tested welcome it's the end of 2020 and that is a great thing i am gunther i'm a video producer here
at tested and i've got a collection of some of my favorite things that i'd like to share with you
uh last year i didn't do a favorite things because well i didn't really get many things last year
but this year was different i've got you know all video things of course and some expensive
some cheaper and all of which i think you know if you're into photography or video are really good
additions to your kit uh the first thing which is something long overdue is a proper filter
kit um this is a haida m10 these are super nice um admittedly mostly for landscape photography maybe
product photography because it adds quite a lot of bulk to the front of a camera but the construction
on the haida filter holders are super nice just really solid and not only is the construction
really nice they're very functional too you can fit 100 by 100 filters in here or even longer
you can do neutral density you can do graduated neutral density all sorts of stuff this has a um
a circular polarizer in there too really nice and when i'm out taking landscape photos having this
on the front of the camera just gives me a lot of confidence and ease to switch in between shots
um so i highly recommend this filter kit um there's some other great options out there too but
um this is the one i chose next edition is the x-rite color checker this is the passport model
uh it's a little pricey but you know there's other options you could go with too i like
this because it's very compact rigid nice quality it's great for bringing into the field
um having a color checker is something i never
really thought of bringing with me i usually just bring like a grey card or something like that
but you know if you're working in weird lighting environments or with lower bit depth cameras like
an 8-bit camera like i was for the longest time um having a color checker really just gives you
that extra confidence moving into post like i said if you're working in weird lighting environments
have weird gamma profiles or like i said lower bit depth cameras this is just really solid
um i throw it in my bag it doesn't take up any room and it never leaves my side at this point
next item is a battery checker this one is the dly full battery checker got it off of amazon
it's pretty basic powered by a battery itself a aaa for the longest time i was using rechargeable
batteries um and i i try to do that as much as possible too but they're expensive and they go
missing and sometimes you know you just have to buy a pack of good old-fashioned double-a's to
get a project done and at the end of that project you have a bunch of loose batteries everywhere
and sometimes you don't know which ones are fully charged and which ones aren't um this
gives you the confidence to just check the good ones and put them in your bag um often times too
i'll find like a three-quarter full charge one and i'll use it too i like it you don't waste things
and you get the best out of all your batteries next item is the a7s3 this was
a long time coming for me i purchased the a7 iii five years ago uh and with the intention of
quickly upgrading to the a7s three and as many of you know it took quite a long time for this thing
to come out but boy was it worth the wait because they basically gave us everything we could have
possibly wanted uh 4k 10-bit 120. that's the uh very common spec that everyone throws out there
it's great i love it i do a lot of uh wildlife photography a lot of product photography and
of course uh documentary style work here at tested and this just it's so comfortable in the hand it's
so lightweight you know you could just run and gun with a simple setup like this with maybe like a 24
to 105 on there with a stabilized lens and it's just solid the 10-bit color profiles are so nice
really good detail even though it is that small megapixel sensor
it has a lot of detail um easy to work with in post great colors now too sony's done a lot of
work to that and like i said it just feels good in the hand too they've done a lot of usability
upgrades since the last a7 iii and the buttons just feel nicer the grip is bigger it feels really
good in the hand and i have a lot of confidence moving into a shoot especially now with a new
menu system that they've created that's just super easy to use so i couldn't recommend this camera
highly enough keep an eye out in future tested content for things shot with this maybe i'll do a
video on my workflow with this sort of system let me know if you're interested in the comments below
uh yeah i highly recommend this bit of kit last item is the mavic air 2 as some of you may know
we did a video on this earlier in the year and i absolutely love this drone it's the perfect size
has great highly detailed footage you can shoot in a log profile and it comes out looking beautiful
i've used this on a lot of personal projects some paid gigs some not some content here at tested
two and i couldn't be happier it just sits in my backpack now and takes up hardly any room like i
said it's the perfect size and it does 4k video just right you know it's not super high level
professional you know there's there's a reason to buy a more expensive drone but for what it is this
is perfect and i highly recommend it well there you have it those are my favorite things of 2020
i'm very excited to move on to the new year and thank you to the tested community for supporting
us through this year it's been amazing to see the amount of support we've had through these weird
weird times especially from the production aspect where everything's shot in an iphone these days
um like i said thank you very much and we look forward to seeing you in the new year