Best bang for buck on accessories?

G

goofs59

Member
I'm gearing up for the holidays and hoping to ask my family for some good stuff. I am a HPX-170 owner and looking to build up my kit. I am looking for stuff on the less expensive side but still usable (and hopefully with some resale value) on all of the following:

On Camera Lights - What is best? LED? Which brand?
Filter pack - what are the best sources out there for quality filters and which ones do I most need?
Tripod - Looking for a good tripod in the $500 range. Maybe used, any good sources for that? What would be the best tripod under $1000?
Microphone w/ boom poll - is this a legit kit/microphone on ebay? Something better but same price range?
Shoulder mount - Should I just hold out for a steadicam rig? Or are there good options for a shoulder mount on the HPX-170?

Any other crucial accessories I should be looking for? Any help from some senior members around here would be awesome, I'm trying to get a good setup to really break my career wide open in 2009 (I'm a '08 film grad). Thanks in advance and happy holidays!
 
I'm guessing you haven't received many (okay, any) responses because every one of your questions has been the subject of tens if not scores of individual threads over the years. I suggest doing a Google site search on each of those products and see what you find. That is, in the Google search bar, type "site:dvxuser.com" followed by a space and your search terms (your search terms in quotation marks if part of a phrase). The forum search engine makes you wait sixty seconds between searches, which is onerous, especially if it comes up empty, and plus it won't search on short words, i.e. "fig rig." I've stopped using it.

I'm brand new to all this as well, so take whatever follows as advice from someone in basically your own position, but as it happens, I've been canvassing a few years' worth of threads on shoulder mounts the last few nights myself. The consensus seems to be to go with either the DV Rig Pro (apparently the next generation of the Multi Rig), or a SteadyStick (far cheaper at $100) to get the weight onto your torso. Opinion seems to run against the Fig Rig, in that it's still difficult to get smooth walking shots, and if it's just a matter of getting the camera out of your hands, the aforementioned items are easier to use, if not outright better. Considering the apparent low opinion of the Merlin, you'll have to spend at least $1500 for the most basic Steadicam-style rig. (Unless you count the Indy Steady Cam, which some people like, but I see too much shake even in the demo videos for my taste. At the moment I'm personally holding out with the my-engineer-dad-has-some-ideas option.)

I really can't speak to the rest yet, as my wife and I are new enough that we haven't had occasion to use all of my our stuff out in the field yet. Not many folks like the cheaper LEDs, especially the Lite Panels. As for tripods, we're using the Bogen 501 head on the 745 sticks, on the advice of our salesman for what we're going to be doing (mainly wedding videos, starting out). Based on what I've seen around here, the 503 is the preferable head, especially as you move up in weight in terms of camera gear, and you'll want heavier sticks than ours. There's a lot of good input in the official tripod FAQ here on the forum. Just check it out.

And that's as much as I can tell you from our own experience. I'm guessing some folks will be more than happy to correct my own newbie advice, except for the part about searching the forums. There's a wealth of information here if you just search for it.

Happy holidays. Hope this helps the Christmas list some.

Clint
 
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