Also you have no idea if you sign a contract for a date from a year from now if you will be sick with the flew and you have to go and work. There are no sick days in wedding photography for the most part.

I have heard about some photographers asking a friend if they could shoot a webbing for them.

I know one photographer his Mercedes Benz would not would not start up. He was lucky his wife did not go out he used her car.

I know this is a year late, but I just read it! Great article, thanks a lot! I was wondering what kind of lenses you’d recommend for doing montage/trailer style event shoots? I have all primes for my 7d except the tokina 11-16. Would you recommend primes to shoot or a certain kind of zoom lens? Did zooming with your legs and using nice primes work all right for you for the highlights stuff? Keep it up!

I shoot corporate promos and corporate events exclusively although like you, I get blackmailed into shooting weddings for friends and family.

I get a wide contrast between corporate promos and corporate events like product launches/dinners. I usually prefer to shoot corporate videos/promos as I can light them and there are always 2nd or 3rd takes.

For events, I usually attach a LitePanels LED video light to my video camera and this helps tremendously as it has a dimmer and I don’t have to spend too much time in post correcting it. After all, if your guests’ face isn’t lit properly, there’s hardly anything MB Looks can do.

Thanks for the blog entry, now I know the 7D can hold its own in event videography. Thanks for a glimpse into your family… your dad looks quite different in your short film, Return to Dungeness.

I was doing it more as a favour than as a job, but I still like to cover my bases. I was on my own and the rental camera had a faulty battery so it cut-out halfway through the ceremony. The other camera at the back had people standing in front of it and the church was quite dark… so the 7D with a Carl Zeiss 1.4 50mm came into action shooting 50p and took some lovely shots.

Thank you very much Philip, I praise your work and your advice. If you’re ever down in Australia give us a bell, would love to shout you a beer! Cheers mate.

Also to the wedding videographers – I have incredible respect for you lot. Last night was my fourth wedding and probably my last. I felt like crying in the foetal position.

As one Mitch to another, this is quite frankly a ridiculous statement. Barry uses the Red, has spoken favorably of the Sony EX-1, etc., and has also been critical of Panasonic (as have I) when it was deserved. He says publicly that he has a love/hate relationship with the 7D, and I don’t blame him. Many people (who are honest) will admit the same. He admits that he hasn’t used a 5D, and I’d like to see him try it, once it’s a proper 29.97.

DSLR’s are in the early stages of development, and as Philip has so eloquently stated, they are not replacements for video cameras. To that I’ll add “not yet”.

Canon is at a tough crossroads. Making one camera do stills and video will always leave someone unhappy. I personally, would like to see them make a model with the focus on video, and let us take stills from the video. If they need to put the 5D sensor in an H2 body to accomplish that, then fine…

i love that lens and love the IS of it. Not used the others but I have other Sigma glass and like it a lot. Not got any Tamron glass.

You mention the F2.8 70-200mm zoom: do you refer to Canon, Sigma or Tamron model with those specs?

I´m looking for that kind of glass for strictly 7D video shoots, and wondering if the extra money invested to a Canon shows in 1080P video: one would think the optical differences would be quite minimal when only 1920×1080 resolution is used (versus, for example 4368 x 2912 still)?