Advice needed, The essentials for the 5D2?

[Alex Nazari]

Just picked up a new 5D Mark 2, amazing camera!

So I have around $1,500 left over and I'm wondering what I should pick up, another lens? Sound equipment?

I already have access to video production equipment through school so I wont be needing that (lighting tripod monitors, all that good stuff).

Basically going to be shooting music videos/commercials/documentaries/short films with this thing so all angles are covered.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

[Thanh Nguyen]

Lens man lens well with 1500 you can get 1 or 2 decent prime but not the zoom or mayb. the 16-35 24-70 and 70-200 good luck i only have one prime 50mm 1.8 and i'm broke so no lens for me yet

[Alex Nazari]

okay cool thanks alot man

[Nigel Barker]

For the uses that you have in mind some good sound equipment is essential. The Zoom H4n sound recorder is the budget favourite around here. Rode make very high quality microphones at affordable prices, the Video Mic or or one of their shotgun microphones would be a good choice. Wireless mics are more expensive but can be useful in many situations to wire up someone with a clip-on Lav. I have a Sennhesier wireless setup which works nicely.

You don't mention what lens you already have but any good Canon lens is going to eat into your $1500 budget. Hopefully you already have the 24-105mm F4L IS kit lens as this is a very good general purpose lens although you will need something with a larger aperture for lower light situations. I have the 24mm F1.4L & 50mm F1.2L which are just fantastic but probably way outside your budget.

If you can live with manual focus then you can buy cheap but excellent old manual focus Nikon lenses & use a cheap adaptor. In fact before buying any expensive Canon AF lenses it would be a good idea to get some Nikons to play about with & learn to use so that you get a feel for FOV & DOF with particular focal length & apertures.

[Alex Nazari]

Im going to look into that rode microphone that philip bloom uses, does anyone know how much those go for?

I've had some time to play with this camera in the past a couple of friends own them and we've shot with them before so I'm pretty familiar with it, I think I'm going to pick up that 50mm 1.2L if I can get a bit of a discount on it..thanks again!

[Jon Fairhurst]

You will want to budget for a preamp, as well as a mic.

1. Canon 5D Mark II Audio Exposed - Boom Mic (juicedLink, Zoom H4n, Microtrack II, BeachTek) on Vimeo

That doesn't leave a lot of cash for lenses. I'd get the 85/1.8. You might add the 50/1.8 (I have the 1.4, but it's more spendy) and the 28/1.8. This assumes primes for narrative work. For daytime documentary, look at the 24-105L IS instead.

[Brian Luce]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

For the uses that you have in mind some good sound equipment is essential. The Zoom H4n sound recorder is the budget favourite around here. .

I never used the Juicedlink, but I prefer the Tascam over the Zoom, it's only about another $30 and has 3 advantages to my mind. 1) Better battery life (double system) 2) separate level controls 3) easy to read peak warning light. An idiot light basically, but essential if you're doing one man band stuff.

[Brad McGiveron]

I would say the H4n and another lens ... maybe the 24-105L if you can squeeze just a bit more money into the pot.

this is a never ending pot you know...

[Thanh Nguyen]

i just got this one two days ago and it way mobilelity than the rode video mich( i have that one too) cost $50 more than the rode. it freaking tiny just a finger long (asian finger) so check it out it use only one AAA batery for 300hrs and the rode use 9V. rode that phillip bloom used is cost $149

Sennheiser | MKE 400 Compact Video Camera Shotgun | MKE 400

[Alex Nazari]

Thanh thank you, I'll definitely be picking that up.

[Chris Barcellos]

I am going counter culture here:

1. Don't buy a camera mounted mic is a waste, in my opinion, for the applications you listed. Listen to Jon Fairhurst as he has tested this exhaustively. Juiced link is great, or a low end Beachtek, coupled with a field mixer will get you good low noise sound. I have the Sign ENG44 which is really a good economy field mixer. Consider recording to a separate source. I use an older HIMD minidisk recorder, but will be trying the Tascam DR-07 married to the Eng44, for double system sound.


2. Do: Buy yourself some cheap Nikon to EOS adapters, and go to Ebay and pick up some great Nikon fast prime glass for a song. You can pick up 3 or 4 primes for around
$ 500.00.

3. For shoulder mount shooting you will want a shoulder support set up, along with an LCD viewfinder.

4. Get familiar with Magic Lantern, so you can take advantage of additional sound capabilities and the zebras aboard there. In that vein, Magic Lantern is working toward full HD monitoring in the future, but until that time you can still use the HDMI out to monitor, with reasonalbe result..

[Thanh Nguyen]

i just got 3 Nikkon to EOS adapter(it not here yet) two from kawa and one is the focus confirmation from china. it must be some thing that i missed but most lens i check on ebay are like 300 up to 1200 nothing that combine 3 for 500. Just wondering if someone might know to be able to use the focus confirmation do you have to get the auto focus lens or any lens will work?? what len would you prefer to get for something like 1.2 to 2.8 faster the better. Thankx

[Chris Barcellos]

I have bought only non-autofocus lenses. For most video situations, autofocus will means nothing. Auto focus on the Canon lenses, at least one I have tried, is not fast enough to keep up with a moving target. You will be pulling focus to set your shot up. I have bought a Nikkor 24mm 2.8, Nikkor 28mm f 3.5, Nikkor 35mm F 2.0, Nikkor 50mm F 1.4, and a Nikkor 100 mm F2.8 E Series, all for under $100.00.

[Mitchell Lewis]

Originally Posted by Brian Luce

I never used the Juicedlink, but I prefer the Tascam over the Zoom, it's only about another $30 and has 3 advantages to my mind. 1) Better battery life (double system) 2) separate level controls 3) easy to read peak warning light. An idiot light basically, but essential if you're doing one man band stuff.

Which model Tascam are you referring to? DR-07? DR-100? GT-R1? DR-1? (I'm guessing the DR-100 for $450)

[Don Miller]

Originally Posted by Thanh Nguyen

i just got this one two days ago and it way mobilelity than the rode video mich( i have that one too) cost $50 more than the rode. it freaking tiny just a finger long (asian finger) so check it out it use only one AAA batery for 300hrs and the rode use 9V. rode that phillip bloom used is cost $149

Sennheiser | MKE 400 Compact Video Camera Shotgun | MKE 400

In an AB comparison to the Rode, the Rode wins easily. It's not a subtle difference. The size of the Sennheiser is nice, however.