There seems to be a large range in these 3ccd panasonic cameras upto the nv (mx or gs)500, I just wonder how low down the range you'd still get a decent camera for an amateur?

Also, buying something s/h is there a recommended place to get used tape cameras serviced? My old Canon I bought at dixons came with a 5 warranty, optional extra and had to used it when the sensor cut out once but otherwise I wouldn't know what to do when my camera needed first aid or more serious fixing

i have recently used a Sony (proconsumer) 1000e camera for a wedding. Disappointed with indoor performance. Can you suggest a good reasonably priced camera for wedding work?

malcolmmccosh
Are you talking about the HDR-HD1000E?

My thoughts are that the indoor performance isnt the best, but the outdoor or in good lighting is very good. Im using one at the moment on a small shoot, and although the dark scenes or indoor parts are poor we can work around it.

I am looking at a JVC shoulder mount model myself, but dont give up on the 1000E yet, with the right settings, good W/B and exposure you can get an excellant picture. The quality is comparable to a good consumer cam (Well it should be as its a good consumer in a plastic pro-sumer body), but in post prod you can make it look realy good just by adding some lighting effects or colour correction.

Im not a wedding man, i havent got the patience, but i can see how you would get a bad picture from indoors, this realy isnt a wedding cam and should (as all should) be used with a good tripod. I use a Manfroto with a counter weight underslung. The wedding is an in motion film as far as i can make out and the best picture from any camera is one that is shot while its still. Try it on a tripod and see if you still feel the same.

Anyway my 2p worth about it.

The XL2 is a great camera too.

Mitch

Thanks Mitch

Perhaps I need to play around with the settings for the Sony 1000e a bit. As you say it is fine outdoors. Unfortunately at a wedding you can't really work aound the lighting issue. The recording at the 'speeches' was not sharp and using the software lighting and color correction I could change the appearance but not really improve the sharpness. Unfortunately you can't play about at the actual event as you may miss something , and you certainly can't stop in the middle of a key part of the wedding.
Mal.

Hay again malcolmmccosh,

I have only just seen the reply - But.

The settings for an indoor shoot should (In my humble opinion) be checked before the day, i have done a couple of speaches (Company not wedding) and i went the weekend before at the same time that the real speach was going on and sorted out my camera to give me a good crisp clean picture. I wrote the settings down and then on the day seeing as i only had about 1hr to set up, i used the settings i had on my sheet to set up the camera.

The down side is that wit the amount of people that were there you get a small amount of light refraction (Lights bouncing off of people and some light not being there at all as they were blocking the doors) but it came out quite well.

One of the best points is - Dont be part of whats going on, be a single entity and do what you need to do. For me that means ill set up where i want and then move when i want to. In a wedding im sure you would rather get the best location and shot then worry about being in peoples pictures.

Im not sure if you have done the gig yet, but if not then have fun, if so then hope all went well.

The HVR HD 1000E is working out very well for me at present - I have one locked off for most of the shoots and use another for the shoulder cam. However the low light issue is still there.

The JVC i was looking at is being used by one of my rivals and it does look the biz. Its used for live news apparently - However my next purchase will be better audio, or at least a boom and good mic to plug into the H2's i use.

Let us know how its going and what you have done.

Mitch