Shooting weddings with small handicams

[Chris Hewitt]

Very impressed with the CX730 having used it for two weeks now. The floating lens is amazing.
eBay buzzed me at 7pm to say there was one just listed for £520 unused so I snapped it up pdq.
I'd been using a Canon 550 for a third static cam in the church but the CX blows it away in low light.
So thanks Noa for bringing my attention to this camera.

[Noa Put]

Low light comparison on the 550d depends on the lens used, a f1.4 lens at 1600 iso on the camera is still a bit brighter but you have got very narrow dof where with the sony you have got front to back sharpness, so much more usable is most situations. Good to see you like the camera, it has become one of my main workhorses during a wedding. I'd say 50% is done with the handicams and 50% with large sensor camera's and this is a combination that works well for me.

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Chris Hewitt

Very impressed with the CX730 having used it for two weeks now. The floating lens is amazing.
eBay buzzed me at 7pm to say there was one just listed for £520 unused so I snapped it up pdq.
I'd been using a Canon 550 for a third static cam in the church but the CX blows it away in low light.
So thanks Noa for bringing my attention to this camera.

Chris what search term did you use for your Ebay alert - I have 'Sony CX730 Handycam' and I get bombarded with emails for camera bags/HDMI Cables/Batteries etc - really frustrating

[Chris Hewitt]

Hi Peter, all I did was save the search for the CX730 and eBay asked whether I would like to be notified when one became listed. It was a while ago that I did that.
I used the eBay app for my Samsung Android phone and that is where you can find the option to be notified.
You do the search and then 'save' and it then asks you if you want to be notified when that item becomes available.
I don't really know if you can do that using eBay on a pc but sure works fine on a phone. I just tested it again and that's the way.
Hope that helps.
BTW, I don't get any email bombardments from eBay, just that one notification that told me the CX730 was there. I bought it within two minutes of it being listed.

[Clive McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Low light comparison on the 550d depends on the lens used, a f1.4 lens at 1600 iso on the camera is still a bit brighter but you have got very narrow dof where with the sony you have got front to back sharpness, so much more usable is most situations. Good to see you like the camera, it has become one of my main workhorses during a wedding. I'd say 50% is done with the handicams and 50% with large sensor camera's and this is a combination that works well for me.

Spot on Noa, I took some footage for a comparison between my 550D and the CX370. But its not as impressive as I expect it to be. The 550D appears to be better, but only before you realise the DOF difference. You see, even shallow, the DSLR footage just looks nice, wheras the CX370 doesn't look as polished, but is technically better for seeing the view.