Breaking Down to Basics - The Smallest Setup for Video

Show of hands, how many people’s favorite part of making videos is lugging around huge amounts of gear to the shoot?…

No one?

Same!

I’ve spent hours and hours scouring B&H and dreaming of the large elaborate setups that I could buy. And then I think about how often I might actually want to drag all of that equipment out into the field if I’m the one shooting.

Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely will need all the bells and whistles of production if you want to crush every single shot. But if I’m shooting a basic interview with some easy B-Roll, what’s the most barebones set up I can use and take the least amount of time to set up?

At my last shoot, I knew I was filming an interview that didn’t need to look spectacular as the dialogue of my subject was a lot more important. I decided that instead of lugging everything out with me, I would take as little gear as possible. At the end of the day, you really only need three things -

Light, a camera, and audio.

All this fits into a single bag!… well, not the tripod and light stand, but that’s what arms are for!

Light

The easiest solution for this would be to use the sun or the available light on location. This is great if you the location works and a nightmare if it doesn’t. Thankfully, I’ve got two super small LED panels that fit in my bag. They’re bi-color and operate off of Sony batteries, perfect to place anywhere and start using immediately.

I stacked these together so that my source was just a little bit larger in size and brought a single stand to mount them on. Super easy set up and quick to adjust if need be.

Camera

My workhorse for the last year and a half. GH5 is a helluva camera.

I’ve been a huge fan of Panasonic for a while now and the GH5 has been one of the most solid workhorse cameras for corporate and doc work. Battery life is great, IBIS means I can move quickly getting b-roll without a giant rig, and the codec options are fantastic.

I also brought a tripod with me for the interview but went handheld for all the b-roll. Having a gimbal or slider or another piece of gear could have opened up my options in terms of shots, but I knew I wasn’t going for anything fancy and that 60fps handheld footage would be more than acceptable for my application. Paired with a 12-35mm and I’m ready to rock.

Audio

The camera has a mic built in, duh….

Ok, I definitely need an improvement over the camera audio. I ended up using the Rode SmartLav+ with a 3.5mm extension cable and converter to connect to the GH5. I will say, this is not always going to be a great solution as these types of cables are usually unprotected. BUT, this has worked just fine for me without issue more often than not. Lav mic straight into GH5 is the most straightforward solution to me and I don’t have to deal with syncing audio in post either. I could have boomed a shotgun mic but doing this myself would mean I’d have to bring an extra stand to mount it on.

Conclusion

All in all, the shoot was a success! Here’s what my interview shot looked like with no adjustments:

I only had each light dialed into about 7-10% power before I was happy with the exposure. I wouldn’t mind the light source being a bit softer

I’m pretty happy with the look! It’s more than acceptable for the piece I’m working on and it was good to focus on getting the content I needed in the timeframe I had. I still think I could have done better, specifically by positioning the subject with a stronger backlight using the available sunlight. This would have helped with background separation a little more, but I’m not sweating it too much.

Of course, the major con with a set up like this is the lack of flexibility. In this case I was sacrificing options for the sake of speed. However, I think limitations like this can push you to be more creative with the tools that you have. Getting the best shot possible with limited gear can sometimes be better than a complicated shot that’s not executed as well as it could be.

My next step is to come up with a way to soften the light a bit more if I want to. I’ve seen a few DIY builds on YouTube, but nothing that is quite simple or fast enough for my tastes. Stay tuned to see what I come up with!

My iPhOnE rEpLaCeD mY DSLR…

I've always been a little sad that I've never had the latest iPhone or smartphone.

I'm the kind of guy who's been ok being a few generations behind. Even as I read articles talking about how the latest camera phones were going to do away with DSLRs, I told myself, "It's fine, those articles are over exaggerating, they can't replace a REAL camera." And you know what, I think I was right. I used the iPhone 6s for five years and there's no way that could beat the quality that I've gotten from my Panasonic GH3 and more recently my Fuji X-T3. I just don't see any possible way that a camera with a fraction of the sensor size could do the same work that a dedicated system could...

Unless....

What if the phone had THREE cameras instead of one?

Ultrawide with the iPhone 11 Pro

So basically, I’m writing this article to justify spending waaayyyy too much money.

Does the iPhone 11 Pro replace a DSLR?

No. Also, yes? It depends.

My iPhone 11 Pro replaces a larger format camera for casual shooting.

If I'm going out with friends or a loved one for a fun trip, I don't want to lug around my big old camera with me. Even something as slim as an XT-3 won't fit in my pocket. I find even a small bag to be cumbersome if I want to be mobile and moving quickly.

A quick snapshot of some cookies with the telephoto option. Detail looks good and I like that I’m able to get a slightly shallower depth of field on such a small device.

Having something as powerful as the 11 Pro is going to replace my camera for casual shooting. Three cameras gives me creative options and it's a lot of fun to see my different framing options. I like having so many tools without the pressure of trying to get the BEST possible image every time I hit the shutter. 

A few weeks ago, I went on vacation. One of the days we did a coastline walk, a brewery tour, and ate dinner at a restaurant. I ended up taking six shots with my camera on the walk and then leaving it in the car for the rest. I would have rather just used my current phone and likely been happy. My favorite pics were the ones my girlfriend got because she was more focused on having fun than trying to take high quality pictures.

This was taken with an Xr I believe. “The camera you have with you…” Love the expression on my face and it was easy to grab.

Big Cameras Exist for a Reason

But if I set out on the day to make something special? Yeah, give me a mirrorless or DSLR. I need the precision and tools that a system like that offers me to do my job. A larger lens with sensor to capture it is going to open up options that my phone just can't compete with. Depth of field advantages, huge dynamic range, and flexibility in lens choices are just a few benefits I get from a dedicated system. Doesn't matter if I'm taking pictures or video, having those features makes a difference. Below are some shots from my XT-3 that I’ve been happy with.

Wrap It Up

If you're a professional, or a serious hobbyist who understands the craft, having an amazing set of cameras in my pocket is awesome and I'm interested to see how it changes the way I work. But it won't replace the precision and features I get with my XT-3.

How about you? Still wouldn’t be caught dead heading to a beautiful spot without at least one piece of gear?

My gut purchase for the month - Ikan Video Lights

GEAR! I love gear, if you start asking questions about cameras and lens or really anything video production related, hope you're ready to buckle down for a while. This will probably be an ongoing series where I talk about gear that I'm working with, interested in, or just want to ramble about for a while.

There's three three main questions I ask myself before I invest in a piece of gear. What does the gear provide quality wise, how often am I going to use something, and how expensive is it? I'm looking for anything that's going to increase the creative possibilities available to me or to make it easier for me to get the look I want. On top of that, if I'm going to actually invest in something, it should be something that I will be using on a consistent basis to make it worth the money. 

Which brings us to me making kind of a gut instinct purchase on two of these Ikan lights. They were on sale at B&H and I thought "Ehhhh why not". They seemed pretty neat, bi-color, battery operated, LCD readout, pretty light weight, and bright. Good chance they'd be a very portable light I could throw in my kit and could put pretty much anywhere. Way easier to handle than my other larger LED lights and I don't have to worry about having power nearby. Cool, let's do it!

Here's a few pics of what they look like.

Build quality wise, they're fine. The plastic doesn't feel the cheapest and the dials and knobs have a nice feel. We'll see how they hold up over time. The case it comes in is not bad, layout is logical and I think it'll be easy to grab the set for a quick shoot. 

I set up the lights for a quick demo and noticed a few things.

1. They're actually pretty bright.
2. The barn doors are not as effective as I would have liked.

One of the main issues with the barn doors is that they create kind of a striation pattern on the wall. Since each LED is a point source in itself, each row is getting cut off at a different angle, causing a weird pattern to show up on the wall. Not the first time I've seen this happen before but I forgot this would be a problem with this kind of light. Also, I don't love the way they lock into the unit itself. There's a tiny little lock that holds it in place, was hoping for something a little more secure.

Here's what they look like for a two light set:

Was moving kind of quick, pretty sure the settings were 24fps, 1/48th shutter speed, 400ISO, T2.8 on a C200. Was happy with how bright they were in a completely dark setting. Thanks to Steve Szmed for giving an A+ model face turn.

Are they worth the original list price? Maybe, but probably not. Unless you're doing a shoulder rig ENG style set up, I wouldn't put them on camera, definitely not a DSLR or mirrorless camera. The build quality is fine, nothing to write home about. Barn doors are a nice idea, but at the end of the day, the fact that it's an LED panel means it's very difficult to actually shape the light like you would with a Fresnel. The included accessories aren't bad, but again, don't really blow me away (although the included ball head is actually a little bit better in build quality than I was expecting, we'll see how long it lasts).

BUT, for the price I got them, I'm actually pretty happy. I can see them being very effective for an on the go video interview setup. Get an extra set of batteries for the both of them and I can quickly get a two light set up that can go pretty much anywhere. No cords or cables, just the lights. Also, I can pretty easily add some extra rigging to the barn doors to make it easy to throw some diffusion in front of it. Now, there are dozens of other lights that will perform a similar function to these lights, Westcott's ice lights are one of them as are the off brand Younoung's, but stuff like the LED readout, the bi-color capability, and the ability to attach diffusion right on the barn doors makes it worth it to me.

I'm still looking for a more affordable LED light that's a little more controllable, but these will do well for now I think. Good chance I'll write an update after I've used them some more (or haven't haha).

Blog!

Hey folks, it's my first blog entry. If you're wondering what this might be, it's a place for me to just kind of write and post about whatever I find interesting. Pop a comment on there if you want to have a conversation. There'll be more coming soon.