Decent Video Camera Recommendations?

[James Bishop]

Hi All,

So I’ve been filming weddings now for about 5 years and have decided it’s time for a change. I plan on starting a ‘shoot it yourself’ company, so a couple of guests do the filming, and we then edit it all into a fun video.

I’ve had enough of working weekends!

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone could recommend any good, idiot proof, great quality video cameras?

Thanks!
James

[Steve Burkett]

For idiot proof, I would highly recommend this little beauty:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VTech-Kidizo...m+Video+Camera

Aside from that, what's your budget?

[James Bishop]

Lol.

I'm thinking anything up to about £1200, for both cameras...

[Steve Burkett]

Sorry to clarify, you mean £1200 for each camera or £1200 to buy 2 cameras. I know Shoot It Yourself use larger cameras, but something like the Canon XA20 is a good alternative, close to the £1200 range. Also the Sony AX100 paired with its younger AX33 sibling would make a good combination. Its 4K would be an advantage you could market and ensure future proof, plus give you more editing options. Depends if you're loaning both cameras to one Wedding or double booking.

[George Kilroy]

If you are going along this business route make sure you have good insurance to cover you and your clients for breakdown/damage, late delivery or lost in transit. I think you'll soon find that having only 2 cameras will limit your ability to grow a business.

It is a good business model if you can find your niche and correct pricing structure. I'm sure you've already looked at the companies out there offering this.

I looked into this business model a couple of years ago before I quit weddings and it certainly looked to be a lot less effort than shooting weddings.

As for cameras, at the time I was going to use Sony CX550, in fact I bough a couple to try the market but never did. They were around a grand each and were a very robust, versatile and easy to use camera but bear in mind that that was a few years ago now so you should look at the current equivalent, probably the AX100.

[James Bishop]

Thanks for the advice.

I'm very much in the early stages at the moment. I've got a name and that's about it!

I did actually mean £1200 for both cams, but i'm happy to spend whatever it is i need to, to match what other companies are offering. I think i'll try and set the budget at £2000.

I need to look into insurance etc. I guess it will be quite a lot! Alternatively we could just take a very significant deposit from clients...

Can I ask why you didn't go ahead with it George?

[George Kilroy]

James.

After 25+ years making wedding videos I had decided to get out before it was too late;) some life events made me consider doing something new. I was looking for something less pressured and thought it would be a good idea to keep within the area I knew without having to be so involved, SIY seemed to fit that. However having looked into it I decided that I wouldn't want to make the investment needed to establish it as a new business and didn't want to run two different wedding video offerings alongside each other. Then other opportunities arose which gave me the chance to do something completely different.

[Peter Rush]

Sony AX33 - 4K but mainly for it's fantastic BOSS stabilisation

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-AX33-Ha...ywords=sony+ax

[Steve Burkett]

I run a Guestcam service and use my very first HD camcorder for this - it cost me £700 at the time. Obviously rubbish in low light, but what sells it is a little furry cat shotgun mic on the top that gives it a professional look. Really, if you go cheap sub £1000, make sure you have a good mic attached to the top. Don't rely on the camcorders internal mics. The bonus is of course better sound and in that you need all the help you can get.

Here's the mic for a Canon Camcorder that I got back in 2010:

Canon DM-100 Directional Stereo Microphone: Amazon.co.uk: Camera & Photo

A good pairing with something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Defini...ords=camcorder

Looking for more Professional but at a budget, try this:

Panasonic AG-AC8 Camcorder-1080 pixels: Amazon.co.uk: Camera & Photo

[George Kilroy]

Peter's suggestion is a similar form factor to the ones I used. A very handy and easy to use layout, pretty well fool proof.
As well as Steve's suggestions you'll need to budget for additional batteries.

[George Kilroy]

Originally Posted by James Bishop

Thanks for the advice.

I'm very much in the early stages at the moment. I've got a name and that's about it!

I did actually mean £1200 for both cams, but i'm happy to spend whatever it is i need to, to match what other companies are offering. I think i'll try and set the budget at £2000.

I need to look into insurance etc. I guess it will be quite a lot! Alternatively we could just take a very significant deposit from clients...

If you haven't already take a look at the Shoot It Yourself site. There's a lot of information there that might be helpful but bear in mind that they have an established high profile boosted by their appearance on Dragons Den. They invested an awful lot of money up front by buying a stand at a national wedding exhibition, the place to be for high spending clients.

Starting from the ground in this business will I believe require a lot of energy, ingenuity and money. Not only a very good website but good links to it. There is a market out there for this sort of video but remember that people can do the same thing with iphones and the like so you'll need an edge to get the sort of people who would pay for this to go with you and not just use their friends' own smartphone footage. That edge must be very exciting editing.

[James Bishop]

Thanks all. I will look through all those links and consider what is best. I definitely want to get a camera that I can attach a decent microphone too - partly so that this will make it look a bit more pro.

Thanks for explaining George! Just 5 years has been enough for me! Will have more of a look at the Shoot It Yourself site. Though really, I'm probably not looking to be as big as they are. I do other things as well, and I'm really only looking to do this part time - 2 or 3 bookings a month would do me.

I've got one idea which would differentiate me from Shoot It Yourself, which I will keep under wraps for now! ;) And having been filming wedding for 5 years now, I have several photographer friends who I can call on to recommend me to their clients. Will probably do one or two for free, to get some examples on the website.

[George Kilroy]

That's good that you have track record in weddings and contacts and as your ambition is not to conquer or cream the market a couple of cameras should be enough to get you going. As you will have your own footage why not do some exciting edits for your website to give a flavour of your editing style to prospective clients. Or if you still have weddings to do take a camera along and give it to someone and suggest they shoot some stuff just for fun and see what you can do with that.

If you can afford the investment get the cameras when you can and start using them even if it's once a month, get your photographer friends to sound out one of their clients who's not booking a video. The thing in all markets is to strike while you have the fresh ideas before you get talked , or talk yourself, out of it.

[Peter Rush]

The problem with cameras like the AX33 however is that it's really easy to put it into semi-auto or full manual mode - imagine someone knocking it into manual focus and it stays like that the rest of the day! They might not notice but you sure would when it came to editing. Maybe look at something with no physical button control such as this

Small Handheld HD Camcorder | HDR-CX405 | Sony UK

Also have you thought about backup cameras? say you have back to back weddings and a camera gets broken or stolen at the first one?

[Dave Baker]

Steve,

The DM-100 and HF G30 is not the best pairing if it is to be used outside. For reasons known only to Canon, the camera wind filter does not work when using the DM-100, though it does when plugging in any other external mike. The DM-100 has no wind filter as you know and the supplied wind muff is only so-so.

I speak from experience, the pairing cost me many hours work in post trying to rectify explosive sounds shot on a sea voyage a couple of years ago, even though I had a fur and foam Windcutter Stormchaser fitted.

Dave