MrSMW

Surely I will be crying “FNAC FNAC FNAC!” which is fluent French for “fuck fuck fuckedy fuck!” ? When it comes to camera stuff in big city France anyway…

Yes, already researching that place… For this particular job, I could do it all with the contents of my backpack so the bit of kit not shown, is the missus’s electric fat bike. It weighs about 35kg / 75lbs, but folds in half and fits nicely in the back of the van. I could then either Uber in and out each day or ‘pedal’. It’s mental how effortless it is to ride and even as a pretty fit guy, I have zero chance against her on either of my pedal only power bikes! 19 euros each way by Uber and the client is happy to pick up the tab. Rich Americans 😉

I think the only reason someone might choose the none X version is they could get a used one for 500 less than a brand spanking new X. Also, if you bought one a few months back and now fancied the upgrade, you might pay that 200. Or you don’t like the all black look..and some do not. The X for me doesn’t have a single thing over the vanilla ii that I need so it would purely be for aesthetic reasons!

Yep, tried the magnetic ones a while back and just nope. They are too prone to getting knocked off unnoticed!

Adapted to Nikon Z8/9, hmmmm…

For me, it beats any/all other options hands down, means total self autonomy and is fun. It wouldn’t work if I shot city centre weddings as parking would be an absolute nightmare/impossible, so only works for me because I work at chateaux and places like golf clubs or private resorts, which all have wide open parking. Having said that, I have a Bordeaux city centre wedding in a couple of weeks and still need to work that one out… 🤪

The camper as an all round business proposition, costs me approx 3500 euros less per annum over car + hotels etc with the added bonuses of always on site plus for family/personal use for ‘free’. That’s my 90 euro cart fully loaded except back pack and 3 cameras on my person, but otherwise every bit of kit I use or might use on a job including 40m extension and 500wh power bank (both of which were in the bottom of the cart). All lighting is mains, power bank or battery. The gimbal is indeed mounted on a tripod for ceremony, speeches, entrances, exits etc, but on a quick release plate so can go into floaty mode within 2-3 seconds or go onto it’s mini tripod base also with QR plate. It’s all about having the most minimal kit I can get away with, but without too much compromise and being able to use anything as quickly as possible and as fuss free as poss. That is why my next ‘job’ is getting the number of bodies down from 4 to 3 or ideally 2 and currently only adapted Tamron/Nikon can do 2…

The cart:

Not many and still not come across anyone who does it to the extent that I do which is no different to having a photographer and a videographer, but others must exist…? It took 6 years of trial and error as in kit and execution and since that time, it’s been more about refining the process (which will be an ever ongoing thing) than having to work out how to do it. It’s not that complicated but like juggling, takes a lot of practice to get 7 or 8 balls up in the air and keeping them up in the air, but like anything; juggling, flying a helicopter or simply just being able to do something well, it’s about will, determination and practice. A lot of practice!

How so? I shoot hybrid all day long as a one man band with VND’s. You just need a flip out hinged filter adapter and separate in camera settings for stills and video. There’s more to it and that, but using it not using a VND can be a 1 second process.

Yup. Anything like this is too easy to replicate!

I have a 24-105 f4 and it’s too slow. f2.8 is my minimum on any lens otherwise I am getting into another layer of editing with noise reduction etc…

Yes. Always. Mostly flipping between the two constantly but at times, need to do both at the same time which means video unit on sticks plus shooting stills with a second unit, or shooting 8k video with just one unit and pulling stills. I do not have an 8k camera so have to do the at minimum, 2 camera approach. The latter especially is something I am hoping for…

Alter or something they were called?

Well there used to be a company who I think set up on Kickstarter whose name I do not remember, but I don’t think they are still around as cheap Chinese knock offs probably put them out of business. So I bought a cheap Chinese knock off from China! I just Googled ‘side hinge filter adapter’ or something…

I’m keeping an eye myself on both used prices and availability because I still have a slightly crazy idea of sticking with L Mount for video, but flipping my pair of S1R’s one of which has a battery grip, plus 3 Sigma lenses, for one single Z9 with the Tamron 20-40 for indoors and that 35-150 for outdoors. Stills mainly. But the weight… Put an S1R plus battery grip plus Sigma 28-70 in the scales yesterday and 1889 grams. According to the official specs, Z9 + Megadapter + Tammy 35-150 = 2600+ Gulp. That is a bit of a beast…but having said that, single body at any one time and not juggling 2 bodies has massive appeal…

Yes, I have also gone back to mainly dedicated stills (the S1R’s) and video (S5ii roaming, S1H static). Having said that, I have them all set up to do either because every now and again, I need to. Last year on one job, my main video camera ran out of card space end of bride prep and my spare cards were not on me so had to flip to using the S1R’s…which was fine as they are very capable. I’m also running now side flipping filters so say I’m shooting video with a VND but then suddenly need to shoot stills, I can just flip the filter sideways…which is good if you are using a 6-9 stop filter! And my cart arrived! I’ll get a pic with it fully loaded at one of this weekends two weddings…

In fact every camera that has been launched recently it’s video video video and maybe that’s what people want or maybe it’s what the marketing dept thinks people want… It seems like that at least to me.

I’m not really sure why all this emphasis on the video side as their fan base doesn’t give two hoots and they are hardly going to persuade anyone who uses other brands? Seems a bit weird to me… Still absolutely want one for stills though and if I had the spondoolicks, I’d have one!

The AF is plenty fast enough for my needs with the S1R but yes, size & weight are one of the 3-3.5k trade offs at this time! I’d rather not stick with the S1R’s after this year though as although they are extremely capable, I don’t like them like I do my S5ii and I don’t love them like my S1H. As I said above, I’m back on that fence waiting to see if there will be a ‘S2R’ and a ‘S2H’ and if so, what are they, and then decide. I know that if I’d gone all S5 at this time, old Pannyboy would bring out some new gems and I’d wish I’d waited and because I don’t ‘need’ to do anything at this time, I bought myself a Smallrig cage, matte box lite and side handle for the S5ii as it will be my principle video unit for 2023, so giving it some love 😉

I had that little lens and it’s not bad for the money. I think it came as a kit or a freebie or something. I could never get the power zoom to stop exactly where I wanted it though!

OK @Andrew Reid or anyone else who may be interested, I have sussed it! Spanner Cog Custom Mode Settings How to reload custom mode Change recording mode OFF Et voila, any/all custom modes that you have set, will always retain your most recent setting tweak. I have all my Lumix cameras set up as: C1 = outdoor stills with WB set at 5500 C2 = indoor stills (only difference is WB 4500 default over my outdoor settings) C3-1 = 6k 30p outdoor C3-2 = 4k 60p outdoor C3-3 = 4k 60p indoor So if I say twiddle the WB in a certain scenario on one of my video settings and then flip to one of my stills modes and then flip back to video, it’s always whatever I was using last. I’ve just tested to make sure and it works. All my settings are not ‘final’ but more starting points or at least ‘safety nets’ so if I shot an entire sequence of video clips or stills at the wrong WB, at least there will be consistency for correction purposes. The bottom line, is that familiarity of your kit in order that you can spend less time thinking about how to do something technically and focus more on the creative side.

If on the basis I could not afford to switch to a Nikon Z9 + Z8 pairing…which I cannot really justify, my ‘budget’ option would be an XH2 paired with an XH2s. However, want an even smaller similar capability pairing, ie, one stills orientated and the other more video, but both hybrid, then the pairing of an XT5 with this new XS20 would be a great little set up, especially as the XS20 can take the add on cooling vent. Lenses? I’d have to go zoom for my needs and really only 2 contenders and I’d stick the Fuji 16-55 f2.8 on the XT5 and the Tamron 17-70 f2.8 on the XS20. The Tamron has a longer reach, is slightly lighter, but is not as sharp as the Fuji which is why I’d pair them in this manner. Real world 24-83mm FF equivalent stills and 27-105mm FF focal length video, both with no aperture changes. F2.8 light gathering with an equivalent f4.2 DOF. Would work for me. The other thing about Fuji is the SOOC results and I’d shoot Colour Neg for stills and Eterna for video. Personally though, I’d go for the XH2 and XH2s pairing and with battery grips just for the handling as I like the idea of dinky cameras, but for work purposes, nah, not very stable platforms or ergonomically good over long days.

There is a setting that fixes this…but for the life of me, I cannot find it. I know it exists as I discovered it a few weeks back and it worked. Since changed settings and aaaaaargh, can’t find it again. I think it’s ‘mode’ something. Otherwise back on with my S1R’s for the year.

Sorry, it was not 70 euros, but 90 euros https://www.amazon.fr/gp/aw/d/B0B4KN8ZR2?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image 2x Aperture Amaran 60x on 2x sturdy ‘up to 3 metre’ light stands, one with square diffuser soft box and with with a more focused ‘spot’ set up. Both/either can run off the mains electric (50m 4 socket cable reel) or off my portable Poweroak 500wh power bank, or battery powered (22 minutes at max output). Then I have the Rotolight Neo 3 which can be used either on camera (stuff like the dance floor) or lightweight light stand (stuff like bride and groom prep). I also have a Falconeyes (stoopid name!) F7 if I want to go even smaller or maybe set up a hair light or something for portraits, or slap it on the counter top for some nice side light during food service. Smaller still, 2x tiny Godox units that cost about 25 euros each. As with all these things, it’s about not having too much kit so everything has its place. Most of my weddings are outdoors with meal/speeches maybe 25-30% of the time indoors and that’s what the 2 biggest units are for, ie, mainly ‘outdoor’. The Rotolight gets carried around inside and if not needed, just sits in a corner. The other 3 are camera bag so can be used rapidly in any given situation. Almost 100% of my work is at private country estates (ie, not urban or city centres) hence why I can just park, live and work out of my motorhome on site and hence why the new trolly makes sense (I don’t know why I did not think of it sooner!) because it’s a single load and trip at the start of any job, and then reversed at the end. And for video this coming weekend, I’m trying out the 6k mode on the S1R. Yup, the 6k mode! They removed the 6k/4k mode on the newer S5ii but it exists on all the previous S cameras. It’s limited to 10 minutes but I don’t care about that because not including the longer form tripod static stuff, it’s only 10 second clips. And you can extract stills as it’s shooting 6k 30p 18mb stills but with the option to select any 1 of 30 stills in any second, or just keep the thing as a video file. I just need to go fiddle with the set up now as the S1R is easy (harness) and the S1H is easy (tripod) but the S5ii I have to MacGyver it so it can seamless transition from the other side of the harness to gimbal to tripod without changing base plates or anything. I’ll work it out… 🤪 I’d rather not be as by nature, I like consistency, but such is the nature of this particular beast, I have not been able to find it. But very close now… A Nikon + adapter + Tamron set up would nail it, but cost a bomb and I don’t have that kind of cash to invest this year. Going with a pair of S5iix’s and a single S5ii was going to be it…and still maybe, but as I mentioned above, what am I really gaining over using my current set up for the cost to change of 3000-3500 euros? Uniformity across the bodies yes and is a big thing for me, plus full frame 6k rather than a mix of APSC and pixel:pixel not quite 6k (more like 5.4k) and less than stellar AF on all bodies, but I only need it in one and have it with the S5ii. I’ll shut up now. I have gear to MacGyver… 😉