Filming A Wedding With The Canon 5d Mark-ii

If you are a keen videographer looking to improve your wedding video work and keep up with the rest of the field, then you cant help but to have noticed , some of the excitement around the new digital SLR cameras producing video. Although these cameras have been out for nearly 2 years now- many videographers still haven't dipped there toe in the water,

as a stills camera operates in a completely different way to a video camcorder.

With the stills camera you have to set the ISO, shutter speed, focus and aperture for every shot you take and this becomes even more critical when shooting video. Your in luck however due to the various modes on the Canon 5D, which allows several levels of automatic operation, however shooting a movie will still require parameters to be set depending on the available light, colour temp and focal effect required. Its no wonder videographers have shyed away from these cameras, however if you perceiver you can achieve some truly stunning results that will take you video to the next level.

The Benefits of the 5D

Firstly the look of the video captured looks big budget! It does not look anything like a video camcorder, unless your shooting on film. A massive advantage is the interchangeable lenses, where a whole range of different looks can be achieved. Normally videographer would not change their lenses whilst on a shoot, but with a Canon 5D you would definitely want to. For those setting shots (say a wedding video London) a wide angled lens coupled with a little movement will take your breath away, whilst a telephoto lens can offer some stunning crushed field and throw focus options.

So a 5D to shoot a whole wedding?

With multiple cameras this can be achieved, but this is not for the faint hearted, as you will have to use an external sound device as the microphone is more of a reference mic but not up to professional standards. When using the Canon 5D in combination with a professional video camcorder, for the money the results can be truly mind-blowing!