I spoke to Philip Bloom about a month before the wedding to see if he recommended the Canon 5D Mk11 for filming the wedding but the 8min restriction would not bode well for the ceremony and the speeches. I also discovered that it’s very difficult to use the 5D as a film camera and a stills camera at the same time so I decided to use it for it’s main use as a stills camera.
I plumbed for the new JVC HM100 instead as I am a lot happier with technology I know and runs for more than 8mins at a time. I received the camcorder less than a week before I left for Italy not giving me time to get to grips with it’s foibles like the exposure wheel on the back of the camcorder.
It’s main problem is that everything is sub miniture so all the buttons are half the normal size but as long as you don’t have fingers like Desperate Dan then you should be fine. Although I already own a Sony EX-3 I did not want to lumber myself with such a large camera and tripod which is why I settled for the HM100.
I love the petiteness of the camcorder and the fact that it performs almost as good as the EX-3 excluding low light shooting. I was going to Italy after all at the height of the summer why should I need lights. For most of the wedding day it performed beautifully but due to a cock up with the start of the speeches remembering the ceremony did not start till 5pm and the dancing was to take place inside the dimly lit hotel, I got 98% of what I needed barring the 1st dance which I opted to use the stills camera by then totally forgetting Mr Blooms words “The 5D Mk11 is great for filming in low light”. In part two I hope to show you some footage but for now I need to get to Edinburgh to enjoy a days Power learning with Larry Jordan.