Video Kit
Note to Readers: Image and text links below will take you to your local Amazon website. But if you can’t find what you’re looking for, click here for my Amazon.com Shop where you’ll find all my recommended finds. Can’t see any links here? Make sure to turn off any Ad Blocker apps and they should appear.
Manual zooming this lens below isn’t as smooth as an electrically controlled zoom (not to be confused by “digitial” zoom), but the constant f2.8 aperture and truly useful range makes this lens the first I would recommend as an all-round great choice.
No problem recording 4K 60p with my favourite SD cards below though never tried the ALL-INTRA options which will likely fail … But if your production requires recording at 400Mbps you can afford faster cards 😉
Audio Kit:
Though it lacks an auto-gain setting (which I don’t use, or will employ my H1 if required), I love my Zoom H5 for its build quality, portability and optional camera settings.
This shotgun capsule combines a decent shotgun with a mid-side mic. While not “true” stereo, it allowed me to conveniently setup my H5 atop my camera from the balcony and achieve decent audio quality.
I found the need to adjust the microphone volume due to the large variance of volume from soft-spoken dialog to a full big-band. The below shockmount reduces, though does not entirely eliminate, handling noise.
And of course you need a way to reliably monitor your audio. I use the in-ear headphones below which aren’t the best sounding or most sound isolating pair, but do a good job and are robust enough for real-world use and abuse.
Power for Hours:
Recording long-format concerts requires continuous operation of your camera requiring multiple battery swaps. No worries: the powering kit below allows you to power your camera via most inexpensive USB battery packs. Bonus: this battery pack has 2 USB ports, allowing me to power both my camera AND audio recorder.
This is a pretty amazing piece of kit, which allows cameras which don’t natively support USB-powering, to be powered via a separately purchased “dummy” battery.
Make sure you purchase the right dummy battery so you can use the Case Relay above with your specific system.
THANK YOU! + NotSo Fine Print
I hope you’ve found a few tools here that will help make your life easier and more fulfilled.
Most links and images above will take you to your local Amazon website. But if you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can scroll to the bottom of this page or click here for the amazon.com links. You can also use these links to shop at Adorama, B&H Photo and Ebay. As affiliates we get a small percentage of qualifying purchases but rest assured you won’t pay a cent more than buying it elsewhere. Thank you!
Lastly, I’d love to hear from YOU. Please don’t be shy and hit me in the comments!
Thanks for reading and happy shopping!
