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DavidPartington
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« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2011, 05:08:04 PM » |
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Another good one Bill.
It's interesting the twists and turns of DSLRs and Video cameras. We sold all our Panasonic HMC151s because DSLRs appeared superior in every way. However, once we'd done a LOT of weddings with DSLR only some problems became evident that were perhaps forceable, but we'd either overlooked or had wilfully ignored in the rush. We've recently invested in a couple of Canon XF100 cameras to shoot along side the DSLRs, choosing the right tool for the right job at any given moment in time. They actually mix with the DSLRs perfectly, and it's often hard to tell which was which if the DSLRs are stopped down enough to get good DOF. In many ways the XF100s are sharper than the DSLRs and they are incredible in low light compared to the older generation of video cams, with 0db being equal to ISO800 on a 5D (perhaps a tad higher) and 6db being ISO1600 and still usable (Neat Video works very well on this footage).
It turned out there were shots we were really struggling to get reliably on DSLRs, like a Bride & Groom running towards us through a line of confetti, say 50-60 feet in total, with a close up kiss at the end (maybe 5 feet from us). The XF100 gets this perfectly, the DSLRs would need someone riding the focus all the time, and it would still be softer than the XF100!! Also, in a dark(ish) church with the DSLRs stood to one side of the couple, it was almost impossible to get both B+G in sharp focus at the same time, or from the back of the church with the 70-200 @ 200mm it was impossible to get B+G and the minister in focus, you 'had' to choose one or the other and the margin for error is tiny, like 6 inches. In a dark church there's not always enough light to be sure of anything!
I know a lot of people that come here shoot in the US where outdoor weddings in bright daylight seem to happen a lot more than in the UK (unpredictable weather and specific licensing laws make it tricky here), so you can use DSLRs stopped down a lot more to get great DOF when needed, but here in the UK we're usually shooting ISO1250 @ f2.8 - f4 at best and getting insufficient DOF to get everything we need. Something to think about when shooting inside! The wedding we did last Saturday I was at ISO 2000 and f1.4 on the 5D2 and still under exposing, and then they wanted to turn the lights down even more!
I assume you have your external audio sorted out already - but having to Pluraleyes everything was / is becoming a bit of a drag. Having audio back on the video camera for the ceremony and speeches is much quicker in post, not to mention the nightmare when Pluraleyes failed to sync 37 clips from a ceremony in July. That added another couple of hours to manually sync...
In terms of the 60D vs 7D, I'm with you on that one. The only exception is that the white balance is in the menu rather than a button, so you can't see the effect of the changes you are making live. However, if you load the Magic Lantern firmware (we have) then you can do it live AND get audio meters AND zebras AND have it run continuously (3 second break every 12 mins) whereas nothing like this is available for the 7D.
Good luck with your decision Bill....!
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