily wrong, its fast and its not repeatable. Everyone will make mistake, so as Chris had said, always have a backup plan.

Hope it helps.

[Henry Hoang]

Thanks Chris/Johannes
I absolute didnot have experiences about lighting. So in situation the bride and groom stard their first dance, do you think i use only Sigma 30mm f1.4 and 2x126 led continious light its is enought. But i read in some forum , people said that we dont need light devices when we used fast lense with f1.2 or 1.4, is it correct?.
Next month, i will have a big bithday party in Mexico. I will take video in the church and the night party, i dont know which gears is good enought because i dont want to bring all stuff overthere. Could you have some advise, i realy appreceate your helps.
Johannes
About follow focus, i have question because whenever i turn the focus ring it made noise in my foodtages,so do you know the solution for that problem, most of my lenses are manual forcus.

Once again thank you very much for all your advises.

[Michael Simons]

Originally Posted by Henry Hoang

Thanks Chris/Johannes
I absolute didnot have experiences about lighting. So in situation the bride and groom stard their first dance, do you think i use only Sigma 30mm f1.4 and 2x126 led continious light its is enought. But i read in some forum , people said that we dont need light devices when we used fast lense with f1.2 or 1.4, is it correct?.
Next month, i will have a big bithday party in Mexico. I will take video in the church and the night party, i dont know which gears is good enought because i dont want to bring all stuff overthere. Could you have some advise, i realy appreceate your helps.
Johannes
About follow focus, i have question because whenever i turn the focus ring it made noise in my foodtages,so do you know the solution for that problem, most of my lenses are manual forcus.

Once again thank you very much for all your advises.

I don't use any follow focus, just the focus ring on the lens.

[Johannes Soetandi]

Originally Posted by Henry Hoang

Thanks Chris/Johannes
I absolute didnot have experiences about lighting. So in situation the bride and groom stard their first dance, do you think i use only Sigma 30mm f1.4 and 2x126 led continious light its is enought. But i read in some forum , people said that we dont need light devices when we used fast lense with f1.2 or 1.4, is it correct?.

Depending on the situations, at f1.4 you probably won't suffer that much but it will be hard focusing on moving objects (eg. dances etc). I've survived a wedding without light at f2.8, but at ISO1600 it wasn't too desirable. The LED light will help you use low ISO which will give a better footage. I usually carry lights just in case it gets too dark.

Originally Posted by Henry Hoang

About follow focus, i have question because whenever i turn the focus ring it made noise in my foodtages,so do you know the solution for that problem, most of my lenses are manual forcus.

In that case, follow focus won't solve your problem because it will still have to turn the focus ring. Shotgun mic might help reduce the noise (need to try). Or otherwise upgrade your lenses to ones that does not make noise. I never had this problem with my Canon/Tamron lenses.

[Henry Hoang]

Thanks Johannes/Michael

I will upgrade my lenses may be a good canon f1.2, and buy focus rings. Follow your suggess i will buy 2 LED light,but do i need to buy shouder rig because i dont think i can mount the light and short gun on monopod?. Sorry about my english, maybe it made you confused.

[Johannes Soetandi]

Originally Posted by Henry Hoang

Follow your suggess i will buy 2 LED light,but do i need to buy shouder rig because i dont think i can mount the light and short gun on monopod?. Sorry about my english, maybe it made you confused.

I'm not sure what you meant, but the light is best mounted on a light stand while the shotgun mic is best mounted on the camera itself. The camera can then be mounted on a monopod or tripod. You probably won't be needing shoulder rig.

[Henry Hoang]

Thanks Johannes
I got your advise,so i dont need shoulder rig. I have question about monitor field and lcl viewfinder. I just bought hoodman viewfinder 239$ on Samy's camera,but it was not good i will return it. Do you have any experence about this lcd viewfinder LCD ViewFinder Extender for Canon 5D II Rebel T2i 7D - eBay (item 200541840807 end time Dec-10-10 04:52:51 PST) , sorry i got the link from ebay. And about field monitor, do you think Lilliput 7'' 668GL is good enought.

[Johannes Soetandi]

Originally Posted by Henry Hoang

Thanks Johannes
I got your advise,so i dont need shoulder rig. I have question about monitor field and lcl viewfinder. I just bought hoodman viewfinder 239$ on Samy's camera,but it was not good i will return it. Do you have any experence about this lcd viewfinder LCD ViewFinder Extender for Canon 5D II Rebel T2i 7D - eBay (item 200541840807 end time Dec-10-10 04:52:51 PST) , sorry i got the link from ebay. And about field monitor, do you think Lilliput 7'' 668GL is good enought.

Hi Henry, I can't really comment on those two pieces of equipment as I dont use it myself. But for viewfinder extender, Zacuto Z-finder has always been recommended.. a bit pricey though.

[Chris Harding]

Hey John

Sorry I was busy with wedding edits. Weifeng make a nice range of pro tripods.. The one attached is like my two ..carries a 6kg camera but they are quite heavy to carry!! (4.2kg!!) Both have been absolutely excellent with a silky smooth head and 75mm bowl. They certainly haven't fallen to bits or started getting the wobbles even after being punished for 2 years!!

Chris

[Henry Hoang]

Thanks Johanes, thanks for your tripod photos Chris, i will buy it tomorow in Samy camera, hope they have it. Have a nice weeken everybody.

[Henry Hoang]

Hi Chris
I just bougth your Wefireng tripod, it cheap now 189& Video Tripod & Dolly Combo w Fluid Pan Head EI717 717 - eBay (item 200527809596 end time Dec-04-10 11:54:43 PST)
Many thanks