let's talk about gear but not just any gear i want to talk to you guys about gear that i purchased
or used in 2021 that actually made a difference in the quality of my videos and or the process
i'm not going to try and convince you guys like these are things that every filmmaker needs to go
out and buy no bs just plain and simple filmmaking gear that i found myself using pretty much this
entire year let's talk about the first thing and i think it's no surprise that my favorite camera
it's the sony a7s3 technically it was the end of 2020 but man has this thing absolutely surpassed
so many of my expectations and pretty much all aspects when i picked it up uh i was
pretty confident that my use was gonna be pretty exclusive to youtube videos it was gonna be the
perfect camera for that as i got to use it more i was genuinely impressed with how robust of a 4k
image this thing can create seriously impressive dynamic range a really rock-solid autofocus system
a ton of different frame rates and codecs to choose from which was what i felt a lot of the
older a7 cameras lacked and a blessing now the color science is really up to par with i think
most of the kind of high-end video camera industry like if you were to throw this side-by-side up
against a large majority of the current top cameras i think you'd be hard-pressed to be
able to spot a difference even though i've now purchased a couple of different cinema cameras for
my commercial and client work there's been a lot of cases that i've been really shocked uh that
i've gravitated toward the sony for various reasons you know smaller autofocus i think
this probably deserves a follow-up video maybe breaking down the rig that i've been using most
of this year so if that's something you guys want to see leave a comment this next thing that i want
to tell you guys about honestly something i wish i found a little bit sooner some of my friends
here on youtube have talked and done some videos about it this monitor plus app that allows you to
monitor but also remote control your sony a7 cameras if you guys have ever used the
original sony image edge mobile app i think you'll uh you'll probably know that it's awful it doesn't
give you a lot of functionality the quality that you actually see that you can monitor is just not
great the latency is not amazing but this i think as you guys may be able to hopefully see here
it's honestly impressive really really solid and you can control pretty much
all of your camera settings you can start and stop recording tap autofocus white balance all
of your exposure controls not to mention that you also have things like waveforms zebras focus
peaking you can actually use what this thing effectively turns a smartphone or a tablet
into a professional monitor it does cost a little bit of money i think it's 19.99 in the app store
but in my mind incredibly worth it especially if you're somebody like me who is pretty frequently
shooting yourself the third piece of gear that we have here is the seven in one freewell magnetic
filter system this has to be one of my favorite filter systems i've ever used run and gun shooting
it works flawlessly the magnets in my mind could be a little bit stronger when you're popping these
on and off there was a couple of times when i was out shooting there was a vlog i actually did with
these where i would bump it with my hand or it would bump on me and the filter popped off and
fell luckily nothing bad ever happened they didn't scratch the coating on these filters is pretty
solid i think it's a really really innovative system the fact that you can swap out the base
vnd for a mist basically like a diffusion filter and make these variable nd's two to five stop
six to nine stop uh into mist v and ds color shift isn't perfectly neutral it's slightly on
the warm side but in a lot of ways i actually find that somewhat pleasing these things are
pretty invaluable our fourth piece of gear that we have are these came tv mini v-mount batteries
v-mount batteries are admittedly something that i kind of neglected investing into for a long time
i mean a lot of times i would go kind of like the sony npf route as i've been beginning to do
more work out on location working with cameras that quite frankly require batteries like this
these have been my go-to i now have a few of them they work phenomenally they're super small built
really well two dtap outputs a usb type a output 99 watt hours which is the perfect travel size
it's not too bulky not too heavy overall a really solid option and not to mention the price is very
competitive out there with the v-mount market so these are a great option tripods are kind of
one of those things that no one really wants to spend money on but i can tell you from personal
experience it is honestly something you should invest a bit of money into but everyone also
typically needs a decent little travel tripod now there's a few different brands out there
that make great ones but a lot of them are really expensive this one from amazon's uh
k f concept is incredibly well priced it's made reasonably well lightweight slim and not too big
of a footprint pretty nicely fit in most camera backpacks water bottle pockets which is kind of
what i love the one thing that i did do is put a different ball head on this guy the one that comes
on it is a little wimpy i certainly wouldn't trust a cinema rig on there but for anything mirrorless
like my sony's absolutely no worries i think i was able to pick up the tripod and then this ball head
for a little over a hundred dollars solid little tripod let's now go ahead and jump into tools and
kind of some grip accessories the first thing this gear card now this is truly one piece of
gear that i'm frankly just annoyed that i didn't pick up sooner this little cart has been amazing
for things like hauling around gear but also even smaller daily stuff like bringing in groceries or
packages it's kind of a perfect size of being able to handle most of the equipment that i would want
to load up on it but not being too bulky that i can't collapse it down and stow it away in a
closet when i'm not using it seems like it's built well enough to last for a good amount of time and
again the price is very reasonable there's a lot of higher end ones out there with you know thicker
smoother wheels or you know a little bit more load capacity this being as compact as it is kind of
just can't go wrong this little multi-tool from small rig don't think there's a lot to say about
it but man is it handy it's built incredibly well it's all aluminum really nice feel you have allen
keys a flathead for tripod screws a phillips driver i mean it kind of has everything you
need for building camera rigs you pick one of these up you can get rid of all the old shitty
allen keys that are just rattling around in one of your backpack pockets a quarter that you use to
tighten tripod screws it's just a really simple clean little tool if you haven't used a c-stand
yet let me tell you right now you need one or two that much i can say but when you need to move
lights and gear around on those stands pretty often they kind of suck these impact rolling
light stands have pretty much changed the game with my studio set up and using big lights in
general they're super strong and yeah they they roll a little bit on the pricey side
not much more expensive than a budget c-stand but good grip equipment in my mind is worth investing
to considering that you know buy it once and it'll last you your entire shooting career okay um
this is something that i think i can conclusively say is uh simply not necessary for 95
of people out there nonetheless it's something i purchased and i do think it made an improvement
in my workflow so we're going to talk about it this black magic design micro panel simply put
what this device does is gives us manual physical intuitive controls for adjustments within the
davinci resolve coloring software we have these wheels and these balls which will control the
color wheels we have all these knobs up here gamma contrast saturation shadows and a handful
of different dedicated buttons over on the right side for playback control skipping around changing
your nodes it gives you a much more precise and controlled way to apply color adjustments to your
image i can promise you in saying that you can do everything this does with just a mouse and
keyboard this just makes it a little bit faster a little more precise i do think it has helped
improved a little bit of my knowledge and kind of finesse within the images i am grading again
not necessary but really fun i've talked about this before it's worth sharing again because this
is another one of those products that i just i wish i had sooner a laptop lap desk sounds
a little weird when you say it like that place your laptop on it gives you a spot to use a mouse
there's a couple little slots here that you can prop up your phone or an ssd or something like
that it comes in a handful of different colors and finishes it's just a good product and if you work
from home like i do and i have been for like the last two years straight now it's hard to go back
to not using this thing when i'm sitting on the couch or laying in bed seriously pick one of these
things up not sponsored in any way but just link down below i promise you won't regret it you know
what is sponsored though this video sponsored by canva canva is an all-in-one design platform that
allows you to create a ton of incredible content for yourself or your brand i've utilized canva now
in my work for close to two years i love using it for my social media posts really easily creating
templates for these cinematic instagram posts once i've created the design i can just go back into it
tap and replace reposition it unbelievably easy professionally designed user templates
that allow you to make content that looks amazing and you don't have to have any design
experience there's an incredibly massive stock assets library canva is free to use but things
get really cool with their pro subscription giving you access to a ton of amazing tools
one that i love is their magic background remover it's a one quick way to mask and cut out subjects
from an image to put them on a background perfect for things like thumbnails it's just 12.95 a month
for you and up to five team members so seriously if you guys are interested in trying this out
you can get a free 45-day pro subscription if you head down and click the link below
thank you canva for sponsoring today's video this little guy looks a little funny but you
have all of these different electronics you got your camera you've got your monitor you've got
different types of batteries you've got your phone all these different cables they're all different
lengths they're different colors you lose one and then you're on a hunt digging through your closet
why not just stick it all into one a retractable cable three of the most popular charging cables in
my mind lightning connector micro usb usb c you can use multiple of them at once perfect little
portable size barely takes up any space in your bag comes in a two pack so if you got to charge
multiple usbc devices use both of them another one of those things that i've just never even thought
about looking for or having in my kit you're on set for example somebody needs a charging cable
they're like oh does anybody go and they're like just throwing this true story actually that's
happened like two or three times for me now toss it over and they're just like
speaking of stretchy things i can't honestly say i started using these things in 2021 but i did buy a
huge pack at the start of this year amazing just it's a stretchy little cable tie for bundling up
your cables so when you do have a bunch of stuff in your gear bag it's it's not just loose little
rat's nest in there you can nicely organize them i like these red ones because the red stands out
makes it a little less hard to lose a cable or leave it sitting on a table somewhere hotel room
you can get a 20 pack of them for like seven bucks just just go go buy them go add them to your cart
right now you will use these i feel like i've seen my fiance steal these from me like for hair ties
kind of a honorable mention bonus if you will the thing that's helping me film this video right now
the youtube studio stand that i built earlier this year it's basically just this rolling stand that
acts as a tripod acts as a boom arm for my microphone i stand for my monitor battery audio
record like everything is on this stand it has wheels i've got a sandbag on it so it's nice and
stable definitely made my life easier with filming these videos super not necessary but damn it makes
the workflow just a little bit less stressful that's the gear that i purchased or used in 2021
that has actually helped me make better videos or made the workflow less stressful again links
are down below if you guys want to check any of it out happy holidays and i'll see you guys next year