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Best Rig for Shooting People in Public Places

Started May 3, 2021 | Discussions thread
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Markr041 Forum Pro • Posts: 10,078
Best Rig for Shooting People in Public Places
2

Not this:

This:

Shooting with "rigs" that have mounted mics (let alone mounted monitors) and long cinema zooms is not going to work among people - the rig shouts "Beware, I am taking video." It will disturb what is going on. You want people to feel comfortable and go about their activities, for this type of video.

The smallest full-frame camera with cinema features (10bit color, log gammas, power zoom) and effective stabilization and good AF is the Sony fx3. For audio I use earphone mics, which are of good quality and and have protection against the wind. And the most versatile small lens is the Sony pancake 28-60mm zoom lens (which actually collapses to be smaller than in the picture above).

The 28-60 lens slow, and it has a limited range on paper. Yet it seems to be sharp, have nice contrast, is quiet, fast to focus and to give a nice 3D effect from shallow DOF when needed from a full-frame camera. And the range is pretty useful.

I shot this video to explore its capabilities, getting in close, going for shallow DOF effects, using the zoom, and going wide:

4K frame grabs:

View: original size

View: original size

View: original size

View: original size

View: original size

And here is a video using the small rig to capture activities in a public place, where audio is also key:

You will see that no one is paying attention to me in the slightest, even though I am there up close and not moving from my location for a few longish shots (not snap and go).

 Markr041's gear list:Markr041's gear list
Panasonic ZS100 Olympus TG-5 Canon EOS M Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Nikon Z6 +5 more
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3
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