What gear do you all wish you’d bought sooner? Let me know!

As a corporate shooter, my 24-70 GM Sony is my workhorse. The autofocus allows me to tap the subjects eye in an interview and never worry about going out of focus. I also do heavy gimbal work. The ability to "dolly" forward with the gimbal without losing track of the subject allows me to simulate shots that were only achievable by an external focus puller on higher budget sets. The way you describe your work though makes a ton of sense on higher end productions.

“Buy nice, or buy twice” is a lesson I wish I would have learned early on. Thanks for sharing your list and other insights through your videos. 👏👏👏 for FlowTech, the bullet proof tripod legs! I use them at work. Big fan!

My most surprisingly useful bit of kit that I put off for the first 8 years of my career was a film cart. Having owned one from Adicam for around two years now I have to say it changed/made shooting so much easier especially on commercial shoots. I often work with myself and an assistant and not having to do multiple trips to haul all the gear in, instead loading the cart up and casually wheeling it in is amazing. No more heavy lifting allows you to concentrate on giving your client the best service possible. Thanks for the video!

I've rented the fujinon, cooke, and atlas mercury's. but in my personal photography kit is my Nikon Z8 and all my Nikkor lenses which are focus by wire. The best thing about the Nikon system is the ability to set a custom throw in menus. The rings feel wonderful so being able to set it from 90 to 290 degree throw makes repeatable and precise focusing just as easy as the cine lenses. The only difference is that I have no hard stops and gotta rely on the fiz. But if I don't need creative focus pulling I just turn on autofocus, turn down the focus speed and stickiness so it doesn't jump around and look so "autofocus-y" and the Z8 has no issues. We are at a wild point where you can get consumer cameras like the Canon R5/R6 and Nikon Z8 that now slot into a production workflow AND give better quality than a blackmagic pocket 6k, and nip at the heels of the RED Komodo.

Casually displaying an $11K camera in the background. 😂

Love that you don't shove specific gear down all of our throats like most people on KZfaq. The fact that you say "this works for me but it might not work for you." is awesome. Thanks for the great insight and advice. keep it up!

As a mostly doc cinematographer myself I 100% agree with all these recommendations. I wish I did all these things way sooner in my career too.

Hey Luc, can confirm about the Sankens; together with a couple of Tentacle Track-E's, they literally made my last film sound so much better than the one before. And btw, I just discovered your channel and already binged the first five videos, especially the ones where you speak about getting rid of things everybody believes are necessary for doc filmmaking. So, thanks and cheers.

An item I regret not buying (and still not have bought yet): A Pelican/Nanuk Case. I’ve never realized how convenient these cases are until I started working with a production company. Travelling with my Peak Design backpack now is just almost unbearable.

I’d say one of my best purchases was getting a Ninja Shinobi monitor for my FX3, so wasn’t surprised to see you using an ext monitor. Appreciate the list, and thanks for the huge Audiio discount. I’ve been looking for a new platform, after using epidemic in the past, but for $59 Audiio looked too good to pass up! Appreciate it!

Love it….and your voice is so calming. Thank you for sharing your expertise

Monitor was huge for us. A proper audio mixer like the mix pre 6 was a game changer as well. I loved my zoom h6... but having 32 bit, better gain staging, cleaner pre-amps, timecode, and a ton of routing options was BIG.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I really enjoyed your pace and style of this video. Felt both refreshing and relaxing from the bustling online world. Solid advice as well, I share the bag fetish but buy once, cry once!

Very interesting - I wasn't aware that focus throws vary so significantly based on whether a lens is designed for manual vs auto focus. Much appreciated! Great content, very useful.

My #1 "unexpected" best camera gear was a powerful computer-- saves hours and less frustration equals more creativity. A couple of items that live in my backpack is a Zoom f6 for mindless, worry-free recording, two Ulanzi Uurig battery handles for convenient power, and I can't live without my f64 extra large backpack itself (maybe not good for long hikes but excellent for transporting a lot of gear by car).

Super helpful video! Great content! Thank you!

Love it….and your voice is so calming. Thank you for sharing your expertise ❤

Completely agree on all the points, I’ve done exactly the same in my career. Only thing I would add is for lighting the bi colour options of the lights made a big difference for me as a corporate videographer, I ended up swapping out my more powerful lights for slightly less powerful bi colour versions

Nice conclusion and I totally agree!

I love Lumix cameras and lenses, I can set the focus ring to be linear or non linear and set range from 90 to 1080 degree. On S5ii when I get to difficult situation for AF I just hold one custom button while recording and can focus manually and peaking is automatically on. After releasing the button, camera is in AF again and peaking dissapers.

Great tips here Luc. Buying a top-notch tripod was a tough choice for me, but so glad I did!

My Pelican case & my production cart. Those are the items that have my my life easier in recent years.

Great advice! I can definitely relate to the Manual Focus prioritization over AF. It’s been a long time coming 😂

I want to say thanks for the link for the music and sound link, that was a good link.

Finally had a chance to check out the audiio library and love the quality of the music there. I've had epidemicsound for a couple years now but it's been harder to find quality music for some of my wedding films. Thanks for all these great recommendations!

Great videos Luc!! Very inspiring!

Thanks for the tips. Just starting out on this journey.

Great stuff! Got audiio discount! Thanks for sharing the goods for those who are trying to build their small business!

Good comments. I liked the comment about the manual focus and the good Lavalier.

I totally agree with the external monitor and tripod. I bought myself a SmallHD 502 monitor years ago along with my Sachtler FSB-6 and they've been the equipment that hasn't changed. In the time that I've had them I've gone through a few different camera systems and they're still going strong.

This is pretty much a perfect list, only thing I'd add is a cine saddle, saved my knees and helps me get steady handheld hip shots!

Needed this lav recommendation, thanks!

Great advice !!

Finally someone that knows their stuff. Thank you for making this.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for the no-frills, real world advice! I really appreciate that you point out what’s important without turning any of it into a sales pitch. I get a sense that you care about genuinely educating your audience. So... I feel genuinely educated. ;)

killer advice - cheers Luc

Thank you! great info again!

I wish the Aktiv head was out when I bought my Flowtech legs. LOVE the legs but the Aktiv head really takes the tripod to the next level.

Hey! I have the same pack! haha. Loved the tips, totally agree about the AF. Plus vintage manual lenses usually have such a nice flare

Only coming across your videos now. Subscribe button hit. Love the content!

Thank you for sharing

My personal frustration is with monitors. I check B&H a few times a year to see what's new. Even the higher end stuff has reviews that are far from perfect, lower end stuff gets knocked for brightness and longevity. I think stuff just gets designed to a technical spec and never actually tested by videographers and photographers. My beef is that you can usually get false color on full screen but waveform, RGB, histogram, scopes, etc can't be individually assigned to a Fn button, rather they all get slapped on the same screen at the same time so your image gets shrunk to a postage stamp and everyone of the 4 or 5 exposure tools are tiny, distorted and pixelated to the become of no use...

The fact that this video just changed my life so immensely is insane

The shadow over the eyes from the cap sets an ominous mood.

Some cameras now have a function for linear manual focusing and setting throw radius. Not completely the same but does bridge the gap a lot more and improves focus by wire lenses.

The Hollyland Mars wireless video system has been amazing. Made such a difference to transmit to an external, large 'video village' monitor for a director or client to sit at.

Been using Cos11d for years. Thinking of moving to dpa 4060 or 6060, slightly more neutral. Still love the sound of the Sankens. Good lavs are essential.

very informative Luc, Lighting, audio, lens, monitors FX6 in the background? useful content.

I agree with everything including manual focus lenses - the problem is that I don’t think I am skilled enough to properly use them. I’m not a professional but I do sell a lot of stock video. I don’t feel confident all the time focusing manually. I like your content. Thanks!

Here’s a tip from my 25 year career as a video & TV shooter… don’t wear a ball cap on camera shading the upper half of your face - unless the “shady criminal” look is what you’re after 😣 If I set up this shot, clients wouldn’t hire me for the next job. But you’re I00% right about the COS-11d; also my lav of choice for the past 5 years or so 👍

im thinking about starting drawing channel since my drawings are really maturing and stylistically unique. but im so caught up on the logistics like filming, editing etc. ive been into photography for a while so i do have a good camera, but ive never once dabbled in video

Finally, someone who doesnt focus on autofocus, because of course, it has its place, but my personal interest is for projects that allow preparation for the shots

For years I used to wonder how bmpcc looked better than others and then I realised that most bmpcc users were probably pulling focus instead of autofocus. It definitely looks more filmic

This advice is so spot on! All these items are on my most important list too (okay, maybe not the manual lens, beacause I'm a lazy ass autofocus shooter). And I whish I had them earlier.

Thanks for discount code, so hard to find good music and sound effects and that price I can live with!

This is one of the channels that gave me the courage to start my KZfaq channel 9 months ago about self development. Now I have 1,726 subs and > 1k hours of watch time. I know it’s not comparable with others but I’m still proud I started because I’ve been learning so many lessons that I could haven’t learned without getting started in the 1st place.

You have pushed me to try more manual focus! I will admit, I love auto focus and it’s probably a crutch for me.

brooo I feel this so hardcore.. I wish I would have been much more picky getting gear especially when I had the finances to buy it. In terms of manual focus I have a bit of exp since I started with panasonic cameras. I have a bunch of vintage lenses as my main manual focus lenses and the mighty mitakon 50mm .95..eventualy though I will invest in some cinema lenses

Nice. What about a video about a pro's basic must haves, or a bts on what comes out of your gear bag in the order of appearance, and why?

Great video, thanks so much! Wondering what mount you use to get your smallHD onto the nato rail? I have the same monitor and a wooden camera uvf but it must have got bent over time because it just doesn't sit level any more. Hoping to replace just the bit that connects to the 1/4 inch slot on the side of the monitor.

Im so gutted that I watched this! I just bought the PD carbon tripod. For my run and gun r5c setup. Sad to hear it doesn't last.

Totally agree with this list. Need a decent light. But also need to shoot more awesome video, the sanken cos 11 is vastly becoming one of the most popular mics and for good reason! While the mf lenses add so much I always end up frustrated with my 18-35 with trying to manually focus that lens.

I 10000% agree about the COB light. I have Aperture's lower end amaran COB lights and I use them Every day to great effect. The price of them has come down so so so much to the point that you truly should not buy an LED panel when a COB is so much more useful and bright. The professional looks they can achieve absolutely make it the first major light you should have.

My autofocus is the DJI Lidar+focus motors on manual lens with long focus throw. That allows me to still do manual focus but also get auto focus when I need it. It's a little annoying to set up the first time, but now it's pretty straight forward to just connect a couple of cables and have it running very fast

Writing this comment as I watch, because I feel like leaving a long comment this morning and expending all my ADHD energy into this... Intro: Everyone says "I shouldn't have sunk my money into gimbals" - yet I always find I've gotten a LOT of use out of my Ronin S since I got in in 2018. Had this thing five years and use it at least once on every major shoot unless I'm feeling lazy, which I usually regret. I overused it at the start, and utlimately realised "you know a tripod or shoulder rig would handle this basic shot" but for anything that involves tracking or following a subject. Gotta say, the £650 or so I can't remember how much I spent on the Ronin-S has paid itself off. 1: On camera Monitor. Now I think I've used this less than I should, just because the one I got was great but didn't have LUT support (it's common now but in 2018, not so much on the budget end). I found the lack of LUT support frustrating and on my earlier camera the Sony a6500 it disabled phase detection and face tracking autofocus leaving only contrast. I've since gotten a variety of monitor solutions, the main ones I use being the Accsoon SeeMo and CineEye. 2:Oh god, yeah. I used a photography tripod for waaaay longer than I should have. But I found a rather cost effective fluid head by Andoer that was excellent for my work and having used many others later, the only thing I can confidently say is better about tripods that cost hundreds more, is that they can remove the heads, are sometimes lighter and have flip locks rather than twist locks (which this isn't twisting the leg, it's twisting a crank on the leg). 3: I don't use Audiio but I do use another site, which for your video comments i won't mention the competition. lol. 4: I used old tungstens for a while, had a lot of them, 400W each. It wasn't until after I had most of them stolen from my storage unit, that Aputure reached out and sent me a free 120D Mark II that my outlook on lighting completely changed. That single light made me realise just how powerful lighting can be when you can control it and since then I've gone on to work directly with Aputure on several things and own a rather large arsenal of their COBs, Tubes, Modifiers. Even the LS 60X, which is probably my most used light because it fits the factors of "small and powerful". 5: Yeah this is where we're gonna disagree. I think Manual Focus overall is only needed for VERY specific situations. Sony's current autocus capabilities are so vast, that it's not just "eye autofocus" but it's tap to focus, track focus, it's manual tap to focus, focus speed control, subject switching, it's so many things that when learned to use correctly, IMHO make manual focusing very much a thing of the past unless ABSOLUTELY needed. Especially when the price of the cinema glass you're talking about is often even more than the autofocus lenses. 6: I've had a great backpack for years, a hand me down from my dad, who's a marine engineer, but it's lasted me ten years and still going. It packs so much. My only gripe is, when I want an actual phtoography bag, I kinda have to pack a smaller cube or somethign in it because it's not a segmented bag. I'm still looking for something good but affordable in the actual photography sector that meets my needs: equipment segment barriers, open at the side, tripod holding, room for 15" laptop, under £160. 7: I've got a few lavs, x2 Rode, x2 Boya, x2 Synco. The cheapest one was actually the best, in the Synco. I've always wanted to get better lav mics but they're just not worth it for my style, as truth be told if I'm needing more than 2 people, I'll usually just hire a soundie. Well, that was fun!

Good advice. We are awaiting your Aktiv review. Also aputure has christmas sale discounts on all their lights.

I shoot for TV and it's super rare i'll want AF. Anything from presenter piece to camera to run and gun actuality, manual is way better. I do like the option for AF for talking head interviews though. Just shot a TV series on a Sony 24-70 gm2 and results were great but I'm trading it in for the Ranger cine zoom. A fully manual lens.

The Rock and Roller Cart, is the ONE piece of gear that rules them all.

thank you

"Bag Fetish" is probably very descriptive for my "bag review channel" 😅 Thanks for this great video

I think the amaran series of COB light from aputure is great, I have the 100D

Hey Luc, what microphones are you showing at the end?, thank you!

I was taught in school to use manual everything. Weird to see how much auto stuff out there. Not knocking (as I really would love at least one lens setup for auto) but good to hear all my hours practicing manual is a standard.

Thanks for posting the video. I could not agree more about the backpack, especially as it seems my back is aging faster than the rest of me. A backpack must have a waist belt for me, otherwise it will get heavier as the day goes on. I tend to all but forget I have my favourite bag on, despite it being quite large. I mean, I take out the occasional child when I turn quickly, but there are lots more of them around. I use a dedicated phone for a screen, and made a cardboard shade for it. It's superb. It's cheap. I agree about autofocus. I nearly didn't buy my camera, a Panasonic G9, because of the criticism of its autofocus. I use manual mostly, and I have never found any problems with autofocus. (Am I doing something wrong?) I have a lightweight tripod. It was pricey. I have a sturdy tripod, bought from ebay second hand. It could probably hold up SpaceX, but it keeps the spectators away and terrifies my camera to the extent that it seems locked onto GPS. If I can park nearby, or my wife is feeling energetic, I take the sturdy one. Otherwise it's the lighter one. My eldest recently bought a quality mic for me. I should have got one myself years ago. One piece of equipment I've found super-useful is something that stays in my home. It's a big plastic box to put all the must-have gear that I've bought, but never used after the first few goes. My advice is to ask other photographers whom you see using the item you are thinking of buying whether they reckon it's worthwhile. If they admit that they would not buy it again (or try selling it to you) then leave it. Thanks for the video. I agree with almost all of it.

Great video, I learnt a lot! What Lav mics would you recommend are the best value for money from the get go?

It's a little different when you're shooting with a BMPCC 6k Pro - the on-camera LCD is fantastic. 5-inch 1080P 1500nit HDR screen, on-camera? It's great. Now, that only works if you're shooting handheld and not from like a top handle, or if you're using a shoulder rig or gimbal. But if you're shooting handheld or on sticks? It's great.

I clicked on the video because I read the title and saw the Amaran 60D on the thumbnail just because I ordered it a day ago for my KZfaq videos. I have never used lights in my life and when I had an idea of doing youtube videos I understand that I need a light. and the price and the compact size of the light really cought my eye. Hope I'll be satisfied.

+1 for the cos-11d

I need to bite the bullet on a real tripod, but those prices! Can you share more detail on your specific Flowtech setup? I see different kinds of spreaders, different load limits, different heads. I'd love to know exactly what a guy who's seen it and done it uses. Great video as always, Luc.

Hi Luc nice list. Just wondering if you use your FX9 in S35 mode since you are using Fujinon MK lenses? How do you find it? Is it as good quality as when you're using it in full frame mode?

@LucForsyth Hey, I've just bought a Canon 600D, want to photo some 40k minitures, landscapes when camping with buddies, but want to shoot short ( 7 minutes ) "movies" in the forest and in the dark with some campfire going on. I know its not really ideal with a 600D, but im working with a low budget. Im thinking about Magic Lantern as its a canon, and im looking to buy a velbon 438 fluid tripod. Do you have some suggestions on what should i focus on? Or if im not really on the right track? Maybe i just dreamt too big. Would love your input.

Got any recommendations for a video tripod that’s light weight enough to carry through mountains on outdoor shoots?

Looks like your in Vancouver! I am a DP and i live a block away from the building you were infort of! Lol

By far my external monitor. Wish I bought that much earlier. I shoot on a BMPCC 4K and thought the on camera monitor was good enough. More time than I would like to admit some shots just weren't in focus.

Awesome content dude! Groupie over here.

That Sanken mic is way more expensive than I thought... I was expecting it to be around 200-300€, but it's more than 500€ (incl. VAT). Since you need at least 3 (2+1), that's more than 1500€ in Europe 😅

Hey Luc, I constantly regret shooting documentaries with my Oconnor 1030 and my Fuji XK6x20 with even a matte box because of weight, but can’t think of a better option (many focal lengths and stability with long focal lengths) I got used to the weight and even designed a wheeled car to carry all but still….what do you think? I sometimes I even add more weight! With 3 Tilta M-motors

Where do you rank the cinesaddle on the essential gear list? They seem clutch for a lot of situations. I know the expense, but for professional work IF USED it will pay for itself quickly. Thoughts, opinions? I already saw your video comparing other options btw. I need an Easyrig alternative that is less obtrusive and very versatile. Thanks!

Stills tripod does have bowl mount too

I am new to the film world and I am getting more gigs in doing Videography for workshops and events. I am getting a Canon R6 Mark II. Any tips on what kinds of lenses I should get?

Just came from a month long trip...my bag tore (cheap bag) and my tripod failed me 😂I'm taking this video as a sign

E-image tripod for video with the GH06 ball head.

great video

What is the small tripod you use in the thumbnail (next to your body)

Great advice. Whats your go-to, or most used prime cine lens?

A viewfinder.. Has saved me many times outdoors in the bright sun best $25 I have spent.

How about a bounce to light under your hat a touch more? J/K good video and all good stuff… fly by wire lenses are great for photography and not much else!

Agree with all points. But as you've said, AF lenses have their place especially with gimbal work. Curious to know if you use a field recorder for your interview audio or were there instances that you just recorded directly to your camera?