- In today's video for Alpha Universe,
I'm going to share my Sony Alpha 7 IV camera rig
for filmmaking.
Welcome back, everyone.
And without wasting any time,
let's get into all of the components
that I use to put this rig together.
The camera, of course, is the Sony Alpha 7 IV,
one of my favorite hybrid cameras
for shooting stills and video.
Having the ability to shoot videos in 4K
up to 60 frames per second is something that, I think,
any aspiring filmmaker would wanna have access tom
and this camera gives you that
along with excellent auto-focus features.
For my lens, ever since this came out a few months ago,
it has become my walk around lens for stills and for video.
This is the Sony 20 to 70 millimeter F4 G series lens.
Having one lens that gives me a nice wide shot
as well as the ability to zoom in
and compress my image at 70 millimeters
in such a compact lens is really handy.
Those are the core pieces of the kit inside of the rig,
but there are some additional accessories
that I've added that really extend the functionality.
Taking a look at the top handle,
it may look familiar
and that's because it happens to be the handle
from the Sony FX3.
I really wanted a way to bring high quality audio
into my build,
and so getting this top handle
seemed like a great way to go.
It has two XLR inputs.
But most of the time,
I just ended up using this XLR shotgun microphone
that's made by Sony.
All of the controls are here on the handle
and can be tuned in for your specific needs.
Now, if you're trying to attach this handle
to the Alpha 7 IV, it's not going to work quite right.
You need two other pieces to secure this handle
to your setup.
With that, I'm using a camera cage
made by a company called SmallRig.
The cage is secured to the Alpha 7 IV
and the handle is actually secured to the cage
since the camera body itself
doesn't have a way of securing it.
There's this additional piece that you need to have
in between the cage and the handle.
But once you have it all connected,
it's going to be very secure.
Going back to the handle,
there's an extension accessory that gives you
some additional mounting points for accessories.
It also makes the handle a little bit longer,
which comes in handy when you add
some of the additional accessories
that we'll talk about in a moment.
A camera rig really needs to have several points of contact
beyond just using the handle,
so I added a wooden handle
that's attached to the camera cage
to give me another way to hold the camera.
There's also an additional accessory on the handle
that adds a cold shoe mount on top of the handle.
This is where I would connect my Sony Lavalier pack
when I'm using it for audio.
Continuing with this build,
I have a Kondor Blue baseplate with two 12-inch rails
that I'm using to attach some other parts to this build.
One of those pieces is the chest pad
that goes on the back of the rig.
This gives you another point of contact
for your rig to keep things steady.
Now, I talked about this in another video here
on the channel, which we'll link up in the card above,
but an essential piece of gear that you're going to want
for any filmmaking rig is a neutral density filter.
This is what helps you get the correct exposure
when you're filming in bright daylight conditions.
The one I'm using in this setup is made by Freewell.
These are variable ND filters that actually attach
to the base of this system magnetically,
so you could quickly add and remove filters as needed.
It also has a slot where you could add
any special effects filters that you may have.
Now, these next few items aren't required
if you plan on using the screen on the Alpha 7 IV.
But if you wanna have a larger screen
and the ability to record externally,
then these next few products are going to be very useful.
The monitor I'm using here is the Atomos Ninja V.
I have it connected using a Kondor Blue HDMI cable.
And with that, you can use the monitor as a bigger screen,
or you could use it to record the video feed
that's coming directly from the sensor on the Alpha 7 IV.
Here's a cool thing that brings all of this together.
This is a mini V-mount battery made by SmallRig.
And using this adapter and cable,
I'm actually powering the Atomos recorder that way.
You could use the V-mount battery to power the camera itself
by connecting a USB-C cable as well.
These are the products that I'm using for this build
and I'll have a link in the description of this video
that has a list of everything that I use
to make this a little bit easier for you.
I'd love to hear what you use for your camera rig
as building these things often takes a while to research.
Let's help out the community
by sharing all of that in the comment section below.
Don't forget to subscribe to Alpha Universe
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And while you're here,
check out the video that you see here on the screen,
and I'll see you next time.