I've had more conversations in the last year about gear than about proper dental care, hopefully that means my teeth are fine and I'll never have to remove my wisdom teeth. I could ramble about all the fancy new gear from the last year or all the rumors of new gear to be revealed at NAB, instead I'll do something useful.
I'mma ramble about how I choose gear and why I do my homework before making purchases. I'm a gear-utilitarian (gear is right if it is useful or for the benefit of the film), therefore any gear I have or purchase should be for a reason, not because it can impress me with a spec sheet. I use a check list to accomplish this. Whichever gear I can find through my research and homework that can check the most boxes in my checklist is the purchase I will make. As an example we'll look at my most recent camera purchase, the Sony a7sii.
Disclaimer: I am not a brand ambassador and I don't favor any one brand over another. I try to be completely objective when money is involved. Also in this instance I am looking for a dslr/mirrorless camera that shoots GREAT video, if it shoots nice photos that's cool I guess.
First and foremost I needed to answer this question: "What do I want to be filming?" and/or "What am I going to be filming?" This question is a critical starting point, because if you buy a camera that can't do what you need it to do then what's the point?? My answer was simple enough: "I want to film more documentaries, and I'm going to be filming more weddings." It took me a while to come to this conclusion, I made sure I had a clear understanding of my desires moving forward (I'll talk about narrowing down this "sub-step" in a separate post). Now I ask: "What camera functions do I need to have in order to check this critical box?" I had already shot a few documentary style short films and weddings so I asked: "What things would have made my life easier on those shoots and what functions would have made the final product better." Answer: "In-camera stabilization, low-light capability, full frame sensor, and high frame-rates (slo-mo)." I felt that these four camera abilities would greatly enable me to capture the images I desired. Here's a quick run-down of why I wanted these things:
In-camera Stabilization: I want to be able to film fast, light, and discrete, that often means shaky too. In-camera stabilization helps cut down on that shake, so I can get the shot.
Low-Light Capability: I can never have enough light at my fingertips. Filming in a dimly lit room is going to happen, and I don't always have the time or room to set up lights.
Full Frame Sensor: Not absolutely critical, but full frame sensors have a much larger selection of lenses. A larger market means higher quality at cheaper prices, usually.
High Frame-Rates: Who doesn't like slo-mo? This is the least important thing on my list.
So now I had a physical list of camera traits that I could search for to check the most important box! It really did take some time to be able to figure out what I wanted to be filming in the future, but I believe that taking the time to figure it out saved me from making an uninformed and ham-handed purchase.
So then came the simple and fun part: window shopping! I went to the B&H website (bhphotovideo.com) and started to search for cameras that matched my criteria. At this stage I wasn't about to buy a camera I just needed to see what was out there that could check my boxes! Here's what I found, listed by price low to high and new! (I was searching in December 2017):
- Sony a6500/$1,400/crop sensor/stabilized/1080p slo-mo/decent low-light/4k
- Panasonic GH5/$2,000/crop sensor/stabilized/4k slo-mo/decent low-light/4k
- Canon 5dIV/$3,200/full frame/no stabilization/1080p slo-mo/decent low-light/4k
- Canon 5dIII/$2,000/full frame/no stabilization/no slo-mo/bad low-light/1080p max
- Sony a7sii/$2,400/full frame/stabilized/1080p slo-mo/great low-light/4k
From here I knew I wasn't really interested in the a6500 because of the crop-sensor, and the 5DIII because of the lack of stabilization and no 4k video recording ability.
There are certainly much nicer cinema style cameras out there but I knew they were far outside of my budget. Speaking of budget...
Next was the budget, it became quickly apparent that I was about to spend a lot of money and I hadn't even looked at lenses yet!
Quick story: I did a lot of career coaching with a bunch of different people and one question I asked every person was "What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?" These people worked in MANY different fields but every single small business owner said the same thing: "I wish I didn't finance my equipment."
By taking out a loan, in any form, I would end up spending more on the equipment than what it was worth. I was strongly encouraged to push my existing equipment to its limits, and only purchase equipment when I could afford it, or when I absolutely had to. I made enough money with a Canon t3i that my budget was able to look like this:
- Less than $2,000 for the camera body
- $1,000 for lenses
- $200 sd cards/misc parts/batteries/etc.
- Around $3,200 for my next camera!!
Super simple and pretty bare bones. I quickly realized that $3,200 wasn't going far if I bought brand new gear, SO I GOT SCRAPPY. I looked at three major suppliers and one "wild card" for used gear.
- B&H's used section
- BorrowLenses' used section
- Ebay (duh)
- mpb.com (found them on instagram, I had no idea if they were reputable)
I'm not going in to all the prices because any prices I mention here won't necessarily be consistent with what you find during a different time period. For example the GH5 is down $200 since my search because the GH5S came out.
The point is to shop around and don't take any one price as the only true price for the item. Buying used is a hunter's game, you have to be patient and know where to look. If you succeed, you're going to have quite the trophy.
Now long story short I found that B&H, BorrowLenses, and Ebay were all running about the same price. MPB.com however had some sneaky deals, which left me a bit suspicious. After looking into the company further (many emails to employees, cross checking reviews of the company itself) everything seemed to check out! I ended up buying an a7sii from MPB for $1,900! For that price I didn't get any batteries, lenses, sd cards, NOTHIN'. The little guy showed up with two off-brand batteries and an off-brand charger to my surprise!
Next were the lenses. I took the same approach when looking for lenses, so I started at the top: What do I want to film? - What types of lenses enable me to film these things? - What's my budget? - Can I find it used? AND THEN SHOPPING. Here's the quick run down of what I wanted:
- 24-70mm / stabilized / good auto-focus / f2.8
- a prime lens (preferably a 35mm or 50mm) / f1.8 or faster
- 70-200mm / stabilized / good auto-focus / f2.8
Here's what I found:
- Sony Zeiss / f4 / 24-70mm / stabilized / okay auto-focus / $800 / used
- SLR Magic / f1.2 / 35mm prime / no stabilization / manual focus / $300 / brand new!
So those two lenses right there ate up my lens budget and what was left of my camera body budget. I would have to wait for more money to roll in before getting a 70-200mm.
It's important to note here that, as far as I know, there's no such thing as a 24-70mm f2.8 stabilized lens for the Sony E-Mount cameras. I could have bought an adapter but then the auto-focus would have been all wonky and it just seemed like a nightmare, especially when I already found two of the three lenses I was looking for.
Last but not least I needed to buy batteries that could power the camera and sd cards that could handle 4k recording speeds. It is SO IMPORTANT thatI buy sd cards that can handle the load of whatever type of footage I'm shooting, otherwise the footage turns out choppy or that camera won't even allow it!
I went on to amazon and found 3rd Party batteries that had good reviews and bought 4 and a 2-Battery charging dock for $50 and then bought one 64Gb San Disk SD Card that could handle 4k write speeds (they need to be UHS 3 or higher). That one card was $36, so much cheaper than they used to be.
I had a few bucks left in my budget and there was one thing left that is absolutely critical for outdoor filming: VARIABLE ND FILTERS. I bought one vari-nd and some step rings to help keep my shutter speed down.
SO THAT'S IT! That was how it all came to be! There's definitely more I could say about each piece of equipment and what I want to get next, but most importantly by using this process I was able to purchase just enough equipment to enable me to take my craft to the next level.
