On Wed, 19 Jun 2002 08:03:53 -0400, "Alan" wrote:

>After many years away from a part time video business, I'm looking to get
>back into offering video production of weddings and other events, in the
>rural parts of where I live...I was looking for a decent camera, and can see
>decent products, like a Sony digital 8, 520 line resolution, etc....better
>quality than what I used 10 years ago...my question is, the customers, do
>they expect to see a big-ass camera, because their opinion, bigger must be
>better, and if I'm paying you $$$ to capture this event, how can a small
>camera possibly do a good job attitude?
>I talked to a sales rep at a high end camera store, who told me hoa another
>guy took a beating when he had to trade in his Canon GL1 for a bigger
>camera, because his customers didn't take him seriously...what do you think?

If the client is looking for a good product as opposed
to a good on-location "show", good samples of your work
should suffice - though with weddings, a large part of
the market *is* devoted to "show" more than "reality"...
Be aware, though, that specs like "520 lines" do not
begin to describe camcorder applicability for certain
kinds of work - the image quality in DV/Mini-DV varies
considerably in quality among cameras, and other
considerations, like ease of control and low-light range,
can also be very important in the choice of gear. For
more on video imaging characteristics, see:
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/vid_pict_characts.htm.
For comparisons of several cameras, see:
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder-comparison.htm.
For comparisons of differing *imaging types* within
one brand (all Mini-DV does NOT look alike, even within
one brand's offerings...), see:
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder--comparison.htm.
For an excellent, high-quality, versatile, easy to
control and use camera choice for wedding work, see:
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/sony_dcr-vx2000.htm (and
note its similar relative, the PD150...). On a tighter
budget, the Sony TRV900 is also favored (only
available used, at this point - see the URLs above
for more on it...).