GH2 Need Rig Building Advice

H

Heartfelt

Well-known member
My work (Industrial Marketing) rig will fall together with a bang this January when budgets are renewed. I have been learning the GH2 in a home rig in preparation.

My home rig has been my investigation into the GH2 platform. I came to the GH2 from previously using 2 HMC40's in a family ministry rig. There is some gear that I have access to from that HMC40 Rig.

What I own at home:
  • GH2
  • Sling and Case
  • 14-140mm
  • 20mm Panny Pancake
  • FD50mm f1.4
  • Backdrop System
  • Professional Studio Audio Gear (plenty and quality but not portable)
What I have access to from HMC40 Rig:
  • 501DV Head and Tripod
  • AT Lapel Mic
  • Class 6 SDHC cards
  • Cobra Crane I
Priorities:
  • Photos for home and church
  • Spontaneous videos for both
  • Videos of church events
  • Promotional videos for church
  • Eventually, freelance photography and videography
I have a meager $200 on hand.
I am thinking of getting an external flash (Metz 50AF)?
Perhaps a 95mb/s 64 gig card
Another thought is the Cowboy studio rig and maybe a 30mb/s card

Can anyone help me prioritize things? Hanging out here and at personal view, the card would seem to be urgent, haha. However, I am looking to fim a feature with the 176 hack yet. I am considering staying with cbrandin's hack (44) for a season.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
rob
 
You're off to a decent start. Your lenses cover the basics (though at some point you'll probably want to throw in a 24mm, and an 85mm). What you need to focus on now is lighting and audio, which are both substantial investments.

$200 version: Begin looking into the use of shop lights and gels, and get a Zoom h1 to begin getting some decent audio.

Stick with a lower bit-rate patch, and invest in some Sandisk Extreme 16GB Cards (they run $26 a pop on Amazon or B&H).

So..

H1... $89
Shop Lights (3)... $35
Gels ($6 each) ... $40
Sandisk 16GB ... $26


That get's you right at your budget and is workable for church events. (Though I'd say you won't be doing much extra lighting at most church events, covering a wide area with proper lighting can get expensive quickly).

I can tell you that I just spent upwards of $7,000 on gear (granted I made some purchases that weren't absolutely necessary), and there a few things I'm still lacking. Does that mean you can't get started for much less? Of course not!
 
For your flash photography I´d recommend to buy 2 or better 3 cheap slave flashs (like yongnuo or similar) and a wireless trigger system. Metz are very good but quite expensive and you´d only have one. If you had 2 or more you could mount them around your venue and realize nice rim and/or fill lights when they fire all at the same time through the wireless trigger.

Although shop lights are a viable studio option together with ND and frost gels, I am not sure if you could bring them to your church for events.
 
Yea, I should note that shop lights can be unsafe, and are definitely not professional looking. But it has been done.
 
Thanks guys. You have me thinking and re-evaluating each process.

I believe I will stay with the lower hacks for now and a 30mb/s card. With sound, I have ways of using my pro audio gear at church and home and outside of that, I am not doing anything critical yet. I think I would likely wait for the H4N or equivalent to be able to go full on with XLR's and lapels or shotguns.

I do think lighting is my best opportunity at present. Most of my experience, being mostly video (HMC40) and point and shoot photography, I have grown accustomed to continuous lighting. I have avoided using built-in flash like the plague and set my expectation for a crappy pic when I have to use it in a do or die situation. I have used my two lights (single daylight bulb units) with no flash (with GH2) and did pretty well for some quick tests. The biggest failure is no rim light. You can see in the pic below. I have a reflector/diffuser but haven't pulled it out yet. I imagine I could have used a light for rim if I had. (reflect for fill)

398521_10150436799850496_537405495_8957100_1989567196_n.jpg

So that is my frame of reference. With your posts, I began looking at off camera flash and on camera external flash. I do understand the concepts. When reading up, I read about TTL and was all set to depend upon it until I read an article exposing the weaknesses of it, mainly position of the flash vs the TTL reference. With your referring to the yongnuo, I understand that is a manual setup. (right?) If so, I could see three of those inexpensive flashes on cowboy studio stands and a wireless unit.

I would have to read/watch some tutorials and get my feet wet. I don't expect things to be handed to me on a silver platter but some outside wisdom on flash choices would be a great start. Buying and returning in order to choose would be a complete drag and waste of time. So, I wonder about getting a Metz to get started and then pick up some slaves later. If so, how much Metz do I need? I was considering the 50AF. If it is indeed a waste, can someone recc' a yonguo model or another brand/model?

Sorry to be lengthy. As a former audio only guy, a new professional video guy and now seeing the open door to photography, whew.... there is so much to learn.
Thanks
Rob
 
Heartfelt said:
Thanks guys. You have me thinking and re-evaluating each process.

I believe I will stay with the lower hacks for now and a 30mb/s card. With sound, I have ways of using my pro audio gear at church and home and outside of that, I am not doing anything critical yet. I think I would likely wait for the H4N or equivalent to be able to go full on with XLR's and lapels or shotguns.

I do think lighting is my best opportunity at present. Most of my experience, being mostly video (HMC40) and point and shoot photography, I have grown accustomed to continuous lighting. I have avoided using built-in flash like the plague and set my expectation for a crappy pic when I have to use it in a do or die situation. I have used my two lights (single daylight bulb units) with no flash (with GH2) and did pretty well for some quick tests. The biggest failure is no rim light. You can see in the pic below. I have a reflector/diffuser but haven't pulled it out yet. I imagine I could have used a light for rim if I had. (reflect for fill)

View attachment 45392
2.jpg


So that is my frame of reference. With your posts, I began looking at off camera flash and on camera external flash. I do understand the concepts. When reading up, I read about TTL and was all set to depend upon it until I read an article exposing the weaknesses of it, mainly position of the flash vs the TTL reference. With your referring to the yongnuo, I understand that is a manual setup. (right?) If so, I could see three of those inexpensive flashes on cowboy studio stands and a wireless unit.

I would have to read/watch some tutorials and get my feet wet. I don't expect things to be handed to me on a silver platter but some outside wisdom on flash choices would be a great start. Buying and returning in order to choose would be a complete drag and waste of time. So, I wonder about getting a Metz to get started and then pick up some slaves later. If so, how much Metz do I need? I was considering the 50AF. If it is indeed a waste, can someone recc' a yonguo model or another brand/model?

Sorry to be lengthy. As a former audio only guy, a new professional video guy and now seeing the open door to photography, whew.... there is so much to learn.
Thanks
Rob
Click to expand...

Why don't you want to go with higher bitrates?
 
JackBayer said:
For your flash photography I´d recommend to buy 2 or better 3 cheap slave flashs (like yongnuo or similar) and a wireless trigger system. Metz are very good but quite expensive and you´d only have one. If you had 2 or more you could mount them around your venue and realize nice rim and/or fill lights when they fire all at the same time through the wireless trigger.

Although shop lights are a viable studio option together with ND and frost gels, I am not sure if you could bring them to your church for events.
Click to expand...

Jack, I am jumping on the Yongnuos after much research. I have seen some brilliant work online with off camera flash. Thank you!

One step at a time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top