Hey, I have $1840

Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston

Veteran
Yea, I know , stupid title.......but I just found out my budget was not completely spent this year! Boss says I have $1840 left. So, I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what else I should get to augment my rigs.

I have 2 fs100s , full complement of Nik glass, 2 la-ea2's with a mount glass, tripods, lights, mics, rails w/FF, more sd cards than I need, so I don't REALLY need anything but I was thinking...

Cheap Matte box?
Some kind of tripod mountable slider?
Go Pro hero?
Blow it on ice cream and beer? (Oh, Wait.... It has to be from B&H ONLY, no amazon, ebay etc)

What would you buy if you were in my position?
 
Head and shoulders interveiw stuff, 3 time a week cooking show, occasional commercials, getting ready (pre production) for my first short narrative but mostly in studio TV stuff.
 
Well in that case the slider might be a good choice to get some motion into some of your shots.
 
Having never used a slider on a tripod before, I'll ask..... I'm no master of physics but if you only use 1 tripod (vs 1 on each end) doesn't it get a little wobbly? (or sink at the extremities?)

Was looking at this, but have no idea about quality on these things. I do however have 2 fairly good manfroto tripods. Any suggestions for a slider/head combo?
Slider

ps. @ Michael I have 6 cheaper lights plus the studio has hard mounted lighting so lights is probably down there on the scale...
 
Slider with a tripod on one end and a light stand on the other. If you shoot a cooking show a small lightweight Jib arm is a nice tool and Glideshot make a simple one that works very well and there are several versions. A Ninja is a nice tool and you could almost get two for your budget.
 
Chris Johnston said:
Having never used a slider on a tripod before, I'll ask..... I'm no master of physics but if you only use 1 tripod (vs 1 on each end) doesn't it get a little wobbly?
Click to expand...

Sliders.. yuk - take an age to set up - tip over (single tripod)

Or two tripods hard to level (you need crew), and annoying to move on to the next shot (with a single tripod)

Actually the table top slider could be good for BRoll in a kitchen

A cam on a slider - no thanks - unless its a $5k one on two tripods, the smaller ones you cant operate the camera pull focus dink the sound levels all the stuff you might do in an interview whiel rolling

A floor dolly that your sticks drop onto however .. briliant for interviews and easy to move onto the next shot

IMO

S
 
Slider on a good set of sticks is fine and very mobile and quick to set up. I'm using a Kessler pocket dolly. I have a 100mm half ball mounted in the middle of it. It mounts straight to my sticks (sachtler carbon fiber). I always sandbag the legs to avoid tipping. Totally stable with the weight of the fs100 and a manfrotto 502 head.
 
You can get cineslider 5ft, you can get pix220 external recorder, you can get Kessler crane pocket jib, you can get redrock micro cinema bundle, you can get zacuto evf and smallhd dp6, you can rent set of compact primes from zeiss for your narrative, you can get a lot of staff for 1800$ but it all depends on your needs right now. If you need a matte box you should get one. Again if you are thinking about getting something that you need right now, I would suggest you to buy that thing. If you don't really need all that staff, just rent it out. Or save your money for your narrative production.
 
Has anyone used any of these? I haven't and I'd like to get a thumbs up/thumbs down if you've used any. TIA (Again....I MUST buy from B&H only....it's a money thing for the finance dept.....)

Matte box

Zac Top Handle

Cobra Crane II I like their "backpacker" but it might be a little flimsey for a fs100????

Mini Table dolly got a feeling it might be a little small for the fs100 but the canon dslr might work?
 
too bad you're locked into b&h. i just got a mattebox from ebay. copy of the redrock mattebox from china. build quality is amazing and it was $283 to my door.
 
Mattebox would be my first vote, then a slider (a good model) can be very handy. If your in a studio, there is really no reason you couldn't use the slider on 2 work horses if stability is an issue. Of course, a nice set of sticks and you should be fine.
Frankly though, a JIB you can really make some interesting shots...including your "slider" shots. Just a jib is harder to carry on location and takes longer to setup... but in a studio its crazy useful!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top