Got a wedding curveball for ya'.

[federerphotography]

Is his gear at least the same 'system' as yours?
Is there a chance you can borrow his gear from now until the wedding to learn?
Unless your gear is trash, I don't get why he wouldn't want you to use it.

 

[rubbertree]

what kind of equipment do you have?

 

[Sandspur]

For all the reason stated so well above ... just say NO!

 

[maytay20]

Even if his equipment is better than yours I would still nicely say no to doing it. Before I learned what I did about photography I did almost the same thing at my own wedding and am now regretting it because the person who took the photos didn't know my camera so a ton of the pics didn't turn out.
Now if his camera is better it puts more of a liability on you he can sue you if it gets broke! Are you 100% ready to buy him new equipment if his gets broken???

 

[JimmyO]

Are you 100% sure its not already broken and hes waiting for someone to blame it on =P

 

[manaheim]

First, let's say you decide you want to go ahead with this and do it, one suggestion:

Tell him you'll do it but you want to borrow and get familiar with his equipment up to the day of the wedding, and then go out and take a lot of shots. Then do so. This will ease the "oh where the hell is the X button" problem in the middle of the wedding day.

HOWEVER...

As many here have said, perhaps the best option here is to just politely refuse to do it.

This is a bad recipe:

- Wedding
- Friend
- Unfamiliar equipment

That's like Disaster Cordon Bleu with a nice arsenic sauce.

 

[ksm]

I agree with the fact that you should not shoot an event like this with equipment you are not familiar with. Doing so will definately create problems. Familiarity is half the work as far as I am concerned.

Having said that why aren't you answering the question some people have asked:
"What is your equipment?"