Filming Gear - what I use

This is another hotly requested topic for a blog piece so I thought I would address it...

Gear for filming is somewhat of a minefield, so many options, and everyone getting hung up on new cameras and toys constantly ( myself as well to some extent )

There is a lot to be said for the well used phrase of " not worrying about the gear, more on the skills "

While that idea is 110% true, no one can argue that with the introduction of more cinematic tools into the MTB video world, super slow motion etc the production values are rising, and its move with the tide or get drowned ...

As mentioned a post or two ago, I have recently gone into partnership with fellow filmer Chris Seager and formed Aspect Media , 2 people on shoots is a must if you really want to step up the quality, 2 peoples gear, 2 peoples time and skills, it made sense.

But what this means is for jobs we now have access to each others gear, while a lot of items are now doubled, some things only one of us had, now both of us do as such, so ...

The Gear I use:

Cameras: 

Mainly Canon DSLRs , small light, inexpensive, high quality footage, no brainer!

550D , 60D , 7D , 5d3 

Then we have a Sony fs700 which is a pretty new camera capable of super slow motion. As I said above, a great tool, but now everyone is doing super slow motion, its using it well and with skill and creative vision that's the key now, not just having everything barely moving.

60D , 5D3 and Sony FS700

My 5D3 in lightweight video mode and the Lowepro Vertex all packed up.

Lens's:

Everything from 8mm fish eyes right through to 300mm , again a long time building up this collection as good glass isn't cheap, and there is no way of short cutting. With glass you really do get what you pay for. Something to really bare in mind with video and especially MTB work, you will be in dark woods a lot, so the extra 300 quid for that extra stop of light really IS worth it ... and IS is not a must, but does help a huge amount.

• 12-24mm
• 15mm fish eye
• 50mm
• 24-105 IS
• 17-50 IS 
• 11-16mm
• 70-200 IS 

Few lens's its good to have covering everything from 12 - 200 mm

Movement: 

Everything from sliders, dollys, cranes, steady cams, tripods of all shapes and sizes etc they all have there uses and all bring something to a shoot. 

3 foot slider
4 foot slider
8 foot dolly
12 foot crane
steady cam
3 manfrotto tripods all with fluid heads

Seager and myself shooting last month. In this shot is a slider, 2 tripods, camera bag , crane , fs700 with 11-16mm.

Everything else: 

Audio is a commonly over looked part of video, when in essence it makes up half of the experience, I know I don't spend half the time of a shoot getting sound. Its something I am really working on in up coming projects though.

We have Rode Video mic pros, lapel mics , zoom H4n sound recorders , and with the new canon DSLRs finally having caught up with proper video cameras, headphones to monitor it all with as well.

Then you have things like Gopros, all the attachments that go with them, endless hard drives, laptops , LED lights , clamps , time lapse remotes , variable ND filters etc etc

Mics, Lights, bits and bobs, computers, HDDs etc etc, the lists endless

Then everything gets carried about in Lowepro bags, mainly the Vertex 300AW and Flipside 500 AW , both good sturdy bags that give all the protection you need on most trips, while still having enough room inside for everything you need. Camera bags have been covered in depth in a few other blog posts of mine.

Lowepro bags, one of those bits of gear you never really think about as it never gives you a reason to. It just always works flawlessly...

 For a lot more information, from much more informed and clever people than I see these links:

http://philipbloom.net/blog/

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/

http://blog.planet5d.com/

Anything else you want info on, or for specific info on gear leave a comment below and I will either answer in the comments or amend this post.

Ta

J