Filmmaking Gear I Was “Influenced” to Buy But I Low-key Regret
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- Let’s take a look back at the gear I've purchased over the years but ended up regretting. It would be nice to always make good buying decisions, but the reality is that we often get influenced to invest in great that we wish we hadn’t later. So in this video I’ll look back at some of my worst filmmaking gear investments so that you can hopefully avoid the same mistakes.
#filmmaking #techregrets #documentary #gear
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CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
2:11 - The most “famous” piece of gear I regret
6:01 - Don’t buy this exclusive drive
8:25 - I got sucked in by this piece of gear
10:43 - I regret buying this accessory
13:08 - One of the Worst pieces of gear I’ve ever bought
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Most of the videos on TH-cam raving about the Peak Design tripod were done by those who didn't have to buy it. Thanks for your honest appraisal
It's expensive for sure. I got it on the Kickstarter which helped. He's right about it being limited for moving shots, but it's so small and so lightweight it's an absolute must for the work I do. It's almost a joke how much smaller and lighter it is than my Three Legged Thing which was the previous smallest I could find for my needs. It's a travel tripod, and should only be appraised as such.
I watch a review and if they say “this was provided to me by…” I shut it off. I also review influencer playlist to see if they are genuine about using the product. They get products free, pitch it, then return or sell it and really not care much about the product other than they were sponsored to push it. You rarely see the product again on future videos. TH-cam is merely a marketing/influencer tool right now.
I use mine. It’s aluminum. It’s fine. Works for some stuff. The cost is high mainly for portability. Sometimes I use it for a light. Points made in video all valid.
Very true, just marketing…
I bought mine (aluminium) and think it's amazing, combined with a fairly cheap Smallrig fluid head which allows basic tracking easily, but I probably have fairly basic and specific needs for extreme portability, and I've never had any issues with the legs locking. That said they have a lifetime warranty, which seems worth chasing for issues mentioned in this video, with whether issues like that are fixed under that warranty really being a big point on something so expensive. If I had that issue and it wasn't covered under warranty I'd be livid. Being too lazy to chase your warranty and complaining about the price seems crazy to me, pick one. Mine will be two years old in April, and when I bought it, it was half the price of the carbon (more like 300 USD in my local currency).
That said I got suckered into the Peak Design Everyday 20L backpack and it's so poorly designed from a gear organisation/securement perspective that I've never taken it out of the house, I've tried to pack it 10 times and realised I just couldn't risk my gear. I checked one out a few times in store and had niggling doubts I should have listened to, instead of assuming all the positive reviews had actually used the bag in the real world. Something I now doubt as only one reviewer I saw noted the issues I had, and many never had pictures or footage of the bag packed, which is a new red flag for me. This one hits particularly hard due to the cost and never being able to use it at all. Not just disappointing, unusable.
We need reviews from people who actually buy the stuff with their own money. Thanks for putting this into perspective!
The low-key jab at the tube light, gym videos. LMAOO. 100% agree with you on that.
This is the info I wish I could get from every gear video. The real world professional use, and truth.
Plenty of channels give that…they’re just not huge/popular.
@@joenicklo what channels do you suggest?
@@joenickloI would like to know these channels too
@@joenickloI could also use some recommendations, channels like these is what I‘m really looking forward to
I think it's crazy that a $400 tripod breaks after two years while my trusty $25 tripod is still going strong after three years!
I've got a $60 manfrotto tripod that's 12 years old and still works like it's new.
I agree, my tripod knob has gotten loose and doesnt stick down any more. Leg levers are getting loose too
The most non confrontational confrontation I've ever seen 😂
"Tube light boxing scene”💀💀 so true. I commend your bravery. I too regret buying the RS2 Pro Combo, ended up just being an expensive wall accessory. I also regret getting the insta 360 R. It was so hyped but the quality is trash. What I learned from those is that any time you see multiple TH-cam / tech bloggers drop reviews on the same thing all around the same time, be highly suspicious and do your own research, wait a couple months for the hype to die down and look up reviews from smaller channels. T
"Better gear won’t automatically make you better at what you’re doing. Pro gear won’t turn an amateur into a pro, you’ll just be an amateur with pro gear.” This is especially true with videography, I’ve seen better videos filmed with iPhones than $3k+ cameras. It’s about story, subject, and substance. No one really cares about the aesthetic or megapixels.
💯
Great video! Thanks for being specific with gear, it’s personal to you and it means more that way.
I do have a comment to add at 11:21 talking about gimbal accessories: as a wedding filmmaker (who relies heavily on autofocus), I typically use a 24-105mm lens and attach the focus motor to the zoom ring. This allows me to very quickly change my focal length without taking my hands off of the gimbal handle. It’s definitely not what the part was meant to do, but does a great job for what I’ve repurposed it for!
Love the video, I think I'd enjoy seeing you do another one of these but including brands or versions of the equipment you DO recommend over the regrettable one
Great job Luc, we all could add more items to this list as we hang our head in frustration - Really cool to share and know you too have the same pains with this even after all the high end clients that you work with.
Great advice Luc! As always- good stuff from Luc!
Love the videos Luc. Appreciate the transparency 🙏❤
I love my Shinobi! Especially the focus peaking! After missing focus on an important shoot I knew I had to up my game...but budget is always an issue. That lil' guy packs a punch! Thanks again for the AWESOME content!
Appreciate you sharing & your honesty. Very refreshing.
My Raven Eye sits unused in my gimbal case, as well. Couldn't have said it better.
got that in the kit thinking it was a brilliant piece of tech... Only to discover a 5m HDMI worked better and needed less setup-time
I sold a good chunk like the raven eye and DJI motor the second I received the rs3 pro combo :)
Was a good deal like that
Loved it ❤Thanks for sharing.
This is so accurate and helpful, thank you for ngaf and give your opinion from your experience.
Not defending or lamenting the Peak Design tripod, but I purchased the aluminum one (also in Canada and also felt it was very expensive) due to the design videos they were releasing in parallel with their kickstarter campaign. Part of the purchase was for the tripod itself (compact, leg removal, inverting center column, etc), but they also highlighted serviceability as being a key feature in that you could disassemble and rebuild the tripod as part of their sustainability goals. Serviceability and a lifetime warranty was what won me over with the thought that if something broke/wore down over time, it would be covered/serviceable. I believe they show how to repair the slipping legs and have replacement parts on their site (in hopes that you'll be able to fix it).
That being said, I agree with everything you've said here: paying $400 USD, shipping to Canada, using it for a couple years, and having the thing basically cease to function as it was intended is unacceptable. The inability to move the ball head without the horizon skewing, or having to swap out the ball head and attach a new tripod head for panning sort of defeats the purpose. As a photography tripod its also limited, as I find the base of the standard head interferes with the center column when setting up for low/high angle vertical shots. Gear that makes you fight with it while carrying out your creative vision is always an annoyance.
great video! i'm not a filmmaker but this popped up in my feed, all i do is photography , well of my children. The peak design is a good one to talk about, i have a carbon fibre tripod, but i've been seeing all these reviews and ads in my feed i was tempted, until i saw the CAD price, ouch. The mist filter was something that's on everyone;s channel, and i was wondering about it. The gimble, i have one for my phone from 5 years ago and i've used it probably only 3x at most, it's sitting and collecting dust. great video!
I looked at that tripod when a friend boasted about how amazing it was. All the reviews from non influencers rip the thing apart, with the same issues you had.
One thing I always do now is read the reviews on BH/Amazon etc before buying stuff. It shows real world usage, not something somebody was sent for free, only to make a 10 minute video on it and then sell it.
I love your honesty mate. I can relate to the filters and raven eye too.😊
Hey Luc, excellent video, you make far more real friends with your honesty, thank you!
Interesting list - Sometimes it's a challenge deciding on needs vs. wants or what you think you need.
Mad respect for telling it like it is! Too many creators out there are raving about super ordinary gear
Great video mate. I woul love to see how you use a gimbal in documentary setting. What kind of shots you get would be super interesting.
love the honest opinions here! always so great to hear. Where I don't use the raveneye because it's HDMI and I run a Komodo but the follow focus is actually really nice since my camera's autofocus is not great. but depends on the situation.
I've been loving the 3 Legged Thing Jay as my travel tripod. That thing is solid and has an adjustable bowl.
Thanks mate! Loved this. May I ask what external viewfinder/monitor you recommend. I have an FX 6 and the monitor it came with is too small ( as you highlighted ) .
My primary 2 categories for gear are Need and Want. Keeps me under control.
I’ve got a great little trick! I can’t afford to buy all the tempting camera tech, don’t have the money. Saves me every time! 👍
Oh, and could you do something with the practical in the background? It stole my eyes the whole video 😅
Awesome video. Thanks for the insight.
informative video Thanks Luc.
Legit video and excellent advice - Thanks for producing valuable content!
The raveneye is great for clientmonitor, also for connecting without the gimbal, as checking the image and lighting while adjusting lights yourself
I found when I bought a Nas drive that it offers redundancy not a backup. It means you should be able to recover the drives, but the advice is to always backup to a second drive. The biggest benefit is chaining multiple drives for more storage
Raid 10 is the way to go if you’re really serious about having both speed and easily enough redundancy to restore any lost data if a disk is faulty.
On top of that you can have a backup that’s just a normal drives stored in a different physical location.
Hard to imagine anyone could need anything more than that.
So funny that the first item you regret was the Peak Design tripod. I was tossed up when it was first released between this and the Manfrotto Befree carbons because of the hype, I was in SF and tried it in person and definitely a bit too wobbly for video use. 4 years on my Manfrotto carbons still hold up well (not for heavy work), great for travelling as well.
All good points, Luc. Hate the Drobo. Wish I hadn't bought the Peak Design Tripod. Same issues you had. On the VND filters, I'm glad I have those since I'm in control of what I shoot most of the time. Thx for making this.
Years ago I used the Retrospect backup system which was proprietary. Did I ever regret going with that! The problem is that, if you want to restore from a backup, you have to use the same device you used to do the backup with. I have tons of backed-up projects that I can't restore now. As for the OWC enclosures, I've owned two Mercury Rack Pros. Both not only died on me but caused entire RAID arrays to get corrupted. I managed to retrieve the data using Disk Drill (an absolute must and I couldn't recommend it enough!) which saved my butt! As for enclosures, I replaced those OWCs with a Midiasonic Probox which works just fine. I also have a couple of OWC Thunderbolt hubs and both have been suspicious of causing corruption on other drives that were attached to them. I have now put a big "X" on anything OWC!
good tip, thanks for sharing...never heard of midiasonic, but I'll have a look!
I just got into photography and some people gave raving reviews for Peak Design but i just could bare to spend that much on their gear and bags. No regrets and happy to hear your honest review.
Luckily for me, the Peak Design travel tripod did not seem to fully cover my use cases. I felt that I would be better served with getting separate tripods for specific uses... many times had considered Drobo for backups, but never pulled the trigger... I acquired the VND filters for my matte box before deciding to add the VND+Mist filters... I upgraded to the regular DJI RS3 gimbal, but I might regret that decision in the near future since the new Tilta Nano II can be integrated with the more expensive RS3 Pro kit... I decided to, "buy once, cry once," when it came to an on-camera monitor, I chose an Atomos Ninja Ultra. My mirrorless cameras can take advantage of the ProRes Raw and 8K support.
... I was able to keep most of my videography gear impulse buying to a minimum, but the Tilta Nano II follow focus system may be the one that I end up regretting. I acquired it upon its release and on impulse while picking up a few things at B&H. The box is still unopened!
Another excellent video, Luc. Thanks. FYI, Drobo went out of business in January last year, so you may want to start planning a migration strategy now before you're forced to. As for the proprietary lock-in, I've always assumed that's the case for any RAID; i.e., I don't think you can take the drives from one vendor's box and stick them in another's and expect them to work without reformatting (and losing all your data). I could be wrong, but you should confirm that with whoever you end up gong with. You may also want to consider what you'd do if your dwelling burned down, taking the RAID with it. Is anything backed up to the cloud?
I believe it depends what sort of RAID set-up you use. If you just do simple mirroring (RAID1) you should be able to use either of the drives normally like any other drive. But if you do striping, you won't be able to use the drives outside of the array, and maybe you can't read them outside of the ecosystem they were made in if the striping is done in a proprietary way. So if you do RAID0, where data is striped over 2 or more drives and isn't mirrored, and one drive dies, you lose all your data. If you do RAID5 where it is both striped and mirrored, if a drive dies you still have a back up, but you still can't read drives individually - they need to remain in the array.
Actually, I don't think I've got RAID5 quite right, but regardless, striping improves performance but you do need to be careful that isn't at the cost of data safety
@@LisaFrostPhotoYou had it right, Lisa, with an asterisk. With Raid 5, if you lose one drive in the array, it will automatically rebuild itself. You lose no data. You pull out the bad drive and replace it, and it redistributes it back to use all the drives. RAID 6 works the same, but you can lose 2 drives and retain all your data after it automatically rebuilds.
I've just heard....and yeah, I said that badly, but you're absolutely right!
I have many of the same gear regrets. I wanted to give you the heads up - Drobo actually went out of business last year. I just had to swap my whole life’s work over to another system without the proprietary format.
What did you go with, and how did you do the switchover? I have a 5 bay Drobo, and it looks like there's no way around buying at least 3-4 drives with a new system (OWC probably) and transferring it.
@@capturingthemachine Over time my needs ended up changing. I ended up swapping to a QNAP NAS. I only kept the current year's projects on the Drobo, so in my case, I bought a couple 18TB external drives, and offloaded the footage so I had 2 copies. Then I swapped the drives from the Drobo into the NAS, and formatted into my prefered RAID format. Then loaded the footage onto the NAS from the external drive. As far as I can tell, there isn't really a way around buying a couple drives.
@@NickHouchin thank you!
I loved this video, and I cannot argue with your experience, but the PD tripod has worked wonders for me when I’m traveling and running and gunning. I’ve brought that thing (sometimes two at the time) to lots of shoots including Africa and Canada, and they’ve held up pretty good.
Funny enough, the Andycine monitor absolutely failed me on the 2nd gig I had it out on, whole wedding day shot without an external monitor far from home.
Returned it, got the Desview r6 which has held up for over 25 gigs now!
So glad I found this channel and a huge thank you to all of your videos. Really good to know, what is not really usefull. I am getting slowly drawn piece by piece into the documentary world (well, mostly historical and scientific) and made some videos alreay (but they are published on another account). :) I started out 2 years ago with a Canon 600D, am using now a sony a6000, with some lavelier microphones and a recorder (tascam Dr-10l it is now, started with a Zoom H1n) and will be upgrading some stuff througout the year, since I am planing some shoots at local museums around here. Thank you again and keep it up..
nice one, glad to help out and happy shooting!
@@LucForsyth Thank you again mate. Meanwhile I am going trough some more of your great and helpfull videos.
Do you have trouble filing a warranty claim with Peak Design being in Canada?
Hey luc, not sure if you’ll read this but I’ve been watching your videos for a couple months now. Learned and applied a lot to my own documentary filmmaking. Hoping you can make a video on this one day or maybe someone glancing the comments and provide some insights as well.
What’s types of tape do you carry with you as a doc dp/doc cam op? I know there’s a ton 1st acs carry around in the narrative world, but how does that translate over to us doc filmmakers? What should we omit/keep considering we don’t need things like talent markers, etc.? At the moment I only carry black gaff and red painters tape for media. Anything else I can add?
I carry 2" gaffer, 1" in blakc and white, and 1" paper tape in green and red. No need for talent markers in doc, rarely do any blocking and if I really need a mark I can use tape. Lots of sharpies, good multiool, set of allan keys, rocket blower, bongo ties, lens tissue would be a good start!
Thank you for your presentation. Although an mot on your level of experience and skill, I do understand your feelings. I do have a few of my own as well.
Your video made me think about gear I regret buying, and there is a lot. The one that comes immediately to mind is my powered slider. It is an excellent slider and it works really well; however, I don’t use it because it takes too much time to set up. I shoot live theatre, concerts and dance shows with 3 cameras normally. It usually takes me an hour to set up. In a lot of these theatres you have to set up in the audience seating which makes setting up the slider even more difficult. I also regret buying expensive video tripods because getting them into the seating area is very difficult.
The peak design tripod is a photography tripod not a filmmaking tripod. Surprised anyone recommended it otherwise.
We did use them for an iPhone kit we needed to mail out for people to film themselves during the pandemic. It allowed us to go down an entire case size than next smallest full tripod we could find. We got the aluminum ones. Made up the cost in shipping first time we used it.
Great video, Luc!
I enjoyed the video! I don't get as nice of gear as you but I totally get your option on most filters. I was SO excited to get one and found that I RARELY use it. When I went to Japan I got a few great night shots with all the lighting blowing out in a nice way, but 99% of the time I'm recording without it on. Fell for the hype.
Yeah, it’s easy to get caught in gear that doesn’t pan out. Sometimes we just get sucked into the feeding frenzy of TH-cam gadget influencers. I certainly have.
Regarding travel tripods, I’ve had great luck with the very inexpensive one from iFoto. It’s held up very well and goes on nearly all my shoots as a backup or for use to support a client monitor, secondary slider support or makeshift light stand.
I also bought the Pro version of the DJI RS2, and think the RavenEye was not worth it. The tech wasn’t ready for prime time. The RS2 is a fine gimbal the Raven Eye stays behind.
Sorry to hear about the Dropbox fiasco. I think companies should be forthcoming about limitations of proprietary tech.
I have the Peak Design Travel Tripod (Aluminum version) and primarily use it for a static interview shot. But even now, 1.5 years in, the legs are also starting to loosen on me. So it looks like I may have to start looking into other options soon! 😅 great video as always!
Like, the tightening of the clamps that let the legs slide up and down? All you have to do is tighten the screws with the included hex tool. These tripods are rock solid.
@@nicklarovere it’s a great tripod, I agree. And I do tighten the legs. I was just basing my comment on Luc’s experience that once he started having to tighten the legs, they started loosening more frequently and became a bit of a hassle.
Great job! FYI I wouldn't recommend an OWC RAID drive bay. They use software RAID, so your computer is doing all the heavy lifting of data management. Plus, after two years your existing license expires and they want you to buy another license in order to use the software. They don't go so far as to hold your data hostage, but you don't get any software updates when your operating system updates.
Software RAID in general is not such a bad thing. Even if server hardware comes with built-in proprietary hardware RAID, I would use Linux software RAID on it so as not to be vendor locked in, and be content with the impact on the CPU.
I don’t use the raid. Mine works fine
@talonsix Drobos use hardware raid, custom controller in the box.. but it is garbage. Software raid is fine if implemented correctly, ZFS is a prime example, one of the most used implementations, and enterprise ready.
@@PeteBoyd There is little to no impact on any modern CPU with Linux Raid, or ZFS as I mentioned earlier. They are more RAM intensive tha anything else. Current assumption is about 1G for every TB or storage for ZFS, not sure what the Linux raid requirements are, but probably not much more, and most of that RAM is used to cache before write to disk.
Dropo is bankrupt. Kaput. OWC rips you off for $79 every 2 years. Not happy with them either.
What’s your replacement recommendation? Specifically for the small travel tripod?
What was that andycine model? Was that C6 or C5? I personally own C5 and i just can't forgive myself that fan noise, apart from other stuff. Wanted to grab (again) shinobi exactly as u mentioned even tho its pretty old now. Thanks for sharing and keep it up!
Thanks for the warning!
About mist filters you are correct the Movie industry does not use Mist filters. Maybe for one specific shot and that's it But for the most part its slight haze when needed not for every single shot like most Cinematic TH-camrs.
Yup, you pay colorist and editors for that.
It's pretty easy to fake in post, just apply blur in scene linear and lower the alpha a bunch and you're like 90% of the way there. Or just the Scatter plugin
Was so close to upgrading to the DJI rs3 pro combo. Just got the pro instead and will stick with it. Thanks
Yep, we've all done it. Especially going for the "extra" bells and whistles of the influencers that run up the cost, but as you said - I never use them! Ugh! Thanks.
I'm usually pretty careful bit to buy gear just because after watching a youtube video I suddenly found a new need I didn't know I had.
I do a lot of run & gun, so I was initially interested in peak design tripod, but couldn't afford it. A year or few later an Ulanzi knock off came out. Cheaper, better leg extension sustem, better for video etc. uses f38 locking system that I already use etc. so I bought it.
I used it once.
It's just too flimsy and I'm so much more comfortable with my older tripod that I just rather carry it around even though the form factor is much bigger.
I actually should put it on sale, but apparently the one time I used it I also lost one of the rubber stoppers in one of the legs.
GREAT VIDEO MAN!
Thank you for respecting our time and creating timestamps
I definitely regret the raid 5 hard drive setup and raveneye as well. Great list and should be more videos like this. I returned the shinobi for no rule of thirds grid lines
is the sony FX9 still worth buying in 2024 or should I wait? in context im looking to start shooting a documentary and I own a sony a7siii I need an A Cam.
Is there any reason for getting a combined ND Mist filter over just using two separate filters in combination?
Good video man. I’m glad I stumbled upon this. As I am easily swayed to buy new technology. Thank you
While I'm just learning to film art videos and car show stuff. I can tell you that my painting gear comes with the same issues. I just. spent $400 on paint brushes that several will never be used after I'm done with the video. So I appreciate this video. I can only afford to waste money on one end. Thank you Luc.
I feel all of this. Also, the Shinobi is one of my favorite pieces of kit to use.
The Coman Ulanzi Zero V is an awesome alternative to the peak design. it cost me 300$, and it has a great video head, it's just a little bit taller when packed due to the video head but even smaller than the peak design if you take off the video head.
good tip. thanks!
Thanks for making this thoughtful video. I too suffer from buying gear I don't use much. I have the Raven Eye, the Peak CG tripod etc etc. Because I travel all over and it is usually just me filming I thought the Peak Design would be great. But You are right... it is only good for a lockoff... I rent the Sachtler FLOWTECH when I need a fast tripod that does it all.
Sigh... Excellent video and great stories about some poor choices. But I need to come out of the woodwork and say my peace about the Atomos Shinobi 5. I've had it for about 3 years now and for the most part, it has done the job and earned its keep many times over. Cannot argue with that. But I actually can't count the number of times it has gone nuts on me on set and made people and shots wait for me to reboot it. Sometimes I lose picture and it begins an infinite power cycle loop. Other times the image suddenly appears washed out and missing dozens of rows of horizontal pixels. Hilariously other times it just decides to flip the image upside down. I honestly don't get it. But this past month I bought a SmallHD Cine 5 and.. what a world of difference the extra investment has made. Lesson learned lol. In fairness, I also acquired a Shinobi 7 in the intervening years and I love that monitor. Perhaps I just got a problem child Shinobi 5.
Good video! Peak Design outright sucks - intentionally! spots designed to break, parts that wear out and have to be purchased again.
As for the mist filters, I just used instructions to spray stuff onto ordinary filters... took a few attempts to make it good.
The Dobro, ugh! Bad news - use an ordinary PC, install hard drives, install your choice of backup software. Lastly, don't use a small chassis and cool it well with exhaust fans.
thanks for your honest reviews, thats why i'm following you, because then i know i don't get any hyped trendy stuff.
Great video!
Bang on with the Raven Eye. I don’t think I have ever used it despite it being such a god piece of tech.
Well said sir yeah I would agree with pretty much everything you said, and we do all get caught up into those things. We love gadgets and we love the newest trend and everybody wants to be thinking that their videos will look just as good as somebody else’s videos, and all the stuff when really what we should be trying to do is set ourselves apart from what everybody else is doing.
Doesn’t the PD tripod have lifetime warranty tho? Did you get it repaired?
As for the monitor, I have one of those Andycine Ultrabright but it's the 7" version. I bought it mainly for outdoor shoots when it's really bright during the day. It works fine for that and as far as peaking and false colour are concerned, I use the ones built-in the cameras (Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro and Pocket Cinema Camera 4K) and that seems to work just fine. Years ago I worked in music stores and honestly, one of the reasons I left retail sales is because I had zero confidence in about 90% of what we sold. Let's face it, most of this stuff is at the end of the day, all crap. Only a few things we have really are worth any money we spend on them. I almost always buy used gear anyway which for the most part, what I actually use seems to have been worth the money... so far! LOL
nice, glad it's working for you! But totally agree, used gear all the way!
Thank you for calling out the PD travel tripod hype
You brave Luc, you brave - sending love
I got the Shinobi 7" monitor myself and I'm glad I did. I don't use it as much as I want to, yet. But I don't do enough video yet either. But I'm glad I didn't cheap out. However, I totally got the pro combo for my gimbal and have never used the follow focus and raven eye. Never even set it up. I've wanted to several times, but didn't have a use case for it. So it just sits in the case. Awaiting the day I'll use it 😂
Never understood the hype for PD travel tripod ... I mean ... I guess influencers got good cut on them :D.
The PD tripod is an outstanding option for the right kinds of jobs. It's not a substitute for a fluid head tripod. But if you do a lot of travel and just need something that takes minimal space and is going to take a beating the PD tripod is excellent. I've used mine for over 2 years now all over the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, taking it on flights and into the woods and wilderness to remote areas for numerous shoots. Sometimes you want to minimize weight carried.
It's been great especially for situations where setting up something like an FX3 in a small space or with a backpack and you need all your gear with you to move around, is valued.
@@nicklarovere Glad it works for you.
But I just checked the price of the travel PD tripod in my country and it's more than half of Sachtler Flowtech 75 legs price. Ridiculous. I just got carbon fiber travel tripod with very good ball head for ~160$. It's a bit heavier than PD, and probably does not pack that well but it's 1/4th of the price here :o
The Raveneye has actually been an awesome investment for me, but by that same turn it's something I don't reach for EVER on my documentary shoots. Then again I very rarely reach for a gimbal on a doc shoot either. Where it's been valuable for me is client work and lower budget run and gun commercial shoots, where I can shoot signal from my cam out to an ipad and let the director monitor my shots wirelessly. I shot a commercial for the super bowl last week (local station spot not national) where we shot talent on location on a very short timetable and having the ability to line up my shot and let the director either give me the go ahead or make adjustments without having to look over my shoulder or wait for playback was a huge time saver. That said it kinda occupies a weird level of use case, the Raveneye is not as flexible or as high end as something like a hollyland wireless system which you'd use on bigger productions, and it's an extra doo dad to fuss around with on smaller productions where video village typically isn't a thing. It's kinda a solution for people who sometimes need a low key version of wireless on set monotoring in their bag but don't need it every day or a really good version of it, I'd rank it as either a 3 to 4 times a year solution, or a backup solution to a higher end system, and definitely not a must own for most doc shooters.
I could see that working well in that kind of set up...not common for me, but it's good to keep in mind
PD tripod doesn't really count since you went out and bought it a SECOND time. The key is use a different head as you mentioned. I beat the snot out of mine and have had zero issues. If yours broke, just reach out to PD and they will repair/replace ez peezee.
Luc, I’m looking for a backpack to carry my equipment alongside layers, food, climbing equipment etc for long days in the field. I’ve had the lowepro 450 for several years and it’s great but I need something with greater capacity and comfort for the type of work I’ve been shooting. Thoughts? I shoot climbing documentaries and other outdoor related stories.
I see the bags you’ve linked in your description. Would you recommend anything different given my use case?
Nope. No enemies here. Bless you, you nailed it. I have the FX3 as well. I would love to dump my Ronin 2s, the "used twice" PD tripod, and thank god I never went for the matte box filters or 12k hard drive system. Hilarious how we all fell for the same gear! I also bought a Sachtler tripod...2k. Add that to the list hehe
I appreciate honest videos like this. I think most, if not all of us have fallen into the trap of; that TH-camr seems legit, so his recommendation must be solid...only to find out later, that same TH-camr has some sort of sponsorship deal with a certain company; hence his/her strong recommendation. I salute you for this one sir!
RE: Drobo: Though OWC does have some killer enclosures, their software raid is still _kinda_ a lock-in. But vs doing a traditional RAID enclosure, you kinda gotta pick your battles for IT investment vs convenience
I bought the Peak design and it was a disappointment. The gimble is the other one for me, I have one but never use it. I have also purchased cheap monitors and been dissatisfied with peaking and the 1980s video game look of the scopes.
Jason
Yeah, so on the Drobo… they actually went out of business years ago. I'm in the same boat, and I'm just trying to find the funds to copy the data off mine to another large volume. You should either look into something like a Synology or QNAP, or a new 4 or 8 bay straight RAID volume. I happen to have a few redundant QNAPs lying around the house, and I'm probably going to end up splitting my data across a few of those before retiring the Drobo and moving the drives to re-use in another enclosure.
I am finding the Ulanzi ombra video tripod with a fluid head to be a solid piece of gear for weddings. It's like the peak design tripods in that it is light weight and compact, but also has a fluid head top and is only $90 US. Love the video!
Me too!
Nah it cant handle a fx3 with vmount and a 24-105
A very cathartic video to watch and it was greatly appreciated. I’m just a humble smart phone filmmaker but even I have my gear regrets namely the Insta360 gimbal. Terrible design, weak motors and completely useless for almost everything. I too was sucked in by the hype… 😢
I totally agree with you. The #PeakDesign carbon fiber tripod is on my wishlist. As you mentioned, the aluminum version has an issue, but Peak Design offers a lifetime warranty, right? Since it's not physical damage, we should be able to get it replaced, correct?
One of the biggest problems starting out is buying the wrong things. You only learn with time and I wasted so much money on stuff I don't use. Also many things need power or stands or ways to rig it up and it sucks to get 90% of the way to your vision and then decide it isn't worth it and finding an easier and cheaper solution. However sometimes the opposite happens. Sometimes you buy something in ignorance and only realize years later how good and useful it is.
You have to replace the head on the PD. It's a great tripod. I use 3 CF PD for weddings and it fits the carry-on.
I have another tripod that is bulkier for regular gigs.
Great title, and yes!! I've been wooed to buy gear that is now collecting dust. I love Peak Design, but didn't buy this. way, too much money. Now I'm really glad I didn't buy it. Thanks for your honest opinions.
I get by pretty good by looking for oddities used or at the goodwill... I've found nearly complete green screen fold out kits missing one screw, Manfrotto tripods, along with the ccasional Craigslist Ronins, and i try to always consider manufacturer refurbs.(IE: drones and lenses) makes up for the occasional stupidly mandatory $200 memory card... hard to skimp on those...
"the boxing scene with tube lights" hahahh 🤣 for real