Gear that will make your next video stand out!

Welcome to 2019! Now is the time to crank it up and get after that big project on the agenda. What are you waiting for? Maybe it’s time for you to go find that fresh perspective. Maybe it’s time to go get some of that gear that you have seen out there and that you have been looking and thinking about for a while. Yes, that gear, that will put you over the top. Let’s take a look at some production tools that are sure to help you take it to the next level.

The Canon EOS C300 is always in our carrying case for all interviews, commercials, event filming and social media content our production company puts out there. As you may already know, this state-of-the-art camera weighs only three pounds and can be used with many different filming accessories. It has a 35 mm CMOS sensor, the Canon DIGIC DV III image processor with a 50 Mbps 4:2:2 MPEG-2 codec. It has 1920 x 1080 HD and an ISO range of as much as 20,000 for great performance in very low-light situations. It can be used for both simple and complex projects.

This Canon EOS C300 also comes with a 1.55 megapixel adjustable four-inch LCD monitor. This monitor allows the cameraman to accurately judge composition, focus, and color while filming. It also includes a 1.55 megapixel electronic viewfinder that is built right into the camera’s body. This viewfinder and the LCD screen are able to display screens for help in adjusting the picture quality. In addition, the EOS C300 comes with your choice of a standard PL-mount lens or an EF lens mount, which is compatible with more than 60 interchangeable lenses. And it can shoot in 4k, so the editing process is a lot more fluid when you have so much information coming onto your screen!

Another go to camera of ours is the Sony FS7. On a pretty equal playing field to the C300, we have used the FS7 in an assortment of shoots. The FS7 is user friendly and ergonomic. The 4K ProRes recorder offers a major benefit to our clients. Even before leaving the shoot, the crew can hand over a pro-res file of raw footage to the client, who can then hand it to their in-house editor—closing the gap between the shoot and post production. We shoot many interviews here at Firelight, and being able to shoot interviews on one camera instead of two is a game changer. With 4K, we can film one wide shot and the editor can pull a close up shot because the resolution is so high. It saves a lot of time on set, which in turn saves money. Our DP likes the settings on 4K cameras (like the Sony FS7 and the C300) because they can manipulate the settings the way they want. 4K footage also allows editors to go in and control backgrounds, colors, etc.