One dsr 450 or three PD170s?

Question

I have budget US$12,000 ; I need shoot wedding, and concert events

Answer 1

I would second lare's post. Although I use HD cams (JVC GY-HD111e) the use of one HD cam versus multicam for what you are doing is no contest...go with multicam. There's also the lighting factor involved. HD is not good with low light and that means getting involved in lighting..hence the reluctance of wedding videographers to go HD just yet.

Concentrate on working within your market as it is now..and you will earn enough money to upgrade to HD multicam later. HD does have the future-proofing element to it but if you ever get a gig that calls for it then just hire the cams. If you make a living and a reputation with three PD-170s then it will be no time before you're buying cameras again. You're going to get more work with three SD cams than one HD cam...for sure.

If you're buying PD-170s..then have a look at your budget and look at the JVC cams I use. JVC GY-HD11e (110 in US). The HD is excellent as well as shooting the best SD DV I've ever seen from a cam this size...superior to the PD-170s which I've used a lot. You might be better off with two of these than three PD-170s..just to confuse you even more...lol. The JVC has a longer learning curve as it's a cameraman's camera, whereas you can point and shoot a PD-170 in full auto. With JVC you have a good few format options too... it shoots natively in HD in 720p 25 (30 US), DV and a strange HD one 576p..a high res format the same size as DV but great for slowmos.

Whichever way you go...all the best of luck. I can't say I envy you shooting weddings though..I hate going to them let alone shooting one.

Cheers

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/featu...

Answer 2

why shoot sd? noone is going to use it in 5 years. go with HD as soon as you can. sony v1p is good value and excellent images. i use it a lot and it's brilliant.

Answer 3

to shoot events, you need 2 cameras. One can be a $300 miniDV cheapy for the stationary cover shot. You need one good camera for the primary closeup shots and audio recording. Unless you intend to hire skillful camera shooters, more shots are not going to be particularly helpful, and contract videographers often come with their own camera. A camera in the $2-5000 range should be adequate. Plan on spending nearly half that much for support ("tripod").

As to HD, that is not a good idea. Primary consumer for wedding video with be proud parents with an ancient VHS deck.  Concert goers will be more interested in the audio quality which is perfect at SD. It doesn't matter that you have the latest super Widescreen HD display whizbang in your home, it is what your customer base needs. Giving them a HD DVD and telling them they can watch it 5 years from now won't sell.