Continuous Lighting + Wireless Mic

kalibre

kalibre

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So I've got my D4 on order and for the first time I'm going to be offering some video to certain business clients. Now, I've got a hell of a lot of gear for stills including studio and strobist setups, however there are a couple of bits I need to start with the video. I've sourced a slider, a stabliser, external monitor, fluid heads and a couple of other basic video bits. What I'm missing is continuous lighting and a lapel mic setup.

From the lighting I need a couple of cool daylight balanced heads with some soft modifiers so I can do product interviews and the like. This is a side-line so I don't mind going budget so long as it's reliable and the white balance is not too variable. Any recommendations?

On the lapel mic it's the same deal really, can be budget but the quality needs to be ok. Range is not an issue as I only need it to stretch to a few metres. Thoughts?

Lights seen so far that might fit the bill are:

http://www.karlu.com/karlite-daylite-kit-with-bag-p-12854.html
 
Look at my signature - but still look at the Lencarta Quadlites, because frankly they're the best budget continuous lighting that you can get:)

I would say that, but Advanced Photographer said it too, they reviewed a whole range of continuous lighting in November and the Lencarta Quadlites came best in test.

Sorry, can't help you with the lapel mic, I use one of the expensive ones. I did buy a very cheap one via fleabay once, it didn't work at all...
 
Thanks Garry. They look pretty good actually, the only downside (if I'm understanding correctly) is that they don't have a mounting system or reflector, meaning that other modifiers couldn't be used with them. Is that correct?
 
Exciting :D D4 looks to have got video to as easy to use and as good as it'll ever be from an SLR really... (pending canon's 4K thing of course...)

wireless mics and cheap don't go together. Simply don't exist if you need battery powered receivers. If you can get away with a mains rx, then you might be able to work something for a bit less than the industry standard battery sennheiser EW100's.

Other options:
- wired lapel mic and an extension cable (really not a terrible option, and cheap)
- Zoom H1/tascam equivalent recorder with a lapel mic plugged into it, the person just puts the recorder in their pocket. Has the downside of no monitoring, and you've got to sync in post, but it is 'wireless', and lets you also record ambient sound / use a mic plugged right into the camera as backup.

I'm afraid that I can't really comment on particular mics to use, I'm a camera operator not a sound guy - I've always just used sennheiser kit - but end of the day, you can spend anywhere from £15 to £600 on a lapel mic - get what you can afford /justify. I haven't used it, but some colleagues have had -acceptable- results with a £15 lapel from cpc. I wouldn't be surprised if it's not much different audiably to the £60 sennheiser ones that comes with their wireless packs tbh.



Personally, especially for products, I wouldn't get octoboxes, circular catchlights look nice in people's eyes, but the shape's more difficult to deal with reflections for products, fit into offices etc, and put up/down.

I won't comment on sales pitches, but bear in mind that pretty much all CFL lights themselves aren't much more than just lamp holders. The lencarta ones are designed however to use nice bright bulbs, unlike many others. They don't look a terrible choice by any means.

I'd suggest that you get at least one of these cheap LED panels, they can be used as everything from an on-camera light to providing neat rim light for interviews and headshots, all battery powered and neat. http://cheesycam.com/z96-vs-w12-led-video-lights/


edit: you mentioned a slider. Please, please, for the love of god, don't do the thing that every phillip bloom wannabe does and use it in every. bloody. shot. That is all :D
 
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Yes, that's right, although they can be used with an umbrella.

The problem with all products of this type is the physical size of the lamps - they're much too big for any of the 'standard' fittings, e.g. S-fit
 
Thanks for the advice. You're definitely eager as you've changed your profile camera to the D4 already! lol.

I'll look into the mic situation a bit more I think. Having a wired receiver is not much of an issue I think as I'm likely to lay down any narration from a wide shot and then have camera movement only on segments requiring no dedicated audio (for now). Good suggestion.

Also good point re the LED panels. From a stills perspective I hate on-camera flash so I avoided these panels up till now, although I never considered them for rim......
 
Thanks for the advice. You're definitely eager as you've changed your profile camera to the D4 already! lol.
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well noticed. It's been like that for about a year and a half. You're the second person to notice, the first PM'd me asking how I was able to get it early, lol. Fixed :D

Also good point re the LED panels. From a stills perspective I hate on-camera flash so I avoided these panels up till now, although I never considered them for rim......
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yeah, they're surprisingly powerful for what they are, dimmable, and neat for just throwing a wee bit of light in where needed. Worth it for £30 odd quid tbh, although the swivel brackets can be a bit pants. And a small amount of on-axis fill isn't always a bad thing for talking heads.

Is every-other shot ok?
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:P
 
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