Wedding Camcorder

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DaveKing

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I am getting married in January next year to a Kiwi in New Zealand and unfortunately some close members of my family are going to be unable to make it. Originally we had planned to get a videographer but unfortunately costs are spiraling and the videographer is going to have to get cut in order to pay for it all! I would still like to document the wedding and would like some advice...

My thinking is now to set up 2 or 3 second hand camcorders on tripods to document the ceremony (outdoors), these could then be passed to guests and allow them to have fun with them after and to record the speeches (in a dark stone building). For recording the audio of the ceremony, how it be best would it be to do this?

Ideally I don't want to spend more than about £250 on buying any equipment and I will edit the audio / video myself to a short highlights package I can show at the UK wedding party.
 
Sorry Dave but I think you are going to be very disappointed with your wedding video if you do it that way. Save the £250, add some more and get a half decent videographer, it is your wedding day after all!

£250 would just about get you a couple of cheap consumer camcorders with no provision for sound, tripods, memory cards, batteries etc... You need to up your budget or you might as well just ask guests to film it all on their phones.
 
If you really can't get a videographer in, then forget cheap camcorders. They look cheap.

Go to a broadcast hire shop and hire a single shooter pack. This will give you a camcorder with decent low light performance, video tripod, light panel and mic.

If the venue has audio already, hire a long XLR lead and record a feed of that on the camera too.

You could then hire or buy a cheaper camera for use by guests etc.

In the UK, that would be 250 ish. Bit more if you get them early to play with. You would need a mate willing to ingest the footage next day though.
 
CSB said:
Sorry Dave but I think you are going to be very disappointed with your wedding video if you do it that way. Save the £250, add some more and get a half decent videographer, it is your wedding day after all!
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I thought this might be the response I might receive. Unfortunately the with the cost of flights (I'm paying for my brothers), the party in the UK, and all the rest of the 'essentials' a wedding videographer is completely out of the budget. I appreciate that the image quality from camcorders and a digital field recorder is going to be far below the quality far below what a videographer would produce, but we have set our priorities and we cannot afford a videographer and it would be better to have something to show family back home than nothing at all.

st599 said:
If you really can't get a videographer in, then forget cheap camcorders. They look cheap.

Go to a broadcast hire shop and hire a single shooter pack. This will give you a camcorder with decent low light performance, video tripod, light panel and mic.

If the venue has audio already, hire a long XLR lead and record a feed of that on the camera too.
Click to expand...

Hiring isn't something I had thought of, so thank you. I will look into a hire shop and hiring a broadcast camera, but I am not too sure I will be able to get one in Queenstown (where we are getting married) as it's tiny (30k population) and the next nearest city is Christchurch which is a flight away. I do have a 6D but I know if we get guests to use something complicated I will get them asking me about it and I don't want the hassle on my wedding day! Another point is if they are using a camcorder in 'point and shoot' mode they are less likely to miss action than if they are faffing around with a camera with complicated settings or struggling with a shallow depth of field.

If I was to get a couple of camcorders would something like a Zoom digital field recorder provide an acceptable audio quality?
 
DaveKing said:
If I was to get a couple of camcorders would something like a Zoom digital field recorder provide an acceptable audio quality?
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If you have audio on the camcorders and they are half decent then the audio should be fine. Yes a Zoom recorder will provide decent quality but I doubt i will much of an improvement over the camcorders. The only advantage of the zoom would be the ability to get close to participants and then improve the audio that way. The only problem is something like a H1 is prone to transmitting contact noise ( I know I have one) . So any slight movement of the hand over the body of the mic is picked up. Its very easy to do, especially if someone isn't used to holding recorders such as the HI. Works fine on a stand though.

You will also need to sync audio and video if you go down this route.

I agree about the 6D. OK if you know how to use it but for someone who is used to a point and shoot it could be a nightmare.

Have you though of just using still images linked together to make the video. You could use a Ken Burns pan and zoom effects to add animation. Put a nice romatic soundtrack, with a bit of voice dubbing could be the simple strees free and enjoy the ocassion alternative
 
Chappers said:
If you have audio on the camcorders and they are half decent then the audio should be fine. Yes a Zoom recorder will provide decent quality but I doubt i will much of an improvement over the camcorders. The only advantage of the zoom would be the ability to get close to participants and then improve the audio that way. The only problem is something like a H1 is prone to transmitting contact noise ( I know I have one) . So any slight movement of the hand over the body of the mic is picked up. Its very easy to do, especially if someone isn't used to holding recorders such as the HI. Works fine on a stand though.

You will also need to sync audio and video if you go down this route.

I agree about the 6D. OK if you know how to use it but for someone who is used to a point and shoot it could be a nightmare.

Have you though of just using still images linked together to make the video. You could use a Ken Burns pan and zoom effects to add animation. Put a nice romatic soundtrack, with a bit of voice dubbing could be the simple strees free and enjoy the ocassion alternative
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Thanks for all the advice, it's been really great. I think a slideshow could work, maybe with some audio from the wedding. That's something I could look into further...
 
Using a zoom is fine but as soon as the speaker turns away during the speech (which they will) the audio will go very quiet unless you get a tie clip mic to plug into it. Also you will need someone to either reposition the mic or the zoom (or both) each time someone else stands up to speak.
 
Just get a couple of Go Pro's with head straps. One for you, one for her. Would make a lovely POV video of the day.

On a side note, I'm videoing a friends wedding (a major chore) will be using my 60d free roam and a Sony Videocamera on a tripod. For the sound I've bought a Phillips sound tracer dictaphone (£10 ebay) and I'm going to mic the groom up for sound and use it for the speeches.
 
Forgot to mention. QVC do a 30 day money back, try it if you don't like it, no quibble refund on their products. Not that I'm advocating you get equipment from them, use it and send it back though.
 
Really can't see the bride wearing a head cam on her most important day. (Bride of Davros :) )
 
if its outside the biggest gain in audio quality would be a dead cat :-)
 
WelshNoob said:
Just get a couple of Go Pro's with head straps. One for you, one for her. Would make a lovely POV video of the day.

On a side note, I'm videoing a friends wedding (a major chore) will be using my 60d free roam and a Sony Videocamera on a tripod. For the sound I've bought a Phillips sound tracer dictaphone (£10 ebay) and I'm going to mic the groom up for sound and use it for the speeches.
Click to expand...

GoPro should release a 'Bride Edition' in white with a vale attached - it would sell like hot cakes!
 
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