THE EQUIPMENT

Rapid advances in technology have impacted upon the wedding video market perhaps more than any other element of the big day.

When the wedding video service was just starting out, large, cumbersome machines with poor quality pictures taped onto bulky cassettes were the name of the day. Nowadays, small hand-sized cameras are capable of recording superb quality movies, which can be professionally edited and supplied on a medium that the couple opt for – but unless you know what you are asking for, there are still a small number of companies who, with a barrage of technical jargon, will palm you off you with something more akin to the former than the latter. So it’s time to put your geek’s hat on and let’s talk equipment.

Ultimately, there are four main areas which you must get to grips with in order to ensure that you get best value for money and a film that you will be proud of. The fours areas are video quality, audio quality, editing and output. Let’s look at each one in turn.

Video Quality

The video stream will be captured by the video camera, and the quality of the video stream is therefore directly linked to the quality of the kit.

The majority of videographers will be using state-of-the-art machines capable of recording crisp, clear movies at the flick of a switch, but how do you know whether the kit they’re using is cutting edge or if they are just saying it is? We’re not going to say that they must be using a Canon or Sony camera, because it is not the manufacturer, but the internal workings of the machine that are the most important.