HITACHI Z-HD6000 CAMERAS

In Product Reviewsby admin

Z_HD6000_sideview_HiResFAITH FAMILY CHURCH HAS FAITH IN  HITACHI Z-HD6000 CAMERAS

By Kyle Whittaker

Faith Family Church is located in North Canton, OH. It was founded in 1988 by Senior Pastor Mike Cameneti. Faith Family is a church full of life and families that are growing in their relationship with Jesus. It is easy to just attend church and be a spectator, but we believe that being a part of the church means that you are connected to the church. We know what God is doing here is special, and want to build relationships with people and use our talents and abilities to help reach our community. At Faith Family, we don’t stress membership, we emphasize participation. Part of the way we build our community is through our worship broadcast. We currently run a television broadcast, we Live Stream, and we also have large library of media on-demand. Our Broadcast Department has been in place for over 15 years, and until recently we had used the same Hitachi Z-3000’s the entire time. Last September, we started airing our TV program on multiple channels and wanted our Broadcast and Online Media to be a better example of our in-house production, so we started researching diff erent HD Cameras and options within our budget. When we decided to make the switch to HD cameras, we weren’t particularly stuck on Hitachi, despite out success with them in the past; our goal was simply to chose the best camera to meet our needs.

We actually went to NAB to check out the cameras available, but weren’t able to make a decision there. When we  returned, we called Bob Johnston, who has been our rep at Hitachi for years and explained what we were looking for. Bob was able to bring an Z-HD6000 to us to check out – we were able to play with it all day, fi lm with the lights on the stage, and just generally run it through it’s paces. The clarity of the Z-HD6000’s exceeded our expectations compared to the older Hitachi SD cameras we had. With the price point of the camera and the Hitachi durability we were already well aware the fi t was obvious. We currently run a six to eight camera shoot with an occasional GoPro or two during worship, but the three Hitachi HD-Z6000’s are the core of our setup, and the only cameras we use for our broadcast.

We bought the cameras, lenses and CCU package, and also purchased two lenses with 2.0x extenders. These lenses with the 2x extenders are more than adequate for our facility, and the cameras and CCU’s are extremely user-friendly. We have a 70+ person volunteer staff on our camera team and training has been a breeze with this transition. The Z-HD6000’s are almost identical to our older cameras, except that everything works better – the zoom and focus controls are smoother and easier to operate, and since we had recently upgraded our Video Switcher to HD, the install and setup was very easy. Once we decided to make the purchase and all the gear arrived, the install went quickly. We run mid-week services and Saturday/Sunday services. We started setup with an in-house crew on a Thursday and had everything installed and running by Friday evening. We didn’t encounter any issues with any of the gear. As a production director, that’s the kind of equipment I look for and will purchase over and over.

With our old standard definition Z-3000’s cameras we had been using Multi Core Cable, but decided to go with Fibre for the cabling with the new cameras. We felt that was a better long-term decision for us, since Fibre is expandable to 4K if we ever upgrade. Another really nice upgrade for us was the 7” color LCD view finders on the new cameras, compared to the 4” black and white view finder we had been used to. They have Kyle's Reportmade focusing, tracking, and composition much easier! The support with Hitachi has always been stellar and Hitachi products have been resilient and dependable for us over the years, which makes the decision to continue to buy Hitachi products easy. Gear durability and ease of use is what every house of worship wants, and that’s what we got with the Z-HD6000’s. We are extremely pleased with them!

Kyle Whittaker is the Production and Web Director for Faith Family Church in North Canton, Ohio. You can follow Faith Family on Twitter and Instagram with the handle @FaithFamilyOH. You can also check out their website at www. myfaithfamily.com