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Nick Burchell

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  • Occupation
    Director
  • Location
    Atlanta
  1. When I say newbie, I mean to rigging motion cameras. I'm a 20+ year veteran stills photographer and have shot some motion with my 5DIv's and directed a couple of commercial videos with full crews. I shoot a lot of lifestyle and portraiture, a lot relating to food, farming, healthcare etc, as well as a good amount of corporate work. I like shooting in a documentary style with minimal and naturalistic lighting and I plan to use that approach in my motion work. I also shoot some interior design and architectural work. I've done a decent amount of research and feel reasonably good in my choice of the C70 as a first dive into a dedicated motion camera. I like the Internal ND's with a form factor that makes using it on sliders and gimbals and especially Easy Rigs simpler, along with being able to use my Canon lenses, even if I do need to purchase the adaptor. What I'm looking for are suggestions from real working cinematographers, not some YouTubers, on how best to rig this camera up for the uses I've mentioned. I have the Atomos Shinobi and Manfrotto Nitro 608 head, but not much more specific video kit than that. Do I need a cage and if so, best ones to look at. I've heard the Kondor blue with an angled small rig top handle so it's easy to hold the camera balanced is one good option. Thoughts? Do I need the Shinobi, or should I rely on the built in screen, especially if using autofocus? What if I'm shooting outdoors in bright sunlight, which I do a lot? Best microphones for general, ambient audio and for on location run and gun style interviews? For corporate talking head interviews I'd probably use a lav + boom mike setup. Follow focus for my Canon EF stills lenses. 24-70; 70-200; 28; 50; 85. All fast L's except the 85. I assume the Canon speed-booster as the lens adaptor? What lenses should I look to rent to make this camera sing? I like beautiful, filmic images and a certain amount of character in lenses and will probably be shooting wide open and with wides and mediums predominantly. What are your favorite gimbals and Easy Rigs for this camera? Good sliders for shooting architectural/interior work? I was considering motorized as I'm not an experienced motion camera operator, but a number of people suggested I stick to manual. Anything else I've forgotten? Many thanks for any suggestions or thoughts you may have!
  2. That Activ8 is a great idea, but I think Tomasz made the right point above. The basic Manfrotto will get me started with the light camera setups I'm using right now and as I invest in heavier cameras and see what direction my work takes, then I can purchase something else that fits those specific needs more. Anything to keep within budget helps right now! Many thanks!
  3. Newbie to setting up a rig here. I'm a commercial stills photographer serving advertising, editorial and corporate clients. Up to now I've mostly directed and produced shoots with crew, so haven't needed to setup my own kits. But that's changing, so I'm putting together the beginnings of a kit to shoot smaller - meaning very budget conscious and destined for the web - pieces for clients. I'll be using, for the moment at least, Canon 5D IV and Fuji XT-3 cameras. My subjects will be a bit varied, I shoot everything from people, portraits and lifestyle, to documentary work on food production and interior design. But for this more solo video work I'll be keeping movements simple and clean. As a stills photographer the best skill I have has more to do with composition of a frame rather than in camera movements, so when moving the camera, I feel I need very smooth, simple and clean moves. For this type of work I'll often be shooting from a distance or with wider lenses as an observer rather than in the middle of the action. I'll be shooting on sticks mixed with some slider work. I just purchased the flat mounting Manfrotto Nitrotech 608 to go on stills tripods I already own, but as I've been looking at videos on setting it up, I've seen a number of people rating the 75 mm bowl E-Image GH06 at this price point over the Manfrotto. From what I've read and seen, the advantage of the GH06 is that at full tension it gives a very smooth pan and tilt, one reviewers claim is far superior to what's achievable with the Manfrotto. That seems quite important to me, especially when shooting interiors and portraits. But if the other main platform for my camera will be a slider, I'm concerned a bowl head will be harder to use, even with an adaptor like the Ikan IK-RSR6 Hi Hat, a 6" riser. It feels to me that using an adaptor like the hi hat makes the entire setup talle and top heavy, introducing unwanted camera sway on a slider. And of course I'd need to purchase a video tripod with a bowl for the GH06 as all my tripods are for stills so flat tops, which adds to the expense on what I need, at the moment, to be a budget conscious starting setup. How much of an issue do you think this would be? Are there better solutions? I haven't purchased a slider yet and wondering if it might be better to rent a fully motorized one and then simply use a stills tripod head and letting the motorized slider do any panning work or not pan at all on the slider? Thanks!
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