Upgrading from the Sony a7 III to the Sony a7 IV

Why the Sony a7 IV is worth the extra $500 for videographers (especially wedding professionals).

In Spring 2023, the a7 III costs $2,000 and the a7 IV is $2,500.  Here are the features that make the upgrade worth the money (or if you are buying a second camera and not sure which to buy).

-  4K at 60 frames per second

-  Unlimited recording time.

-  33 Megapixel photos

- 4K 10 Bit recording

- Improved electronic viewfinder: 3.68m-Dot EVF with 120 fps Refresh Rate

Best Music for Weddings on MusicBed

Some favorite artists for wedding music on MusicBed.com

Songs currently cost $59 each (for wedding use) when licensed without a monthly subscription.

Animal Island (Together)
Dave Barnes (God Gave Me You)
Graham Colton (Into the Wild)
Jake Etheridge (To Me)
Cody Fry (Go)
Tim Halperin - pop / light
Emily Hearn (Found a Heart)
Marie Hines (The Places We Will Go)
HRDLY (Give You Up)
Into the Ivy (I Don't Mind)
Emily Kopp (Beautiful)
The Light the Heat - pop / light
Ben Rector - pop
Oh Gravity (Falling)
Secret Nation (Tonight)
Sheffield (Forever From Now)
Ryan Taubert (Imagine)
Traveler (You and Me Forever, Floodlight)
Upstate (Love Run Free)
Volunteer (Good Good Day)
Tyler Brown Williams

Music for Cinematography Inspiration

Some tracks to inspire cinematography reels:

Badass western sound.  Could definitely envision this in a movie trailer
Set These Hills on Fire by Cemetery Men

Something for a sunny lazy day
Mesmerized (instrumental) by XY&O

A Little Funky pickup
Dang! (Instrumental) by Peabod

Panasonic G7 price packages

The Panasonic G7 mirrorless camera is currently $500 with the 14-42mm lens (28-84mm equivalent).

Some third party sellers on Amazon offer this camera bundled with cheap tripods, filters, camera bags, and off-brand memory cards to consumers looking for a basic complete setup.

Osmo Pocket Price Drop to $325 on Amazon

Amazon recently dropped the price of the popular DJI Osmo Pocket to $325 (a 7% savings over the retail price), likely in an effort to fend off competition from B&H, Adorama, and other popular stores that offer outstanding service, along with their regular retail prices.

My local camera store sells the Osmo Pocket for the $350 suggested retail price, but since gear money is tight, I may not be able to support them this time around.

I'm buying this video gimbal as my next piece of video gear because of it's portability, versatility, ease of use, and the advantage of its larger predecessor that the Pocket does not require a phone to record video.

The Osmo Pocket packs a lot in a very small factor camera, including:

* 4K video at up to 60 frames per second.
* Fast F/2.0 lens allows lots of light to reach the sensor
* 1080p video at multiple frame rates (24/25/30/48/60 fps)
* One inch touch screen LCD so you don't have to drain your phone's battery to record
* Time lapse movie capability
* Connect to a smartphone with lightning or USB-C connector to use as a larger display to record your adventures
* Steady Panorama shots
* 12 Megapixel photos
* Pro mode allows creatives to manually adjust the exposure settings on the camera.
* Can record video and photos on MicroSD cards up to 256GB

* Selfie mode
*

The pocket camera can be paired with accessories like ND filters to achieve more professional looks, a retractable extension stick, and a waterproof case

Only weighs 4 oz and is just under 5 inches long.

More technical specs:

Battery charge time is about 2 hours.
It does not have a replaceable battery, but it can be tethered to a USB battery pack to recharge the camera.

Digital Contract Services and Mobile App Signing

HelloSign
This is the only prominent digital contract service that appears to offer a free version of their service.  It's limited to three contracts per month and does not have templates, but if you're booking more than three contracts per month, $13/month (when paid annually) should not cut into profits too much.  For the wedding industry, where gigs are at least $1,000 each, this should be a reasonable cost to have contracts signed faster and avoid the time and labor of mailing and signing paper contracts.


Make Your Own Web Form / Fillable PDF / or Google Form Submission
To save on headaches of signing up for a new service or paying extra to use a premium service, create a custom contact form on your website that has fields for the bride to fill out and submit to you.
Contact Forms (with the right Wordpress plugin) can be easily duplicated and re-purposed for the next client.

After the client submits the contract form, copy the content into a Google Drive document, then make a PDF and send a copy to them so they have it.

ShootProof
They offer a 30 day free trial of their service, and there is also a free plan to host 100 photos.  I'll find out after the trial expires if the Contracts service is still available, but it appears that the all the features are available, as long as the user doesn't exceed the maximum number of photos for the respective plans.

Update: contracts are not included with the free plan and when I went back to finish my contract, it was hidden (probably until I paid for a subscription).

DocuSign

Their service's cheapest option is $10/month when paid annually. Five documents per month and a Mobile app should offer what small businesses need.  The 'Personal' plan does not offer branding, so larger or higher grossing businesses may want the 'Standard' plan at $25/month.

HoneyBook
A young professional wedding photographer I know uses HoneyBook for her wedding clients. It's one of the more expensive options, but their service provides a lot more than mere contracts.  They also provide online invoice and payments and project management.  If their project management and expense tracking is good, then it would be worth the $40/month to have an all-in-one solution that could replace or consolidate two or three other online services.

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Apps for Signing Digital Contracts

Shake (featured in 2013 on Gizmodo)