- Ugh! The temptation of buying gear
whenever something new comes out, it's so intense.
I'm always just like, oh look I got a nice camera, cool.
Oh, I need this one too.
Ah, a new one came out, what?
This one's a full frame, I want that too.
And this one's a pocket.
It's just like, it gets crazy.
I literally bought all this gear here too (laughs)
which is funny but also kinda sad.
But it's hard to resist the temptation
in this current generation.
Everyday I check on YouTube, it's like boom!
20 new cameras that came out, that are all epic-ly awesome.
I just wanna like buy everything.
It's just really hard.
And I always go, "Oh, I'm a film maker, so I can buy it.
"It's an investment."
But really I just buy it, and then I use it for a little bit
and I shelf it, collects dust.
And I'm like, well I spent a lot of money
to use it four times.
And looking back at the last 11 years
of making films and videos professionally,
there are three things that I'm really glad I bought,
and they actually turned out to be good investments.
And when I say good investments, I mean,
I put an x amount of dollars in and over the course of time
it paid itself off and then started becoming a profit.
So now whenever I take it on a job,
I usually bill a little fee for it and that's all profit.
And if you can keep making those smart investments,
you'll be cruising!
Let's be real all professional great photo, video gear
is expensive, but it's expensive for a reason.
They have good longevity, they're meant to be used daily.
They're not gonna break on you
after you take it on a couple shoots.
And I think the best pieces of gear
are things that I use on a regular basis.
Not just very specific shoots, but all shoots.
Whether it's a small production, or a big production.
I wanna be able to use this gear on everything.
I want it to be durable, and I want it to last a long time.
And I want it to be useful!
Most people say,
"The best longterm investment you can make are lenses,"
which I agree with them to a certain extent.
I've used some lenses that are like 15 years old,
and they're working flawlessly.
And they don't really depreciate,
they hold their value very, very well.
So, you can get one,
use it for five years and then sell it.
There's still a large demand for popular lenses
even if they're used.
So they're definitely great investments,
but I'm not gonna include this in the top three
simply because there's so many different mounts
and so many different type of lenses.
Sometimes you want a zoom lens that covers an APSC sensor.
Sometimes you want a full frame sensor that's auto focus.
You want a fully manual lens, maybe something compact.
Depending on what you're shooting
and the size of the production,
needs are gonna constantly change.
And I wanna focus on things
that you can buy outright, right now.
And then in 10 years you'll look back on it
and you'll be like,
"Wow! I'm still using this thing and it's awesome."
Anyways, have I given enough hints
to what the three best investments are?
I'm talking about things that's gonna last a long time.
You're gonna be using it on a regular basis.
You're gonna be able to use it on small and big shoots.
And in 10 years down the line
it's not gonna be an obsolete item.
Like you buy a Go Pro, two years down the line
you're like, "Oh man, this is so old now."
So you guys should leave a comment letting me know
what you guys think this top three is.
- Okay, you guys ready for number one? (laughs)
What are you doing back there? (laughs)
This guy right here and underneath this dead cat
is the Sennheiser 416.
It's become kind of a industry standard,
and it's one of the most popular boom mics out there.
It's around $1,000 bucks.
This is one of the cleanest ways to record sound.
And we have a 416 that's over 10 years old
and it's running solid.
We always try to run this in addition to a Lavalier
and a few other audio tracks.
But as much as possible,
we try to use this as our primary source
because it's the cleanest.
With a boom pole, I could hang this over somebody
and it's gonna pick them up
and isolate them in a nice little pocket.
Perfect timing!
As soon as we're like, "Hey let's record some sound",
Some guy with a lawnmower
that's way louder than it should be,
I've never heard a lawnmower that loud.
- That's actually one of our competitors.
Hi everybody I'm Steve. We're doing a microphone test.
- We once had this Audio Technica,
I forget the exact model number and all of the sudden,
the high frequency stopped being recorded
or something like that, and needed to be serviced.
We once needed to do a set up
where we needed two microphones.
So we tried to get a cheaper option
which was the Sennheiser ME-66 or something like that.
It worked for a few years,
and then it just stopped working on us entirely.
And it was just like ah, well.
Shoulda just gotten another 416.
I don't really know much about microphones,
but I know people that are experts with sound
and they say the 416's great so I trust them.
Steve do some ASMR for us.
- Who?
- ASMR.
- ASMR?
- You take quiet things and you like make sounds like
(hand rubbing on shirt)
(hand rubbing and slapping the face)
(pinching cheeks)
Next up is our Red camera, I'm just kidding.
These things have a shelf life of a fraying iPhone charger.
But really what's awesome is right down here, this tripod.
This is a Sachtler FSB8 which has a 75 millimeter head.
And down here is the Flowtech 75 which is new.
I've had this tripod head for over 5 years
and it still runs great.
Now I've seen Sachtler tripods that are like 20 years old.
So these last a really long time.
And this Flowtech 75, they're relatively new
but they're awesome.
And once you work with a proper tripod
there's no going back.
I love the FSB8 because it's the best performing tripod head
that they make, that's a 75 millimeter.
Meaning it's compact, it's not heavy,
it's not hard to lug around.
I could put a small DSLR on here
and I could also put much, much heavier rigs
on here as well.
I ran an Arri Alexa on this a couple times
and it is on the higher end limit of this tripod head
but I still felt fairly comfortable.
Any bigger than that set up then you'd probably wanna go to
a 100 millimeter tripod which is awesome,
but then you have this giant tripod and it's not something
you wanna travel all the time with
or carry on your shoulder for long hikes.
One of the things I always hated was trying to take
your base plate and trying to slide it into your tripod.
Trying to get it to fit in just right.
You just drop it in and it clicks in and it's secured,
and then you just tighten it down,
and you can balance it out by sliding it forward and back,
so this is the one I recommend to most people.
Oh man, we're losing this light fast.
10,000 ISO, thank God for good low light performance
on these cameras now.
You can adjust the pan and tilt tension very easily
and it has a counterbalance system,
so you can point the camera at whatever and let go
and it sits there, it doesn't dip over like this.
I think we all have those times
where we had a camera on a tripod,
and then they just slowly started tipping over
and then tipping over.
The counterbalance on this is awesome.
Wherever you put the camera, it stays there.
And it's also very very fluid and controllable.
You can really tell the difference
between a professional grade
and something that's a little more of a prosumer buy.
Just putting on a super tight angle lens,
and just do a real smooth pan coming to a stop
and then kind of going back the other way
and this can do it so perfectly smooth.
With the prosumer tripods,
sometimes you have that little bit of dead space,
little bit of slop where that space
where it kinda wiggles before the tension
really starts to pick up.
It really becomes more noticeable
once you start putting on tighter lenses.
That light disappeared so fast it's now 25,600 ISO.
Now these legs, the flowtech 75,
has only been out for a year or two
so it's hard to say if it's gonna last
as long as the tripod head.
But we've all been through that time
where you have this heavy camera,
and you're tired and sweaty,
you're unlatching every little leg to kinda adjust it
and it's kinda awkward and uncomfortable.
But what's awesome about this tripod
is that there's three levers right here
and they're super easy to release.
You could adjust the height just like that.
And this releases all legs
so you can get it all the way up high.
And you could also bring it all the way down low
with just one lever per leg and then you just find your spot
and then you just lock it back in.
It's awesome!
Once you use these legs, you'll never be able to go back.
But to make sure you make the most life
out of your Sachtler tripod,
they do have some recommendations
on storage or transportation.
They say take your tilt and pan tension level
and put it all the way up to max
so it's not locked but it's tight.
And then take your counterbalance and max that out as well
but do not lock it.
These levers are to lock the tilt and pan.
Keep those loose so that it can move if forced.
But it's tight and they recommend that to give you
the longest life expectancy out of one of these heads.
Now, this final piece is what I consider to be
one of the most crucial but underrated items.
Especially if you have clients that come on set with you,
and that is not these monitors,
although monitors are necessary.
But really, the wireless video feed.
Both these monitors right now are being fed
from this Teradek Bolt 1000 XT
that I have plugged into my Canon 80D right now.
If you're seeing a little bit of latency,
you're probably seeing it from the monitor
because the Teradek itself transmit with less than
one millisecond of latency.
But now in hindsight, I wish I invested
in a good set of Teradeks way long ago
because when you're doing work with clients,
really, what makes a difference
between if they call you back or not
is how they see the production from their perspective.
And from a client's perspective,
they don't really notice the difference
between $1000 dollar lens and a $10,000 dollar lens.
But I guarantee you, when you hand a client a monitor
with a wireless feed, they're always like,
"Holy crap, this is awesome!"
So to their eyes, it is a way better experience
than just kinda looking over your shoulder,
trying to see what you're shooting.
And I really think that significantly increases your odds
of getting a call back from that client.
And when it comes to video transmission,
I'd say Teradek, hands down, way to go.
It's the industry standard and they last forever.
And the beauty of it is that they're gonna last
multiple cycles of your camera.
Right now, I have it hooked up through HDMI to my Canon 80D.
So this is actually the receiver here.
This is the transmitter here
that I have hooked up to this camera.
This is the receiver over here.
This specific one is a 1000 foot range which I like to have
especially since we like to do some vehicle work sometimes.
Sometimes we´re pulling focus off
a different vehicle that we´re shooting in.
But you could get them bigger or smaller
depending on your needs.
They come in a couple of different ranges,
500, 1,000
3000.
And the Teradek is something we take on
pretty much every shoot if there's clients around.
Or if we have a camera op doing a shoot for us
and we're just there monitoring.
It's so useful on every shoot
so you might as well just leave it in your kit.
And this specific XT has SDI and HDMI
so it's awesome that you don't have to worry about
converting HDMI to SDI or SDI to HDMI.
You could plug in pretty much any camera into the Teradek
and the Teradek has two SDI outs and one HDMI out as well.
No matter what kinda monitor you have
on the other side, it's gonna work.
You don't have to worry about converting the signal
and all that crap.
And remember, on set, there's a lot of things
that only take a minute or two to fix but then imposed,
it can end up being days and days of work
or even a reissue because you didn't catch
a simple little thing.
Maybe it's hair and make up that you're not even
paying attention to, the actress has a
huge weird strand of hair coming down the front and
someone on the other side of the monitor goes
"Hey, we should probably fix that"
cos you're too focused on composition and aligning
all that stuff.
More eyes on the monitors are always gonna be useful
because you're so zoned in on one specific thing.
If you're oping the camera, you're focused on composition,
making sure your focus is perfect.
And all of this stuff
that sometimes these little weird things slip past you.
When you have people on the other side monitoring your work,
then you're much less likely to get (bleep) up later.
So there you go.
If I was just restarting at my career right now,
the three things I would've invested in right away,
good audio, Sennheiser 416,
good tripod, which I love my Sachtler FSB8
with Flowtech 75 legs,
and a Teradek Bolt wireless system.
And these three things are not things
that are just gonna sit on your shelf and never get touched.
Unlike all this stuff that's sitting on this shelf and yeah.
See all of that stuff back there, it's all under exposed.
Alright, it's time to read some comments from my last video
which is all about this little beast right here,
the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 4K.
Let's see what you guys had to say.
Bart says "I'd love to see the Blackmagic versus Red Image
"quality side by side."
Alright, I'll get started on that video.
Red versus Blackmagic, let's do it.
Michael says "That Looney Tunes intro can't compete
"with your intro in this video."
That actually must be the intro that I'm most proud of ever
(laughs)
(rips through paper)
Matti says "Can you bring it over so I can review it too?
"Thanks, I'll be waiting."
Yep, Matti just let me know whenever I can come over.
I love Toronto.
"Hey potato dude, can you please make your content faster?
"I really wanna learn more and I've watched all your videos
"twice, some three or four times. I want more knowledge."
Man, making content fast is so difficult.
I was trying to make sure I at least do two videos a week
and even that is just like, I'm dying.
I think a lot of it just comes down
to my lack of organization.
Have you noticed this video started
when I was living at my old apartment
cos I shot that like a month and a half ago.
And then I was just looking through my hard drive
and I was like "Oh wait, this video is pretty much done,
"I just have to film the last scene and post it."
So, now I'm just circling back to old stuff--
my brain is a madhouse.
"Please take me in the next shout out."
Alright, there you go, congratulations.
"You just broke that yellow backdrop Russell." (laughs)
Luckily these rolls come in like 36 foot rolls.
Edward says "Happy new year! Hope you have a good new years
"cos I don't have."
That's the saddest comment I've ever read.
"Nice abs, bro."
You know, that's the kinda abs you get
when you work out constantly three times a week
on a regular schedule and eat healthy.
Or learn how to use Photoshop.
JohnyTechReview says "Your endings are the best-- Abrupt."
What are you talking ab--