» Archive for March, 2011
13Mar Affordable 300 watt CFL lighting setup
People are always looking for affordable lighting rigs and I’ve received a number of e-mails asking for lighting ideas that fit into a $100 budget. I’m a big fan of CFL bulbs for their life span, power draw, and low temperature performance. There are also a lot of lighting options out there that use CFL […]
12Mar Cheap 1/4″ 20 Rail mount for your DSLR RIG.
Sometimes it’s nice to mount small items to your camera rails or other parts of your indie DSLR rig. One cheap option I wandered across is the Veho MUVI adapter. For $9 this little adapter will open up to over 1 1/2 inches and has a 1/4 20″ threaded adapter built in. It doesn’t close […]
11Mar $35 wireless Bluetooth Transmitter Receiver.
Just got home from the trip and found my next experiment in the post office box. On the left is a Stereo Bluetooth Transmitter ($19) and on the right is a Stereo Bluetooth Receiver ($16). I have to let them charge for about 4 hours before I can begin testing, but I’m hopping I can pair […]
09Mar Haier 7 inch monitor for $44, is it any good?
So I’ve seen this monitor pop up before, but the last time I looked, the price tag was over $100. It seems the fine company that everyone has heard of (Haier) has discontinued production on their 7 inch hand held LCD TV. Which means the price has been cut in half. 44 dollars gets you a […]
08Mar In search of a new Laptop.
It takes a lot of computer power to edit DSLR footage natively. I normally do most of my editing back home on my desktop, but I finished up early today, so I though I might head back to the motel, startup CS4 on my laptop, and do a little bit of editing. My laptop was […]
07Mar Want to travel light?
I’m spending this week out of town and since I only have interviews to film I decided to travel light. One zoom lens (canon 16-35mm f2.8), one prime lens (sigma 30mm f1.4), the t2i, Zoom h4n, and my trusty Sennheiser G2 wireless mic. I did pack a few extra memory cards and a few extra […]
06Mar Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 Review
It seems like people always want me to name one lens. Then they set a dollar amount and through in the words “best”, and “low light”. I’m often left with one lens in mind by the time I get done reading the e-mail. Enter the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens. At around $400 I would consider […]
05Mar Affordable camera bag by APE.
Camera bags are like pizza, everyone likes something different. I’ve tried 3 or 4 flavors and found that I currently like Ape Cases. For around $40 you get yourself a case that has room enough for 6 lenses, 2 camera bodies, and random extra hardware. The case is also water resistant and has plenty zippers and snaps […]
04Mar Zeikos T2i Battery Grip.
I’ve always enjoyed my Zeikos battery grip for the Canon 7d, so I went back to them for my Canon t2i Battery Grip. The price is a little bit higher then some of the other brands but it’s still quit a bit lower then the Canon brand battery grip. The buttons feel very nice and […]
04Mar Understanding focal Lengths on a Crop sensor.
I always seem to get questions asking if I think a focal length will “work” well for filming. This is sort of a subjective question. I have no idea what is a good focal length to you or what focal length will make you happy on your next film project. So instead of me using […]
