Why big cameras turn on Brides, or is it the guys?

What is it about big cameras that say to a bride outloud, “I’m big so I will get you the best quality video?” Never mind that the value of a wedding video lies with the shooter and in the edit (yes we will get to the camera). This time big is not what counts, it’s not in your pants or on your shoulders either.

To clarify, the quality I’m referring to is the video content itself and how the story telling is assembled and expressed not the video frames themselves. Though you want both, there is a correlation between the camera size and the video image quality as the image sensor is bigger…. Enough of the technical.

I have seen weddings shot using these old shoulder mounted cameras, with the video guy sweating it out on a hot summer day. Just a labourin’ getting to the next shot. “But boy this camera is big so it must provide the best video possible.”

These old broadcast cameras are great in the studio with lots of lights, proper gels or outside on a nice sunny day, but that’s it. Don’t have them work well during the reception when the lights are turned low. Kiss any quality expectations goodbye. Use lights you say! Sure 10KW beams blinding the guests and thick power cords lying around for people to trip over, assuming you don’t burn out the fuse box first at the reception hall. Todays weddings must be shot discretely and unobtrusively as the brides expects.

An exception, if a bride had the big bucks for an all out no holds barred wedding where costs are out the window, sure there are quite large digital cameras that work wonders under many conditions and produce grade A plus video, even film like quality if you want it. These are $250K or more cameras (that doesn’t count the $300K lens) for professional film makers and broadcasters, not for doing weddings, but then again anything is possible. But really back down to earth. Does the size of the camera mean something to the bride or the groom for that matter. The groom usually asks first.

Some prospective brides want to know about your equipment, (hmm, hold that thought). Having pictures or showing the bride your video equipment generates either oohs, awes or an hmmm depending on the camera you show them. I have many size pro cameras and the smaller ones always gets an hmmm. The groom likes big cameras to.

So what is it about the perception of a large looking camera that strongly suggests pro cinematic results or of high image quality video. In days gone by that may have been true, at least of the latter, but today’s prosumer compact digital cameras pack a real professional punch.

I will say this however, even high end consumer HD camcorders, though producing stunning video under good lighting conditions have poor low light characteristics producing noisy video. It can be compensated with intense but diffused directional on camera lighting when it counts like the bride and groom dance and cake cutting for example.

A well shot video (considering scenes, assembly, lighting, composition, etc.) using a professional grade camera that stores highly efficient high bit rate video like H.264 in HD is an excellent choice regardless of the size of the camera. However that is not the whole story of a great looking high quality video. The camera should have a decent size imager in 3CCD format, work in low light conditions, have high quality lenses and the ability to maintain high data rates without corrupting the recorded images. This you will get with a professional industrial grade camera and yes they are somewhat larger than the average consumer hand held HD cameras. So does size matter? Ask the bride. What about pro cinematic results and great storytelling. Ask your videographer.