Church looking to upgrade to single TAPELESS HD camera

[jsharris83]

Hello Guys and Gals,
Our church is looking to maybe upgrading our camera. We are wanting tapless and possibly HD. We do not do IMAG. We do make dvd copies of the service for shut ins but the need for that is less and less as time goes by and internet is getting more and more avialable in our area. It is about a 55 foot shot from the camera tripod to the stage. We send a feed to our nursery through a rca out on our camera. The audio is recorded out of the sound board to audacty on a nearby computer and the audio is synced in post edit. We record video via firewire to FS4-HD and then downloaded to our Mac and then edited with Final Cut Pro Studio Tapes are not used except in emergency situations. We then upload weekly to vimeo and burn to DVD for distribution and archiving. Here is a list of our current items.

Panasonic AG-DVC7

FS-4HD DTE Recorder

Manrotto 3221WN tripod with 501 Head

27" iMac, 16 Gigs of Ram, Core 2 Duo 3.06, 1TB Main drive, 1TB Firewire 800 Drive for Scratch disk in FCP 7

Final Cut Pro Studio 7.0.3

Primera Bravo Se DVD Publisher


Ok Our budget is what it is and that is 2 grand or less. I dont think that the current camera is meant for this long of a shot. I would like to start doing more video announcements and testimonials. Here is a link to our video and podcast page. http://centralbaptistbuna.org/661090.ihtml
By the way I am not the camera operator. lol videos are a little jerky sometimes. The volunteers try there best though. God bless Volunteers!
I am sure you will say I need a better head for my tripod to fix that issue. I have built this current system on my own with a lot of trial and error. I am in no way a pro at this. I am a computer tech by trade but was asked to take on the video side as well. Everything I know I had to teach myself and learn from this great site so go easy on me, I am what you would call a Noob to Video production. I was looking at the Sony HXR-MC2000U Shoulder Mount AVCHD Camcorder as a possble option. Any thughts are greatly appreciated.

P.S. We do zoom in to about a foot over his head and a foot below him. It is kinda grainy with our current camera.

[Gracetech]

The MC2000U isn't going to get you any closer to the people on stage but may be a bit of a step up in image quality.

I would try going the Sony VG-20(body only) route with a telephoto lens. You can get the body only kit and possibly pick up a lens right around the price you want. Of course picking up the Sony VG-10(50-200mm) will definitely get you in your price point. Then add a 55-300mm lens when you can afford it. You would probably need to add an adapter as well. A 200 mm lens will get you in the same zoom zone as your current camera. The 300mm will get you in alot closer.

There are other all in one cameras that will get you closer to the action but you won't see big quality increases in the sub 2k category.

crt

[jsharris83]

Well we are not using our full zoom on our current camera because our camera operators cannot stay with our preacher. so we can zoom quite a bit more. Is there a camera that is close to that price but might be a little more that would be a better choice? I am also wondering aboud the format in which it records to the drive. What issues might I encounter with FCP. Am I going to have to render my entire project eveerytime or will it mesh well with Final cut?

[jsharris83]

What about this camera?

Panasonic AG-HMC40 AVCCAM HD Camcorder
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Camcorder.html

[tdangelo]

Aside from not recording in the format you want are you otherwise happy with the camera you have? Maybe a solution is a better tapeless recording?

[jsharris83]

I am happy with its features. Not happy with the quality. that may have to do with our lighting. Although I have seen worse. I have a link to our video page if you care to take a gander. The fS-4hd gets the signal from the AG-DVC7 via Firewire and it saves it in a quicktime .mov format. I pull it into Final Cut Pro 7 and chop it down. Export as a quicktime movie and then burn it in iDVD. Length is usually 40-50 minutes. I think that I would like to get away from a secondary recording device and have it all inclusive. Look at the recording and tell me your thoughts. I am open to anything at this point. I like the shoulder mount but not required.

[Gracetech]

Something that would really help your video quality is to bring the camera down level with the pastor's head. It looks like you are filming from in the rafters. When you film directly at eyeline you will find that the video becomes more engaging. You may not be able to set the camera right at eye line but get it as close as possible.

The Panasonic AG-HMC40 would be better than what you have. The Sony VG10 will be even more so.

You may have to bump up to FCPX to edit AVCHD. I always had to convert AVCHD to edit in FCP. FCPX can handle AVCHD natively.

crt

[jsharris83]

We are in the balcony with the camera. The entrance to the sanctuary is right where I would want to mount the camera. So i can drop it a little but it would still have to be up top. As for the avchd format i found a program that might be very helpful called ClipWrap. here is the site link https://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap. From what I understand it rewraps it into a hd .mov file. Also is the zoom on the lens ring of the vg10-vg20?

[tdangelo]

I too took a look at the videos. I hope that my thoughts will be considered constructive criticism.

I am not convinced that upgrading to a HD camera will offer a substantial improvement over what you are doing now unless you address some other issues:

1) SD video quality that you are achieving now is actually pretty good: its bright, in focus, has plenty of detail; audio is generally good (except for the spiritual gifts video where the audio sounds like it's from the camera mic).
2) The VOD videos are single camera, sitting on a wide "cover shot" for prolonged periods of time. This is visually distracting allowing the eye to wander to the "problem areas" of the framing.
3) Framing of the wide cover is poor drawing attention to the ceiling florescent lights, PAR cans and washed out projection.
4) Changing to a HD 16:9 aspect ratio from the balcony sitting on a similar wide shot (vertically) will increase the amount of distracting items (horizontally).
5) Current camera shot is off center and too high above eye-line.
6) When zoomed in, framing on tighter shots can be improved (there is currently too much headroom).
7) The preacher stays pretty close to the podium and when he moves he does so slowly and deliberately. This begs for a closer shot, but the shots remain very wide.

I am concerned that if you get a HD camera it will emphasize the negatives above (stagecraft, blocking, camera work) more than it improves your video quality.

[jsharris83]

Yes I agree with you completely. The spiritual gifts video is off of the camera mic. I recently upgraded and now record the audio straight out of the board to audacity and then sync it later in final cut. I will be moving the camera to the center but it will still have to be at the same level it is now. I will be having a meeting with our volunteers very soon to work with them on getting a closer shot and staying with the pastor. Also work with them on making there movements more smooth with the camera and less jerky. I think our main problem is none of us have ever touched a pro camera other than what we have. We need a little camera training . You have really helped me out in a big way! I will address as many of these issues and come back to the subject at a later date to see if we are ready for something better.