What's in my wedding videography bag?
I love these blogs and videos by videographers, so here's my take on it.
I am a one man band, a lot like Maverick from Top Gun or John Matrix from Commando, and I like to keep my kit as minimal as possible.
So my actual bag, at the moment it's an Amazon basics camera bag, it was super cheap and it's held up for over 2 years now, can't say fairer than that. I bought a rain cover off Amazon which I keep in the side pocket just in case. Before the bag starts to look too tatty I will replace it with something like the Manfrotto Large Advanced Tri Camera Backpack, it's around about the same size as the Amazon Basics bag and about £100.
I keep a back up camera which is my old Canon 600D, solid as a rock, never let me down, shoots full HD. I keep a Newer battery grip on the 600D which allows you to keep 2 batteries in it for extra battery life. I have the kit 18-55mm kit lens and the 1.8 50mm II canon lenses in the bag. You need a back up camera!
My main camera is of course the Sony A7Sii. The size, in-body stabilisation, low light performance, frame rates, dynamic range and just sheer awesomeness of the image make it a no-brainer, perfect for my uses.
I have the 55mm lens and a 16mm lens for the Sony. These two cover my favourite focal ranges as I use the clear image zoom whilst using the 55mm for telephoto style shots.
In the inside pockets I keep lots of SD cards and batteries, all formatted and fully charged respectively.
For on camera sound I have the old trusty Rode VideoMic Pro, I stick it on the top of my camera and forget about it. I set the audio level to 6 (3ish for the disco in the evening) on the A7Sii, and the settings on the mic are: shotgun position (far right) on the power switch and -10 on the gain switch.
The Zoom H1with the Rode SmartLav+ (with the trs to trrs adaptor) are what I use to record the vows and the speeches. Those new Tascam DR-10L's look pretty amazing though so I might one of those soon to compliment my audio kit.
I have two see-through pencil cases filled with audio bits. In one I have an old iPhone4 with the Rode recorder app installed, charging cable for said phone, and a Rode SmartLav+ and trs to trrs convertor right angled cable. In the other pencil case I have many many different audio connectors in case I want to get a feed out of a PA at the ceremony or speeches venues.
The rest of my bits are: black Gaffa tape, a GoPro Hero4 (timelapses and random shots), mini tripod for the H1, a biro, a black Sharpie, a multitool for tripod screws and cutting things, Tom Ford Black Orchid rollerball and mint Orbit chewing gum for smells, and a Kingjoy AB-01 dust blower thing for dust.
All in all a mix of budget and expensive stuff, I'm constantly updating and changing my bag, pretty much after every wedding I'll find something wrong with my kit or something that would help for next time. If your stuff is not useful for your particular needs, get rid.
Here's my 'Kit' profile for some of my main items with links to Amazon if you so wish:
I am a one man band, a lot like Maverick from Top Gun or John Matrix from Commando, and I like to keep my kit as minimal as possible.
So my actual bag, at the moment it's an Amazon basics camera bag, it was super cheap and it's held up for over 2 years now, can't say fairer than that. I bought a rain cover off Amazon which I keep in the side pocket just in case. Before the bag starts to look too tatty I will replace it with something like the Manfrotto Large Advanced Tri Camera Backpack, it's around about the same size as the Amazon Basics bag and about £100.
I keep a back up camera which is my old Canon 600D, solid as a rock, never let me down, shoots full HD. I keep a Newer battery grip on the 600D which allows you to keep 2 batteries in it for extra battery life. I have the kit 18-55mm kit lens and the 1.8 50mm II canon lenses in the bag. You need a back up camera!
My main camera is of course the Sony A7Sii. The size, in-body stabilisation, low light performance, frame rates, dynamic range and just sheer awesomeness of the image make it a no-brainer, perfect for my uses.
I have the 55mm lens and a 16mm lens for the Sony. These two cover my favourite focal ranges as I use the clear image zoom whilst using the 55mm for telephoto style shots.
In the inside pockets I keep lots of SD cards and batteries, all formatted and fully charged respectively.
For on camera sound I have the old trusty Rode VideoMic Pro, I stick it on the top of my camera and forget about it. I set the audio level to 6 (3ish for the disco in the evening) on the A7Sii, and the settings on the mic are: shotgun position (far right) on the power switch and -10 on the gain switch.
The Zoom H1with the Rode SmartLav+ (with the trs to trrs adaptor) are what I use to record the vows and the speeches. Those new Tascam DR-10L's look pretty amazing though so I might one of those soon to compliment my audio kit.
I have two see-through pencil cases filled with audio bits. In one I have an old iPhone4 with the Rode recorder app installed, charging cable for said phone, and a Rode SmartLav+ and trs to trrs convertor right angled cable. In the other pencil case I have many many different audio connectors in case I want to get a feed out of a PA at the ceremony or speeches venues.
The rest of my bits are: black Gaffa tape, a GoPro Hero4 (timelapses and random shots), mini tripod for the H1, a biro, a black Sharpie, a multitool for tripod screws and cutting things, Tom Ford Black Orchid rollerball and mint Orbit chewing gum for smells, and a Kingjoy AB-01 dust blower thing for dust.
All in all a mix of budget and expensive stuff, I'm constantly updating and changing my bag, pretty much after every wedding I'll find something wrong with my kit or something that would help for next time. If your stuff is not useful for your particular needs, get rid.
Here's my 'Kit' profile for some of my main items with links to Amazon if you so wish: