Need to record wedding ceremony and speeches - camera recommendations, please

L

LG9K

Messages
123
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,

i'm getting married in October and will be getting a couple of friends to record proceedings.
I was going to use my Sony A6300 and A6500 but both have an overheating time of 20 mins for 4k, and 30 mins for HD.

I therefore need something else - would a standard camcorder fit the bill better, or is there a camera I could get 2nd hand more suitable.
I don't want to spend too much on this, please?

Many thanks in advance.
 
You only get one crack at your wedding (at least, each one!), so it's worth getting a proper job done. If you really can't afford that though, yes, camcorder, even maybe hiring a couple?
 
definately get professionals for the actual day but also a friend with a camcorder for those clips such as guests arriving at he wedding/reception and reactions etc ,

wedding are expensive anyway so adding a bit more to the cost for the memories later on is well worth the money
 
Last edited:
My last two family weddings were shot by two professional photographers and two video photographers.
Neither me nor my daughter managed to wade through the entire set of resulting photographs and videos. My son in law did not even try... I have not tried to look at either set again.

Oddly I took a couple of hundred casual shots of the day myself, which I showed my daughter, her comment after seeing them was " had I taken any more"

I am no longer convince that the massive coverage offered to day serves any useful purpose.

(And saying that as a life long professional photographer who covered many hundreds of weddings in the old style)
 
Last edited:
We had a pro shoot our wedding - that's to say, he and his wife did it as a team as both were very good. We worked with them to choose album photos from their pre-filtered set. We also had a retired BBC cameraman do a video, which was excellent and watched by us and a few others who had the DVD. The point is, the post-work by both was as important as the on-the-day shooting, to produce something that we and others wanted to look at.
 
Back when we got married there was no digital video or stills only hard photo prints in an album. It would have been so nice to watch again ours 51 years later on.
So sod the cost get videos, if not wanted now they will be treasured a few years down the line
 
Other than showing them to other people, we've never looked at our wedding photos. I think there's one framed somewhere (in plain sight!) but I couldn't tell you where it is!
 
Last September my son got married on Hampstead Heath. He had hired a professional photographer to take stills. The day before my daughter contacted us to say she could no longer attend as she had COVID. My son then asked if I would video the wedding. He reached an agreement with the professional that I could set up a camera on a tripod in one front corner but then set it running and leave it (i.e. avoid getting in the way). My son also obtained an external microphone for me. While I had be using a Sony 6600 for over 12 months by then, I had never used the video. However, I had retained my Canon 5D4 on which I had previously captured a couple of family videos so used the Canon. After setting up and running, the bride and groom came to the front but were then further forward than expected so were not in view. I kept my seat but the professional went forward to that corner and could see from the back of the screen that the position needed changing which she did. Immediately the ceremony ended I was able to go forward and adjust again. The only part that was "spoilt" was the formal legal stuff by the registrar but the ceremony was all fine. All in all after the small edit to removed the short unwanted section, we were well pleased with the video. The impression I had of the professional photographer was that she knew her stuff and was very confident. The still photos she produced were excellent as I thought but without her consideration, the video would not have been possible. From a technical point of view the 5D4 has been used to capture movies so has no significant technical drawback. A camcorder may be an easy solution.

Dave
 
Thanks very much everyone.

We are very much on a budget, so a professional is not really an option. We have a professional photographer.
We are not spring chickens so the wedding is more of a party than the traditional "white wedding".

I've done filming for a few friends over the years, usually using camcorders (which I no longer have) and the results have been more than adequate, just a nice record of the day.

I think a 2nd hand camcorder is probably the way to go - wish I'd kept my old Panasonic one, d'oh!

I'll use the A6300/A6500 as backups/walk arounds for everything else and stick the camcorder in a fixed place for the ceremony/speeches - I have a couple of volunteers who will look after it all.

There's a used Sony AX53 at Wex for £530 at the moment which should be ok, I guess?
 
Last edited:
You could have a look at a bridge camera such as the panasonic fz2000, it records 4k, and has a great lens, with ibis and a mic input and headphone jack.
More importantly it won't overheat when recording.

If you want even better quality the panasonuc S5iix will record 4k prores HQ straight to ssd which is amazing quality.
 
I've found a Panasonic VXF1 for £410 delivered which I'm sure will do the job very nicely. I'm sure I'll be able to sell it on afterwards if I want,so it'll be minimal cost.

Thanks for your help, everyone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top