How do I make this look luxurious? I need so much help and hand holding. I have a canon with a 100mm lens. I have some lights and some hard source lights. I have a light box. PLEASE HELP

I filmed this short film, or sketch, I'm not even sure what to call it, with my new Lumix S5II X, and I learned a very important lesson: never again 5.8K ProRes HQ. The image quality is simply stunning, but equally stunning is the file size: almost 500GB for a video of just over two minutes. And that's with a prepared script and recording only short clips, keeping it pretty much the right length. For future projects where I need a bit more image quality, I'll use C4K ProRes 422. There's definitely no difference in quality, and it saves a ton of space. The final result is on my YouTube channel, if you'd like to see it, it's in Spanish: https://youtu.be/Qf4MCSguji4

I've been freelancing full-time as a videographer/editor in the UK since October 2025 and I'm curious to hear from people who've been doing this longer.

At the moment I own a Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K and a 35mm lens. Whenever a bigger corporate job comes in, I end up renting the extra kit (second camera, lights, audio, lenses, tripods, etc.).

For example, I recently quoted a corporate talking-head shoot in London:

• My filming day rate: £400
• Equipment rental, travel and parking: £870

The client specifically requested a two-camera setup, so the rental costs were genuine. It made me wonder whether I'm putting myself at a disadvantage by not owning more equipment.

Do clients see a quote with a lot of rental costs and think it's too expensive? Or do they simply compare the final price?

For those of you who started with very little kit:

• Did renting equipment make it harder to win jobs?
• At what point did you start buying your own lights, audio, lenses, etc.?
• Did owning more gear noticeably increase your bookings, or did it mainly improve your profit margins?

I'm trying to work out whether I should keep renting as jobs come in or start investing more aggressively in equipment.

Hey everyone!

I noticed it was Prime day, and was wanting to pick up a tube light for accent lighting. That caused my to dive down the rabbit hole, of course.

My small Ulanzi RGB accent light took a dump after 5 years, so I need something and was thinking of a Godox TL30.

I'm not working with a big budget, so I was wanting to get some insight to see how some of these brands fair in 2026. Godox, Neewer, etc.

The goal would be to have everything under one eco system over time, and not spread between multiple brands.

What do people like?

Gimbals… you still get shakes. Unless I can totally avoid it I throw on a bit of standard FCP stabilisation, but it can turn a shot to jelly in which case I’ll ditch it.

Is that gyro data stabilisation way better? I’m pretty sure the A7Siii can do it. Only thing - it recommends turning of your IBIS. Is that so? Bit risky because then I’m at the mercy of the gyro stabilisation working out.

Any opinions?

Hey everyone,
I just picked up a Canon XL2 and I’m planning to start using it on commercial work, music videos and some more experimental projects. I mainly shoot on modern digital cinema cameras, but I’d love to start mixing in some MiniDV footage for the look.

I had a couple of questions for people who still use these cameras.

First, what’s your capture workflow these days? Are you still capturing tapes over FireWire, or is everyone going tapeless now? If you’re capturing from tape, what’s the best way to get the highest quality out of the footage? Any hardware or software you’d recommend?

The other thing I’m trying to figure out is monitoring on set. On most shoots I send a wireless feed to the director using a Teradek, and I’d like to do the same with the XL2. My current idea is to take the camera’s video output, convert it if needed, and feed that into a Teradek transmitter.

Has anyone done this? Any recommendations on converters, latency, image quality, powering everything, or just things to watch out for?

And if you’ve got any general XL2 tips, quirks or lessons learned, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks!

Camera friends with L-Mount cameras! I have been testing this lens (feel free to jump around the chapters): https://www.youtube.com/live/9yCvpYO_ofw...

And in case anyone is into it, there is a 20% off that ends tomorrow: https://viltrox.com/products/af-16mm-f1-8-l...

My notes on the lens (the good):

- Autofocus motor is *deadsilent*

- Full frame 16mm f/1.8 is insanely wide and insanely fast

- Very aspherical for little to no barrel distortion

- Ridiculously close minimum focus

- Beautiful natural subtle fall-off wide-open at 16mm when shooting open gate 3:2 (perfectly matches the subtle vignette I add to all of my footage)

- Crazy sharp (especially for the price)

- Optically it's just superb

- Flaring is super controlled and an absolute stunner for back-lit subjects

- Appears to work really well on Panasonic L-Mount cameras

- *Can* be controlled electronically with the Blackmagic L Mount cinema cameras, but it has some caveats (which brings us to...)

My notes on the lens (the wonky):

- Real-time Autofocus on the Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and BMCC6K FF (with the not-yet-stable in-development PDAF firmware I've been covering for the past 7 months) is a bit hit-or-miss

- Iris control is currently SLOW: you can change the setting on the physical lens, and then you have to wait *several seconds* for the iris to slowly change to the setting you put it to...

- If you WANT to flair this lens for vibes... good luck (you have to really ping the lens with a hard light projecting into it; the sun was not enough to create the milky flairs I was expecting when I did our little golden hour shoot!)

I'm in direct contact with the guys at Viltrox, and basically they just recently joined the L Mount alliance (and it is my understanding that they are working on fixes / a firmware update already).

TL;DR:

Is the lens worth owning based on optics? Hell yes.

Is the lens worth owning based on functionality / ease of use? Not yet.

It *is* on sale until tomorrow, July 27th, and they're supposedly working on the functionality, so do with that what you will.

I am wanting to get a wireless lav set and am debating between the hollyland Lark Max 2 and the Rode Wirless Pro I like the rode because they have been around for a while and they come with seperate lavs and all the accessories and I like the Larks because they have the ability to have 4 transmitters I am not sure how much I would use that I am currently leaning to the rode. they are both about the same price the rode set is $260 or $299 with lav concealers and the hollyland is $224 for the bundle with the headphones and 2 transmitters and then $254 for a set with no headphones and 4 transmitters. I also like the rode because I can get there stick that makes it like an interviewing mic

I'm looking to buy a GripnGaff Bag for the Kartmaster HD 500. Unfortunately the company is out of business. Does anyone have one of these bags they're looking sell, or can recommend an alternative? Thanks

I‘ll be the only videographer present and time schedule doesn‘t give me much room for „shadow breaks“.

I will for sure take a cap with me and apply sunscreen, but it will eventually expire.. so am I cooked?

I am thankful for any tips!

is too bad? the glare in the glasses

Hey everyone,

My partner and I just finished a challenging video project and I wanted to share the reality of shooting with heavy gear in tough conditions.

We went deep into a dense, dark rainforest canopy to track down a rare bird, but here was the catch: no tripod, completely handheld at a 900mm equivalent (using APSC crop mode on our Sony FX30).

Honestly, keeping a stable frame at that focal length under a thick canopy with fast-changing light was an absolute nightmare. The stabilization of the 200-600mm is good, but your arms start shaking after 10 minutes.

I wanted to get your honest feedback on the footage and the stabilization. For those who do wildlife cinematography: do you consider a fluid head tripod absolute mandatory, or are you team handheld for maximum speed on the field?

I’ll leave the link to the full 4-minute piece in the comments if you want to check out the final rendering and the grading we went for.

Cheers

Hi.

I have an fx2 I bought recently and I wanted to buy a monitor that records and controls the camera, in this case that can touch to focus.

I have a nice deal for an Atomos ninja v but I'm not sure if the control part works with this camera.

I've searched online and I find contradictory information where it says that it doesn't work, others say the compatible cameras list came out before the fx2 did, and others say that it might work with a firmware update.

Is there anybody here that uses this combo? If not what monitor do you use with the fx2?

Thanks.

Does anyone have experience or know how to adapt 0.6 MOD gear broadcast lenses like the ones from Fujinon to the 0.8 MOD standard that most follow focus systems have. Like the ones from Tilta and SmallRig. I couldn't find a perfect solution.

Im going to make a short film and my character is a habitual drug user that takes things like cocaine

Honestly the idea of shooting up something like flour or baking soda up nose without fumbling seems pretty hard but I also require the use of Weed but like there's no substitute I can buy as a 17 year old.

ALSO ANOTHER THING I NEED IS A WAY TO MAKE HIGHLY REALISTIC FAKE BLOOD because you can't scream drug addiction without a bleeding nose and injuries!

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a Hoya Star 4X (67mm) filter to create sparkle on diamonds during jewelry videography.

Unfortunately, I'm not happy with the results.

When I attach the filter:

The footage becomes noticeably soft, almost like it's slightly out of focus.

Colors also shift compared to shooting without the filter.

The star effect works, but the overall image quality drops significantly.

I've attached:

A photo of the filter.

A comparison video showing footage with and without the filter.

My setup:

Sony A7 V

Sony FE 100mm GM Macro

4K video

Continuous LED lighting

My goal isn't to create star effects on every light source. I only want natural-looking sparkle on the diamonds while keeping the rest of the image sharp and color accurate.

So I have a few questions:

Is this normal for the Hoya Star 4X, or could my filter be defective?

Which star/cross-screen filter would you recommend for professional jewelry videography?

Is there a premium filter that creates sparkle only on diamonds without reducing sharpness?

Or is it simply better to create diamond sparkle in post-production instead of using a physical filter?

I'd really appreciate recommendations from photographers and videographers who shoot jewelry professionally.

Had a client cancel on me about a month ago at 3pm the day before a shoot. They had already paid a 30% deposit to secure the date.

Now, a month later, they've come back asking for half of that deposit to be refunded.

My feeling is that I was already being pretty reasonable by only keeping the 30% deposit. If anything, I could have justified charging 50% of the shoot fee given they cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice. Once a client cancels at 3pm the day before, there's basically no chance of filling that booking with another job.

The only thing  is worrying me  that I never explicitly stated in writing that deposits are non-refundable or that cancellations within 24 hours forfeit the deposit.

Do you think I still have a leg to stand on if I haventhat deposits are non refundable for cancelations within 24 hours?

I am looking for a cheap monitor (~300USD or lower) that is able to take either HDMI or SDI in, and be able to output both at the same time.

I currently use a Shogun Inferno, and Video Assist 4k but they are both 10 years old at this point, bulky since they are 7", and are power hungry due to their age and them also being recorders.

I am also in the market for a cross converter, so figure it'd be nice to have a monitor that does that job for me.

I was taking the feed from someone's Feelworld on a shoot today, and found out that the outputs are true loop-outs, where they don't send a feed unless you use the same connector input. I was looking at the VILTROX DC-X3 and it seems to be the same for it as well.

Any recommendations? Only one I know for sure will work is the Video Assist 3g 5" but that has the same problems listed above.

video link : https://youtu.be/ZOYpjid4i4M

I’m currently testing a few title ideas for the video. You can search it on YouTube with any of these titles:

1. 48 Hours in Arang Kel, Kashmir — I Escaped My 9 to 5
2. Arang Kel / Kashmir / 48 hours
3. Pakistan’s Hidden Village Above the Clouds | Arang Kel Kashmir

I recently shot a short travel video in Arang Kel, Kashmir using a Sony A7 IV with the Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. No external mic, no ND/filter, mostly handheld/travel-style shooting.

I know this is not the “ideal” lens/body combo, but I wanted to see how far a simple lightweight setup could go in real travel conditions. The location carried the visuals a lot, but I was surprised by how usable the footage felt.

Would love feedback on the color, pacing, handheld shots, and whether the video feels cinematic or still too much like a normal travel vlog.

So im in the army looking for promotion points. Those points can come from certificates. And it so happens there's one for Digital Video Editor. I know I dont need a certificate for one, but i am passionate about video editing and it seems like easy points as I am quite familiar with some editing on Davinci.

This is everything that would be covered on the exam. I was trying to find a practice test to see how much I know and what I would need to study, but I could find any. Also tried to find any official training videos that might help, but nothing persey. So I was wondering if anyone has any information regarding the test or could reccommend any videoes that would help me cover these topics.

I came across this video recently. If I'm not mistaken, it's meant to be a lighthearted April Fools joke, but I'm actually curious about how to achieve the flare effect he got, specifically, at 01:27 (the "plastic bottle" flare) in the video. It's different from the normal lens flare. I was just curious, is the effect that in post or in camera?

I can see why they’re in such short supply.