Camera Gear

Zhiyun Tech Smooth II Gimbal for Smartphones

Today’s smartphones can shoot very impressive video with surprisingly good quality. Adding camera movement to your smartphone video can make your video look and feel much more professional. It can also add to the energy of the story. But even with the new generation of premium smartphones with optical image stabilization, most phone video will still look pretty jittery and shaky when you move the phone with your hand. That’s where a gimbal can make a huge difference. The Zhiyun Tech Smooth II is professional quality gimbal for smartphones which does a really nice job smoothing out your video footage, even when you’re walking. And it also works well with the larger phones like the iPhone 7+ or Samsung Note series.

Zhiyun Tech was kind enough to send us the Smooth II for review. Full disclosure: This gimbal was given to me for this review, I did not purchase it with my money. I was not paid to do this review. The link above is an affiliate link. If you use this link to purchase the Smooth II, it will not cost you anything additional and we will receive a small payment which we use to purchase and review additional gear to help you make better video.

Aurora Aperture Variable Neutral Density Filter: Blur the Background in Full Daylight

When shooting outdoors in the sunlight, you’ll often need to use a very small aperture/iris setting to get the right exposure. That is not necessarily an issue unless you want to blur the background to draw the attention of your audience to your main subject. This is where a neutral density filter can help. A neutral density filter is like high quality sunglasses for your camera’s lens. This allows you to use an aperture setting which will blur the background and still allow you to expose properly.

Aurora Aperture was kind enough to send us their Power XND 2000 variable neutral density filter for review.

GVB Gimbal and 3 Low Cost Action Cameras

There are a ton of inexpensive action cameras available on the market and it is hard to figure out which perform best. So let’s have a quick look at 3: GVB Action Cam, Yi HD Action Cam, and ThiEYE i60 Action Cam. Each come in at about $100 USD.

Also, action cameras, just like any other camera, produce jerky and shaky looking video when you hold them by hand. Gimbals can help to stabilize your camera so that the video footage is smoother and more enjoyable to watch. In this episode, we also look at the GVB Action Camera Gimbal, an affordable entry-level 3 axis gimbal for GoPro Hero 4 and other cameras of the same size and weight.

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Sound for Video Session: Loudness vs Peaks and Cameras vs Audio Gear

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This week we discuss a question from Kevin (AKA The Basic Filmmaker) on why the peaks are always at different levels after you loudness normalize an audio clip. Then I rant for a while on why upgrading your camera every time a cool looking new camera may not be the best use of your budget.

Varavon Zeus Uni - Universal Camera Cage

What is a camera cage? It is a metal, protective piece of gear which allows you to attach accessories, usually with 1/4-20 screws and cold shoe mounts. The trick with most affordable cages is that they are purpose built for a specific camera model. This gets expensive when you go to upgrade your camera because then you often also have to buy a new cage. The Varavon Zeus Uni solves that problem quite effectively with a design that adapts to your camera. Let’s have a look!

Focus Shifter Light Weight Follow Focus for DSLR Lenses

Autofocus on most DSLR and mirrorless cameras while shooting video isn’t that great. It gets confused and sometimes tries to focus on things you dont want it to focus on. But manually focusing can be really tricky too. And what if you want to do a dramatic rack focus? Very difficult.

That’s where a follow focus comes in to play and makes this all quite simple. The problem with most follow focus products is that they’re quite expensive and they require you to rig up your camera with rods which makes your camera rig much heavier. The Focus Shifter aims to solve this problem at a reasonable price and by keeping things very lightweight.

Full disclosure: Engineerable gave me this follow focus free of charge for doing this review. They did not pay me further to do this review and did not specify what I was able to say or not say.

Yi HD Action Camera Review

I have wanted an action cam for a long time, not because I’m an action sports enthusiast, but for cases where I need to mount a camera in a very tight spot or shoot some very wide angle behind-the-scenes footage. GoPros have been around for a long time, but my budget has always been allocated to other higher priority gear. So when the the $100 Yi Action Camera was sent to me for review, I was curious to see how well it would work for my type of shooting. Let’s have a look!

Yi also has a 4K action camera coming in the next couple of weeks which I'll be interested to review. It comes in at $250 USD and has an LCD screen.

Aputure VS-2 FineHD Monitor: See When You Shoot!

The tiny 3 inch screens on most cameras vary in quality but the fact remains that it is hard to compose, focus and expose your video in such a small space. My eyesight is 20/20 but with large sensor cameras, I am often surprised at how often I miss focus when I rely on my viewfinder or 3" screen. I'm also surprised and disappointed at how often I miss distracting elements in my composition simply because I couldn't see it in the EVF or screen.

That's a big part of the value of external monitors like the Aputure VS-2 FineHD. This is a 1920x1200 resolution HDMI monitor that is very reasonably priced and nicely appointed for its $299 price. The kit comes with everything you need to use it right out of the box including a friction arm, 2 HDMI cables, battery, charger, sun hood, and more.

For the last year, I’ve been using a 7 inch HDMI monitor/recorder (Atomos Shogun) which has helped me work more quickly and shoot with more confidence and fewer missed shots.

Aputure was kind enough to send us this unit before they start shipping generally.

 

Sony a6000: The First 24 Hours

The Sony a6000 camera and 50mm f/1.8 lens arrived yesterday and I spent a few hours putting it through its paces. Not a ton to say just yet but this camera is every thing I expected, mostly good and a bit of bad.

The good: Incredible imaging in a tiny, very convenient to carry almost anywhere little camera body. Full sensor readout for video (vs. line-skipping which many DSLRs and mirrorless cameras do),  electronic viewfinder, good build quality, assignable custom buttons. Screen articulates for low and high angle shots. Hotshoe so I can add proper portable strobes. Focus is fast and so far, feels as good as my DSLR. More to come on all of this.

The Bad: Tiny battery needs frequent swapping out, strange, somewhat onerous menu system, how do I get a histogram overlay on top of the live-view image? Video record button in an odd location on the handgrip.

Here's my first real foray into the Sony ecosystem (the camera I bought for my wife doesn't count). So far I really like it. It is small enough that bringing a proper camera with me more often is a real possibility. I'll be putting it to use at a concert later this week alongside my Nikon D750 to see how well it holds up for video and stills.

It needs a fast card to record to the XAVC S 50mbps codec so I'll need to order another UHS-3 card along with a battery charger and extra batteries (we've had good luck with Wasabi Power batteries which are priced at a fraction of the OEM Sony batteries).