I have done tons of shoots in the past using cheap gear. When I first started filmmaking back in 2010, I made a fig rig out of PVC pipe. I try to use inexpensive lights to light my scene. I go for budget lenses! I try to stay as low cost as I can whilst trying to achieve cinematic looks.
I think that content producers who use budget-friendly equipment in this way, instead of high budgets and expensive equipment in the cinematography and photography industry, establish a much more intimate bond with people from all walks of life. I love the content you share. Thanks for making this video
Pro tip for the V-Mount battery - cable adapter - solution: Try to power all your gear directly from your battery plate. So if you need to change the V-Mount, you don't have to unplug every single cable. Even better, if your plate has a power input, you could short cut with mains power for the seconds of changing the battery and not have to restart everything again!
I have so much cheap gear you wouldn't believe it. My one absolute is audio cables, I kept an XLR to Jack and Jack to Mini Jack in my bag for a year, doing nothing until I was working a show and the sound board failed. Everything was on a laptop and my connector saved the day. But the cheapest things are coloured plastic Quaility Street wrappers which I would use on flashes and small led torches which I got free after I went to a Christmas party and picked them up. "Thanks for helping clear up." "No problem."
Thanks to your video I shot my first project using anamorphic lenses and confidently used the 20€ diopters and couldn't be more happy with the results. So thank you for sharing actual use case scenarios of equipment, helps a lot!
Great video, as always! Through the years of buying camera or set equipment I realised that there are indeed items where you want to buy the more expensive version, cause the cheap version is not worth it, but there are also so many items I spend way too much money on, that are not even better than the cheaper version, or the difference is negligible.
Re: the Fisher dolly - They're not sold to consumers at all, intentionally. It's a business-model decision that allows them to ensure that everyone who uses a Fisher dolly uses one that is upkept to the manufacturer's standards for maintenance. You can buy a Fisher dolly franchise and then rent out dollies, but you can't just buy the item.
Very well said Simon, absolutely true quite a lot of shots can be achieved with cheap gears only this is to use identify the right one. Thanks for making this video
Nice to see a 4k upload. The bitrate boost is welcome. Next you need to find a way to work around the colour banding. RUclips compression doesn't like dark gradients.
About the Diopters, could you get the same effect by using macro tube extensions? Often times people say that you should get high quality diopters, because you bring in another glass element, which can influence the optics of the final image. By using macro tube extensions you don't use glass at all, which would technically be the best way to not further change the image?
Love the cheap gear recommendation, and I love the anamorphic look. Just a question, do you know if there are any anamorphic lens that work with a canon 600d?
The only EF mount anamorphic lenses I’ve shot with are the Great Joy lenses, but I think the protruding rear element would damage the mirror on the 600d, so I wouldn’t recommend that. Anamorphic works best with a camera that can film open gate 4:3 or 3:2 as well, so the 600D would create a very wide image after desqueezing the 16:9 footage anyway
What audio setup does Simon use to record his talking head shots? Is it recorded externally with a zoom h4n and boom mic? Also, are his recent talking head shots done on his Canon T3i or has he evolved to something else?
definitely agree with you on all accounts except the cables! friends of mine and myself have had major issues with cheap cables. it was never on the first boot up either. be safe! a $30 cable may cause a $200 in-camera fuse issue.
Regarding the batteries, I recommend switching to an NP-F setup. They are much, much cheaper. For the price of one V mount battery I can buy at least 4 excellent NP-F
Wow I watched all your videos like 8 years ago and I only just now noticed that you are still on it. Really well done dude…. And now I have some catching up to do 😅
Thank you for sharing the info. I always enjoy your videos. I have a question. You mentioned using D tap battery adapters, what was the multi port device that you plugged all the d tap cables into and had the one cable running to your V lock battery?
It absolutely makes sense to work with cheap tools. If you have a $3000 Budget for a music video, why would you rent a dolly that is + $500 a day? You won't have a decent profit margin after that. Also take crew, gear, locations, food, shelter, costumes and additional costs into consideration. I thank you on the behalf of all filmmakers. If you want to make this a career, you have to think about the margin. Thous cheap ways to produce the videos... I would have even gone so far and take out the anamorphic glass and just shoot with one camera and one lens. Thank you for showing us all the cheap ways!
precisely! luckily the anamorphic lenses were free - one of the perks of having this RUclips channel. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to put money from the budget into renting expensive glass! You're so welcome, thanks for being here Willem
i bought those inexpensive Diopters for my GreatJoy-A's and they work perfectly fine for its price point. No complaint on that and if it breaks i can buy 3 more sets of them ;)
When it comes to powering your camera with d-tap, approach with caution. There are some horror story of people using cheap dummy battery for their camera and it killing the camera. Always a good idea to do some research to safeguard your camera.
Following up: The cheap Amazon diopters are good, but don't contain the 0.5, 0.25 diopters you'll need for 3m - 1m focus. The low power diopters are the rare / expensive ones.
Great video ! Would love to see the finished music video ! It looked like you were using the PortKeys EVF - how did you find it? I'm interested in getting it.
One thing I have to say, is, that you have to be careful with powering the camera and the monitor from the same power source. I don't know if that's even an issue for most cameras, but with the black magic pockets you can ruin you HDMI Port when you don't do it correctly. That's why I always power the monitor from a different source.
The code for amazon when does that start? Is it only for camera equipment or? Great video! I been following you for a while you have really helped me out when I first got into shoot videos!
done, I've added the amazon US links, and here are the UK ones: close filters: amzn.to/3ihDDrF HDMI adapters: amzn.to/3VzpBA1 clamps: amzn.to/3gEr21s S1H to D-tap cable: amzn.to/3gNHAUx NPF to D-tap cable (not the exact one I used in the video): amzn.to/3F8t9nm
Do you believe having the dci p3 or log matters so much where few cameras do come with that and you also have canon t3i? Would it matter while you are planning on distributing or selling your indie film?
Shooting with a log profile (logarithmic trasnfer function) gives you more latitude when grading and as such allows for more fixing in post. Also as important if not even more is shooting in at least 10-bit (bit depth) and low chroma subsampling (4:2:2 instead of 4:2:0). This is because if you shoot in 8-bit, as soon as you start changing anything in terms color, you're stretching the information and can easily get visible banding.
@@KaurH Don't forget about having wider dynamic range you can get from log profile video in post production. Useful for videos where there are bright and dark things at the same time.
Great video, I got inspired to add a few things to my own collection. What EVF do you use? What is the price of that one? Also, V-mount batteries are very expensive, at least in Norway, any way to get cheaper good v-mount batteries?
it's a portkeys LEYEii, not sure about the cost in Norway but it's one of the cheaper EVFs out there :) and yes, V-mount batteries tend to be pricey, don't have a recommendation for that beside renting!
this is probably the least i've ever been involved in a shoot, and to be honest it was quite nice being on set with less responsibility! Enjoyed being able to film my behind-the-scenes footage and getting stuck as an extra pair of hands where necessary!
I haven’t tried it with a camera that has SDI, but on my HDMI cameras, there is a short lag, but not usually long enough for me to focus past the sharp point. Then again, I’m not a pro focus puller so I’m not the best person the evaluate it for focusing :)
Honestly, since nobody is going to see the gear in the final product, who cares if it was this or that filter, 1 big or 4 smaller batteries, and so on . the then saved money is better spent on the production value of the project. Just use, what gets the job done in the most beneficial way for the final outcome.
I ordered and tested this monitor and it kept totally shutting down my iPad on set making it totally unreliable. also the fact its UI on iPad or iPhone is different then the UI on the screen is very confusing.
sorry to hear that! I spoke to Hollyland about this, and they said it's worth double checking that you're on the latest version of the app, and that they are releasing a new version of the app to solve this issue very soon.
2 года назад
wanna find an super steady dolly ? get a wheelchair. the big wheels are amazing ...other than that i invested in a ronin 4d and it was so worth it it makes dolly and slider shots most of the time unnecesssary since it is simply stable enough
the S1H belongs to Tiara, the director of the music video, but I did buy a second-hand BMPCC OG (1080p version) for a DSLRguide video a few months back
From spending years of my life cheaping out...I can catagorically say...please invest in good equipment. You'll save money and pain in the long term. Cheap equipment is short sighted.
i'd be curious which categories of gear you've found that to be most true for, and whether you recommend aiming for middle of the road, or highest quality stuff
The video is out: ruclips.net/video/LOdyO5SUp_c/видео.htmlsi=jrRC5q3PcpB4bs33
I have done tons of shoots in the past using cheap gear. When I first started filmmaking back in 2010, I made a fig rig out of PVC pipe. I try to use inexpensive lights to light my scene. I go for budget lenses! I try to stay as low cost as I can whilst trying to achieve cinematic looks.
Ah the good old days of pvc rigs! Mine was the opposite of rigid haha
So glad you’ve kept some low budget stuff in your kit :)
@@DSLRguide it never fails. Even to this day. Some shoots I do are run and gun. And it helps.
I think that content producers who use budget-friendly equipment in this way, instead of high budgets and expensive equipment in the cinematography and photography industry, establish a much more intimate bond with people from all walks of life. I love the content you share. Thanks for making this video
Thank you for keeping us satisfied with our equipment by making so many videos explaining to us how low-cost or old equipment can make good videos.
*anti-headache content found*
What is headache content?
@@YoungBlaze content that gives you headaches
Pro tip for the V-Mount battery - cable adapter - solution: Try to power all your gear directly from your battery plate. So if you need to change the V-Mount, you don't have to unplug every single cable. Even better, if your plate has a power input, you could short cut with mains power for the seconds of changing the battery and not have to restart everything again!
NISI also makes very high quality diopters (they call them close up filters) as does a Japanese company called Raynox.
I have so much cheap gear you wouldn't believe it. My one absolute is audio cables, I kept an XLR to Jack and Jack to Mini Jack in my bag for a year, doing nothing until I was working a show and the sound board failed. Everything was on a laptop and my connector saved the day. But the cheapest things are coloured plastic Quaility Street wrappers which I would use on flashes and small led torches which I got free after I went to a Christmas party and picked them up. "Thanks for helping clear up." "No problem."
Thanks to your video I shot my first project using anamorphic lenses and confidently used the 20€ diopters and couldn't be more happy with the results. So thank you for sharing actual use case scenarios of equipment, helps a lot!
Great video, as always! Through the years of buying camera or set equipment I realised that there are indeed items where you want to buy the more expensive version, cause the cheap version is not worth it, but there are also so many items I spend way too much money on, that are not even better than the cheaper version, or the difference is negligible.
for sure - tripods seem worth investing in, and lighting gear too (although there's still plenty of good stuff from the cheaper brands)
for the dolly, a skateboard can work really good on smooth ground
Re: the Fisher dolly - They're not sold to consumers at all, intentionally. It's a business-model decision that allows them to ensure that everyone who uses a Fisher dolly uses one that is upkept to the manufacturer's standards for maintenance. You can buy a Fisher dolly franchise and then rent out dollies, but you can't just buy the item.
ah I didn't know that, makes sense though!
Very well said Simon, absolutely true quite a lot of shots can be achieved with cheap gears only this is to use identify the right one. Thanks for making this video
love this guy's voice, very therapeutic
remember kids...for your budget dolly and tripod...pull do not push and you will get a better effect
God I loved your videos about the t3i, I love cheap gear. Above all I love your voice!
Nice to see a 4k upload. The bitrate boost is welcome. Next you need to find a way to work around the colour banding. RUclips compression doesn't like dark gradients.
glad you noticed! yeah I probably graded this one too dark
About the Diopters, could you get the same effect by using macro tube extensions? Often times people say that you should get high quality diopters, because you bring in another glass element, which can influence the optics of the final image. By using macro tube extensions you don't use glass at all, which would technically be the best way to not further change the image?
Love the cheap gear recommendation, and I love the anamorphic look. Just a question, do you know if there are any anamorphic lens that work with a canon 600d?
The only EF mount anamorphic lenses I’ve shot with are the Great Joy lenses, but I think the protruding rear element would damage the mirror on the 600d, so I wouldn’t recommend that. Anamorphic works best with a camera that can film open gate 4:3 or 3:2 as well, so the 600D would create a very wide image after desqueezing the 16:9 footage anyway
@@DSLRguide thanks for answering, keep up the terrific videos
@@DSLRguide Thanks for the info!
What audio setup does Simon use to record his talking head shots? Is it recorded externally with a zoom h4n and boom mic? Also, are his recent talking head shots done on his Canon T3i or has he evolved to something else?
definitely agree with you on all accounts except the cables! friends of mine and myself have had major issues with cheap cables. it was never on the first boot up either. be safe! a $30 cable may cause a $200 in-camera fuse issue.
Nice to see you after many years.
Thank you for these suggestions and links.
I took your advice and showed up to a shoot with a galaxy s8 and 2 dollar store flash lights. My clients were pissed. Thanks a lot.
Regarding the batteries, I recommend switching to an NP-F setup. They are much, much cheaper.
For the price of one V mount battery I can buy at least 4 excellent NP-F
Wow I watched all your videos like 8 years ago and I only just now noticed that you are still on it. Really well done dude…. And now I have some catching up to do 😅
welcome back! Hope you like the new ones haha
Thank you for sharing the info. I always enjoy your videos. I have a question. You mentioned using D tap battery adapters, what was the multi port device that you plugged all the d tap cables into and had the one cable running to your V lock battery?
Canon T3i forever!
Love all four pieces! How's your experience pulling focus with the Mars 4K? Some say the lag is too much for doing that.
I’ve never used a zero-lag system so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it was manageable for me when I tested it at home
@@DSLRguide Awesome. Thank you for your kind reply Simon.
It absolutely makes sense to work with cheap tools.
If you have a $3000 Budget for a music video, why would you rent a dolly that is + $500 a day?
You won't have a decent profit margin after that. Also take crew, gear, locations, food, shelter, costumes and additional costs into consideration. I thank you on the behalf of all filmmakers. If you want to make this a career, you have to think about the margin. Thous cheap ways to produce the videos... I would have even gone so far and take out the anamorphic glass and just shoot with one camera and one lens. Thank you for showing us all the cheap ways!
precisely! luckily the anamorphic lenses were free - one of the perks of having this RUclips channel. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to put money from the budget into renting expensive glass! You're so welcome, thanks for being here Willem
i bought those inexpensive Diopters for my GreatJoy-A's and they work perfectly fine for its price point. No complaint on that and if it breaks i can buy 3 more sets of them ;)
When it comes to powering your camera with d-tap, approach with caution. There are some horror story of people using cheap dummy battery for their camera and it killing the camera. Always a good idea to do some research to safeguard your camera.
Always love mood in videos of yours
Following up: The cheap Amazon diopters are good, but don't contain the 0.5, 0.25 diopters you'll need for 3m - 1m focus. The low power diopters are the rare / expensive ones.
Where did you shoot the music video? Looks like a really cool set.
it was in a bunker thing that's been repurposed as a wedding venue / party venue etc
Great video ! Would love to see the finished music video ! It looked like you were using the PortKeys EVF - how did you find it? I'm interested in getting it.
big fan of the portkeys evf! display does feel pretty small when shooting anamorphic, but I like that you can configure a custom squeeze factor
@@DSLRguide oh no, I think my bank balance was hoping you'd say it's crap! I might have to pick one up now!
One thing I have to say, is, that you have to be careful with powering the camera and the monitor from the same power source. I don't know if that's even an issue for most cameras, but with the black magic pockets you can ruin you HDMI Port when you don't do it correctly. That's why I always power the monitor from a different source.
ah thanks for the heads up! I've done it with various cameras over the years, but i'll look into it :)
Will those diopters work for normal lenses as well?
Absolutely :)
The code for amazon when does that start? Is it only for camera equipment or? Great video! I been following you for a while you have really helped me out when I first got into shoot videos!
It’s already started, and it only applies to the Hollyland Mars M1 and Mars 4K (on UK & US Amazon)
I guess only works for Mars m1 and mars 4K mentioned with the link.
I like this. Thanks!
Wish you would put a ling for the battery and cabels in description..!
done, I've added the amazon US links, and here are the UK ones:
close filters: amzn.to/3ihDDrF
HDMI adapters: amzn.to/3VzpBA1
clamps: amzn.to/3gEr21s
S1H to D-tap cable: amzn.to/3gNHAUx
NPF to D-tap cable (not the exact one I used in the video): amzn.to/3F8t9nm
@@DSLRguide Thanks for your reply realy appreciate but you forgot the battery ..thank again..!
Do you believe having the dci p3 or log matters so much where few cameras do come with that and you also have canon t3i? Would it matter while you are planning on distributing or selling your indie film?
Shooting with a log profile (logarithmic trasnfer function) gives you more latitude when grading and as such allows for more fixing in post. Also as important if not even more is shooting in at least 10-bit (bit depth) and low chroma subsampling (4:2:2 instead of 4:2:0). This is because if you shoot in 8-bit, as soon as you start changing anything in terms color, you're stretching the information and can easily get visible banding.
@@KaurH So, this can be one of few good reasons to upgrade to a better camera. Thank you.
@@KaurH Don't forget about having wider dynamic range you can get from log profile video in post production. Useful for videos where there are bright and dark things at the same time.
@@Stasiek_Zabojca Yep, that's what I meant by more latitude.
@@mruthyunjaymehetre1372 or to an external recorder in some cases.
Nice!🔥
Great video, I got inspired to add a few things to my own collection. What EVF do you use? What is the price of that one? Also, V-mount batteries are very expensive, at least in Norway, any way to get cheaper good v-mount batteries?
it's a portkeys LEYEii, not sure about the cost in Norway but it's one of the cheaper EVFs out there :) and yes, V-mount batteries tend to be pricey, don't have a recommendation for that beside renting!
@@DSLRguide thank you, Simon. I will check it out :-)
what was the plate / gear that all the d taps were powered off of ?
it's a Bebob COCO-15VMICRO plate :)
What was it like to produce a project without being directly involved as part of the crew? Was this something new for you?
this is probably the least i've ever been involved in a shoot, and to be honest it was quite nice being on set with less responsibility! Enjoyed being able to film my behind-the-scenes footage and getting stuck as an extra pair of hands where necessary!
How are you enjoying the Mars 4k system? I have only used mine with the laggy BMP6K HDMI out. How was the focus pulling on the S1H?
I haven’t tried it with a camera that has SDI, but on my HDMI cameras, there is a short lag, but not usually long enough for me to focus past the sharp point. Then again, I’m not a pro focus puller so I’m not the best person the evaluate it for focusing :)
The latency will be different from using different video output formats. So if you using 4K30 output the latency will be bigger than 1080p60.
I was wondering how you feel about the OG blackmagic pocket investment considering you didn't use that camera for this shoot.
all good, still got more plans for it
@@DSLRguide awesome!
Dolly should have bigger tire type wheels which will be much smoother.
Not that anyone should buy diopters for themselves but IB/E are a good german brand in the region where Zeiss is from ;)
I should hope they use all the finest materials and manufacturing processes ;)
i use non-dslr camera from 10 years ago it is Nikon P520
omg i got noticed by my master after 10 years of subscribing oh im ecstatic i might die
Is there a link to the full video?
The music video won’t come out until January, the song isn’t released yet :)
Nice inexpensive gears 👍
i mean the guys voice is just so suiting....
Honestly, since nobody is going to see the gear in the final product, who cares if it was this or that filter, 1 big or 4 smaller batteries, and so on . the then saved money is better spent on the production value of the project. Just use, what gets the job done in the most beneficial way for the final outcome.
I like this ASMR video.
right?! i could stand it when he was much younger but now I can't. but definitely ASMR. nailed it
@@GoldenTeeTV Yeah feels like he's talking directly into your ear👌🤣.
Don't use your 600D that you said you'd only ever use ever again, now?
I ordered and tested this monitor and it kept totally shutting down my iPad on set making it totally unreliable. also the fact its UI on iPad or iPhone is different then the UI on the screen is very confusing.
sorry to hear that! I spoke to Hollyland about this, and they said it's worth double checking that you're on the latest version of the app, and that they are releasing a new version of the app to solve this issue very soon.
wanna find an super steady dolly ? get a wheelchair. the big wheels are amazing ...other than that i invested in a ronin 4d and it was so worth it it makes dolly and slider shots most of the time unnecesssary since it is simply stable enough
smart, that would have been way better than the trolley
theres a whistling tone when you speak
I filmed this at midnight and was trying not to be too loud, hence the weird whisper whistle
Please post more
It's cool as long as making video is your hobby but when working with serious budget you don't want to risk whole project for sake of saving few bob.
You actually can't buy a Fisher dolly
Fisher only rents them out
I've only shot on one once, built like a tank
so I'd need to start a rental company before buying one haha, even more expensive
Holy crap do u mean to tell me after years of making video talking about never upgrading u finally bought some gear
the S1H belongs to Tiara, the director of the music video, but I did buy a second-hand BMPCC OG (1080p version) for a DSLRguide video a few months back
I fried my GH5 with a cheap dummy battery cable
ouch, sorry to hear that
Fisher dolley can only be rented
nice vid, something funny is going on with the audio though, but nice vid
From spending years of my life cheaping out...I can catagorically say...please invest in good equipment. You'll save money and pain in the long term. Cheap equipment is short sighted.
i'd be curious which categories of gear you've found that to be most true for, and whether you recommend aiming for middle of the road, or highest quality stuff
great video but it was really cringe to hear your 3:00am voice
Fair criticism haha
bro stop saying "dollars" - it's embarassing.
I'm usually embarrassed using my gear around clients as most of my gears especially lighting gears are redneck engineered
has a client ever made a complaint? often they don't know enough about cameras to have a real sense of what's good/expensive