Thread: Looking for a good camcorder

Hello fellas! I am a pretty young camcorder fan! So far I used my big bro's camcord but now I am ready for the change. So I wanted to take the occasion of my bro's wedding to surprise him filming the ceremony with a new camera
I was thinking of buying a Sony HDR-CX550VE and I found some good prices here:

Sony HDR-CX550VE: compare offers and prices for digital camcorder sony hdr-cx550ve. - ShoppyDoo
What do you think guys? Will that do for a wedding cameras? Let me know your opinion,

Cheers!
Mark'1992'Sparkle

It's one thing to have a nice camera it's another to be able to use it especially to video a wedding. I've been doing video for a number of years but I don't feel confident enough to film a wedding. Have a look at what people who do this sort of thing for a living, have produced to get some ideas as to how to shoot it.

I hope your brother has a great day and you make a good recording of it for him. BUT do your research first.

We mainly use Panasonic HMC-151 cameras - make sure you check these out too.

Have you thought about DSLR cameras? They also shoot in HD and can record in 24fps, whereas many camcorders shoot at 25fps. I just got a Canon 550D, but a Canon 7D is incredibly similar if you wanted to one-up.

Those camcorders are around £1000, but the DSLR I bought was cheaper and arguably better quality because of the detachable lenses. Add to that the fact you've got an 18mp stills camera built in for wedding photography and it sounds like a great camera to have on hand for a wedding shoot.

There's a tonne of videos on youtube of wedding films shot on DSLRs. Search "550D wedding".

DSLRs are amazing tools for video, but I would not want to use one as my only camera at a wedding. If you had three or four of them, each with their own operator then that's a different situation.

Audio on DSLRs is not good for weddings because of AGC. You will get horrendous background noise. You will also lose audio continuity every time you need to stop / restart it (at least every 12 mins - and maybe more often). You will need an alternative audio recording device if you ever place to use DSLRs, to add that to the budget.

Lenses capable of 'great shots' in doors don't come cheap, and by the time you've bought a DSLR, two good lenses and an audio recording device you could easily have bought a couple of decent camcorders, giving you continuous recording from two angles so you have something to cut between.

If you are shooting from the back of the church you are going to need a long lens - something like the 70-200 f2.8L IS II. The 18-55 kit lens won't get you half way down the isle! If you plan on shooting from the front of the church, check that the vicar is going to allow it. I shoot weddings week in week out and there is a huge variation of what is and is not allowed in churches.

What will you do if the sensor over heats during the vows and shuts down? That doesn't happen on camcorders, but can easily happen with DSLRs. If you have a spare camera (more budget) you can swap, but it's too late if you only have one camera recording and you missed the vows or exchange of rings.

I've only just scratched the surface here..... seriously, for a one camera one operator shoot, the DSLR is not the best option.