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64mulford
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Imagine this - you have landed a job on your cities tourism board as their content creator, filming/photographing, marketing material to promote tourism and business etc. The content will be shown anywhere from web, social media, billboard, cinema, TV, trade show presentations etc. If they then gave you a budget of $30K to get what you needed, what would you get? By the way, this isn't necessarily an imaginary situation.... exciting times!

Keep in mind, I want to be nimble, so a small set up is important, shoot with the absolute best quality possible within the budget, and shoot photos and video.

Here's what I'm thinking...

Camera: Not sure about this, everything else is easy. GH5? 1D? A7sii?

Lenses: Thinking the full set of Sigma Arts - 14mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and maybe a 70-200mm

Drone: Phantom 4 pro?

Moving the camera: Gimbal (Crane or Came TV), slider

Audio: Rode shotgun, lavs and Zoom recorder

Accessories: ND's, batteries, tripod (a good one), SD cards, bags, flash, GoPro 5, go pro mounts etc

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Depending on how long term this is for and what kinds of projects, I'd heavily recommend you get a proper workhorse camera, they're not necessarily that much heavier & you get tons more ergonomics.

Built in ND, XLRs and long lasting batteries, good zoom lenses will give you way easier workflows than carrying around a case full of primes, nd filters & a zoom recorder IMO. It wouldn't eat all your budget so you could still get something like a GH5 as a stills/b-cam, or a stills-dedicated camera.

The soon-to-come Panasonic EVA1 is only 1,2kg and would compliment a gh5 nicely - it actually weighs a bit less than the GH5 with body only! It should be less than 8000$, but obviously isnt released yet. Leaves you with plenty of money to spare & you won't need to purchase and drag around zooms & NDs

 

For lenses you could go for some more  24-70, 70-200, 14mm, or go with 18-35, 50, 70-200, + a wide angle prime for gimbals if necessary 

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Being a Nikon person, I'm afraid I'd be thinking something like, for video: C100ii, good tripod, 24-105 or 24-70, Sigma 18-35. For audio: SD702 (used), Rode NTG3, AT4053b, Blimp and fluffy windshield, boompole, C stand x 1, Rodelink (or sony or sennheiser equivalents) for wireless, Sony MDR7xxx for headphones. For Stills and B roll: 5Diii or iv, Added lenses: Sigma 35 1.4, 70-200, perhaps a wide angle. For lights: Aperture series x 2 or 3 with some diffusers and a few more light stands. I'd pay someone else to do the drone work. That should smash a pretty good hole in $30k and give you a solid base to provide consistent fast paced pro work with a flexible system. It might be a bit boring, but the main aim would be the content, so the tools should just get out of the way and be reliable. Oh, and a nice iMac as well.

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Actually it really depends on the final product and what you want to do. How many video do you have to produce ? How long are they ? Do you need to include interview ? Do you need multiple angle of shot and hence have a crew or production assistant to help you ?

For the drone, how is the regulation in this city ? Usually urban flying is complicated, might be better to hire a pro who has the appropriate licenses and clearances.

But here are some general remarks:

Drone: P4P is the a great machine, a good compromise in terms of price, portability and IQ between the low bitrate Mavic and the big and costly Inspire 2

Camera and gimbal: the two go together, the Crane is great with the GH5 but you will something much larger (ie ronin) if you plan to use pro camera such as FS5 or C serie camera. The larger the camera the bigger the gimbal (and the physical effort to move it around). For small camera you can go GH5 or A7s.

Lenses: depends on your system but you will probably need an assortment of fast prime and regular zoom (24 70 f2.8). The usual combo: 16-35 f2.8, 24-70 f2.8, 70 200 f2.8 plus a few fast primes 14 f2.8, 24 f1.4, 50 f1.4, 85 1.8 or 1.4

Audio: I would stick with the classic Rhode Pro stuff

Other: hoya ND filters, Polar Pro filter for drone and gopro, GoPro 5 with mounting accessories for FPV stuff. Tripod you can t go wrong with Manfrotto or Oben, get the carbon fiber version if possible, spare batteries (watson are cheap), a few reflectors. For the SD, Sandisk is a combat proven brand.

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5 hours ago, 64mulford said:

Imagine this - you have landed a job on your cities tourism board as their content creator, filming/photographing, marketing material to promote tourism and business etc. The content will be shown anywhere from web, social media, billboard, cinema, TV, trade show presentations etc. If they then gave you a budget of $30K to get what you needed, what would you get? By the way, this isn't necessarily an imaginary situation.... exciting times!

Keep in mind, I want to be nimble, so a small set up is important, shoot with the absolute best quality possible within the budget, and shoot photos and video.

Here's what I'm thinking...

Camera: Not sure about this, everything else is easy. GH5? 1D? A7sii?

Lenses: Thinking the full set of Sigma Arts - 14mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and maybe a 70-200mm

Drone: Phantom 4 pro?

Moving the camera: Gimbal (Crane or Came TV), slider

Audio: Rode shotgun, lavs and Zoom recorder

Accessories: ND's, batteries, tripod (a good one), SD cards, bags, flash, GoPro 5, go pro mounts etc

Are you really going to need a full set of Sigma art lenses?

I guess for me it would depend on what is IN this city.

If there is lots of tall buildings or interesting architecture I would include a wide angle tilt shift lens Canon 17 TS-E or the new Nikon 19 but that is a bit dearer.

I think I would start with an A7sii, a GH5, a Canon 17 TS-E (with Metabones IV) at least one good native AF lens for each of the GH5 and A7sii.       Then maybe a couple of Canon L zooms then add the accessories and batteries ETC.       As for the drone stuff, unless you are competent and really good with it, I would hire someone for that and not over do it.

I guess I have sort of been doing this (the stills part anyway other than the drone) in a instagram/Face Book kinda way lately.

When do I start?

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 Remember... there's a reason why high end, professional photographers use Canon or Nikon. It's the glass. So base your decision from that. I personally wouldn't risk relying upon electronic adapters for the work you're describing. If you need Canon glass, use a Canon. If you need Nikon glass, use a Nikon. Since this is a hybrid photo/video job, Canon seems like the logical choice. If you hate the idea of using either, then make sure your choice has the native glass you need to do the job. 

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13 minutes ago, mercer said:

 Remember... there's a reason why high end, professional photographers use Canon or Nikon. It's the glass. So base your decision from that. I personally wouldn't risk relying upon electronic adapters for the work you're describing. If you need Canon glass, use a Canon. If you need Nikon glass, use a Nikon. Since this is a hybrid photo/video job, Canon seems like the logical choice. If you hate the idea of using either, then make sure your choice has the native glass you need to do the job. 

The main reason they use Canon and Nikon I think is that was all there was really for quite a long time but more and more are adding other (mainly mirrorless) cameras to their gear and in particular, quite a few Canon shooters are adding Sony FF E mount cameras to go with their existing cameras and lenses.

Nikon isn't quite so compatible so it seems there is a bit less movement there (Nikon does seem to be losing market share but that is to Canon or users are more likely to jump ship rather than add too I think).

The Canon tilt shift lenses in particular work BETTER in many ways on Sony than on current Canon cameras (and at least are a lot easier to use).

I suggested using a few Canon L zooms (along with the 17 TS-E) and a native lens for each as I think those two cameras would be a very nice mix and using a couple of Canon lenses would mean some of that money could be used for other things.

Personally I would choose the cameras first (which again, my picks would be theGH5/A7sii pair) and then add the lenses to suit which would also depend on what is actually there to be shot.

 

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On 7/5/2017 at 10:38 PM, 64mulford said:

Audio: Rode shotgun, lavs and Zoom recorder

Hell no.  No, just no, no. 

I'd go for Aputure Deity + Audix SCX1-HC + 3x Sony UWP-D11 + Zoom F4 (or Tascam DR70D if the budget is being stretched too far) + multiple OST Lavs + 2x Ultrasync ONE (or Tentacle Syncs if DSLRs are being used a lot) + 3m & 5m carbon fibre boom poles + blimp + Rode WS6 + dead kitten + Rycote InVision INV-HG + Electro-Voice RE50L + RodeLink Newsshooter Kit (note: **NOT** the Filmmakers Kit!!!) + lots and lots of various other supporting accessories you'll need...

Together, this makes up a very good "no budget" level soundie's kit to start out with. 

 

Edit: although... I just realised you didn't say you're solo shooting? Hopefully you're not! But now I think about it.... you might be? 

If so, then you choice of audio gear changes quite a bit, and also depends on what camera you're getting, and even more heavily depends on your particular style as a solo shooter as to just how much (or rather: how little!!) you'll care for sound (as this can vary an awful lot from one shooter to the next).

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On 7/5/2017 at 10:38 PM, 64mulford said:

Lenses: Thinking the full set of Sigma Arts - 14mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and maybe a 70-200mm

 

If you want to be nimble and fast, then don't get a set of primes!

Get instead the classic "Holy Trinity" of fast zooms for S35 (I'd recommend to get all in Nikon F mount, and it seems like you'll need to do a bit of photography for your job? So thus pick up a Nikon D7100 secondhand for dirt cheap, and it will handle this side of things extremely well):

Tokina 11-20mm 2.8 + Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 + Sigma 50-100mm f1.8

You might want to throw in there an extra long tele zoom, just to have those occasional shots covered! Perhaps the Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D for cheap secondhand. 

Then for whatever system you go with, be it perhaps a Panasonic GH5 or say a Sony FS5 or even the Panasonic EVA1, then also get couple of native lenses which work to the strengths of the system, specifically a superzoom (for extra run and gun speed, it is handy at times!) and a pancake lens (for when you want to go undercover!). 

Examples:

Sony 18-105mm f4 + Sony 20mm f2.8

Panasonic 14-140mm (or a Panasonic 12-60mm) + Panasonic 20mm f1.7

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  • 3 months later...

Go Canon. C200 with the 18-80 EF-N lens, get a Tokina 11-22 and probably a 70-200 EF-N and you are super cool.

sachtler FSB 8, or something with the new Flow75 legs.

Sound get the aforementioned Sony wireless, and Sennheiser MKH 50 and 60 microphones, guranteed to work for the next 2 centuries, industry standards as well.  Money spend on sound are wise spend.

sound devices mixpre6 for a recorder or the new 10t.

phantom pro for sure. That is easy.

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FWIW, I do all those types of videos too and I've been content minimizing my gear.

It's now basically a GH5 and three prime lenses combined with Sennhieser's ew100 wireless audio system.  I also have a DJI mavic, but don't use it too much.

When I want to move the camera, I just walk.

It all fits in one bag. Works for me. 

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Can't stress enough how much I think you should buy sharp, fast zooms instead of primes. It can make the difference between getting the shot and not when you're doing unscripted. Sigma/tamron 24-70 2.8 IS, and 70-200 2.8 IS would give you everything you need, including good low light on full frame cameras.

As for the camera:

Since you're doing stills and want a light package, think you basically only have two choices - 1DXII and A7RIII. They both have great stills and useable autofocus (canon's is insanely good).

Wouldn't go GH5 route because of poor autofocus and poor low light compared to the others.

Given the budget and probable need for good autofocus, I'd say 1DXII - Just make sure you leave enough in the budget for a ton of hard drives!

 

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5 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

I luuuuv primes.  Ain't gonna apologize for it.

Dudes running around with zooms end up with stuff that look like it was shot by dudes running around with zooms.  Too many focal lengths in a production; don't find that at all flattering.

Fine for some fast-work stuff, but my personal efforts are always done on primes.

Primes are fine if you have time to set-up and swap lenses. Great for scripted stuff. Fast-paced work, or work where you only get one go (i.e. documentary etc.) does not lend itself to primes particularly well.

There's no reason you can't get something looking just as good shot on a zoom vs a prime. 

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1. Camera with a sensor made for video, Canon C###, Sony FS# or Panny EV1, etc (for when you shoot video).  You MUST have XLRs and built-in NDs!

2. b-cam, for video that matches above, so XC15, Sony A7S or GH5

2. Parfocal zoom lens for when you shoot video (forget primes)

3. 2 High end wireless lavs for interviews

4. Portable lighting kit

5. Photography, any system, but get 3 flashes with wireless controllers

Only spend 10% of your budget on consumer stuff.  Make sure you budget for a PA too.  Every shoot you should spend $200 to $500 on some kind of help. The tourism board doesn't want you to look like an amateur, no matter how talented you may be.  

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