We've been keeping track of the wedding videography industry over the past year and one thing we've noticed is how few of our brides actually book videographers these days. It's an interesting trend that I thought would make a cool topic to discuss on the blog in a series of posts. Often, during a client consultation, I ask the couple if there will be any outside photographers / videographers in addition to us at their wedding. 95% of the time, they say no. However, they do ask me about videography and what I think about it. Now, I love video, and I can't wait for Kaufman Kramer to purchase it's first video camera, but I've found that traditionally, the price to play in the video market is just too high. I've always subscribed to the mantra that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and if we couldn't produce something that looked top notch visually, well... best to stick with our strengths.
I think wedding videography is cool, but it's expensive to produce something that looks like it was shot with Hollywood quality. (At least, that's what I would want quality-wise if it were me). Plus, it's hard to justify an investment in high-end gear knowing full well that the chances of a "wedding video" just sitting on a shelf collecting dust is pretty high. Unless of course... it's amazing. Photographers live in a world where digital dominates, and while the one thing you can guarantee is that your photography will at very least get printed and hang in someones home, it will additionally be posted all over Facebook. (Which we encourage, for the record) :) There's something to be said for having a photograph hanging prominently in someone's home versus the dusty wedding video DVD case on the bookshelf.
Just as professional photographers try to find more and more ways to differentiate themselves from the "I went to the electronics store, bought a camera, and now I'm a self-proclaimed pro" type of shooters, the video market has now saturated itself with HD cameras that produce half-way decent video.
So, this leads every photographer to make a decision. How can you stand out amongst the "every-day videographer or dare I say photographer?" There are many of us out there that are always quoted as saying, "put your money in your glass". I don't think there are many photographers that would disagree with me there. However, the missing link has always been... "okay, I own the best lenses, but do I really have to buy all new stuff to move to video?" Well, as much as it pains me as a Nikon shooter to say it, the Canon 5D Mark II is the photographers answer. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Nikon, and I'll still argue that the glass is still hands-down better, but Canon has far surpassed Nikon in video dSLR technology.
I was at first concerned with how a video dSLR camera would produce in terms of ISO performance. After watching some videos on http://www.cinema5d.com, I was just amazed. The quality is definitely there, and if there's any doubt in your mind about it, check out this video. Pay attention to the amount of light that this camera is shooting in.
Canon 5D Mark II from Focal Bliss on Vimeo.
This video was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II in an ISO range between 1000 and 3200. If you click on the link to this Vimeo post, you'll see that this shooter used all of the lenses that most pros have in their arsenal. I wanted to share some of the great stuff that is being produced with video dSLR's because it really inspires and revives an industry that in my opinion, has been losing out to the you-tube and viral-video mass media revolution.
We'll be posting more about this topic in our "off-season", so keep a look out and join the discussion! We're curious to hear what you think!