Post Switch to Sony, Pre Official Video Launch
What’s in our bag?
We’ve never ever done a post like this, and with our coming addition of videography to the biz and our recent switch to Sony, now seems like a great time! I’ll tell you all the gear without getting too technical (tbh, AJ is the gear head. He knows all the specs and makes sure we’ve got the most professional, top line things. If they feel good, shoot good, and look good, I’m on board!!)
I’ll also tell you about my beloved camera bag, and what we use right now to film video, both in-home and out in the wild! Right now we use our in home set up for our YouTube channel, and for a few promo type videos as well.
Let’s dive into our bag, shall we?
If we’ve shot together, or if you’ve been in front of my camera, you have probably seen me lugging around my big ole pink bag. It’s my ole faithful, I’ve had her for over two years now! I remember when I upgraded from a backpack + little bag scenario – it changed everything!
My bag is an Evermore from House of Flynn and let me tell you, I’ve put her through the ringer. She’s gotten wet (sorry, babe), she’s been accidentally filled with leaves, she’s had three year olds messing with her, and not even a scratch! Seriously, she has held up so well. I’m a loyalist to House of Flynn now!!
Even if I’m doing a small shoot where I’ll only need my basic lenses (my 50mm, 85mm, and maybe 35mm – more on that later!) I bring out my big pink baby no matter what! I keep all our cards in the front pockets, our back up batteries, biz cards, my wedding day emergency kit (tissues, anyone!?), and our neck straps!
We have a separate camera backpack that AJ will use. It has a small compartment at the bottom that actually comes out where we keep all of our flashes. His go-to lenses and camera live in the backpack, as well as our snacks (essentials) and flash gels if we need them!
Now let’s talk our Sony gear!
But like I said, in a pretty basic way! 🙂 AJ and I used to shoot on Canon, but recently switched to Sony when we made the leap to offer video! I will never ever go back to Canon, even if there are some pros over the Sony. The Sony’s pros waaaay outweigh the Canon ones!
When it comes to tech, AJ is of the mind that if we’re gonna do it, we should do it right! When we bought our first Sony, we were intending to use it supplementally to our Canon gear, and purchased an A7SII primarily for video. But we were obsessed with it! So we actually returned it, and went for the good stuff!
I shoot on a Sony A9 and AJ shoots on a Sony A7 III. They are really comparable, almost to a T. But there were some things the A9 offered that just gave ease of mind (eg. no risk of banding during silent shooting mode) and the video specs were better! Lots of people debate the merits between the A7RIII and the A7III, but for our purposes, the A7III won us over because of the better auto/eye-focusing technology, and we really had no need for the expansive megapixel count provided by the R. Most of our clients don’t want billboards made 🙂
My favorite part – the lenses!
When we first branched into Sony and were still shooting Canon, we opted for a pretty basic Sony 35mm Sonnar f/2.8 that would suffice for our in-home filming tasks. It’s the teeniest tiniest lens I have ever seen and I love it for that reason. To be honest, I don’t shoot on the 35mm very much, save family formals and if there’s a big beautiful venue that needs it’s moment. So it does the job!
The next lens we got was the Sony 50mm Planar f/1.4 G-Master, and it is my favorite lens in the whole entire world. Dare I say, it’s better than the Canon equivalent and much quicker. I used to swap lenses out quite a bit when I shot on our 5D MkIV, but I pretty much stick with this 50mm because it’s so perfect!
Side note – it has a wheel on the lens for the aperture – taking me back to my school days! AND if that wasn’t cool enough? You can flick and switch and change it from a smooth scrolling wheel to a click wheel…! What a fun feature!! I love it!
And for video vs stills?
When I’m filming, I’m exclusively using the 50mm. I’ll have my Peak Design neck strap on, and our Rode VideoMicro microphone on top if it makes sense for the environment.
When I’m just shooting photo, especially for portraits, my other go-to lens is our Sony 85mm f/1.8. It’s equally dreamy to the Canon 85mm we had, and so much smaller. We watched lots of YouTube videos on the difference between the f/1.8 and the f/1.4 G-Master, and we learned they’re basically the same…with a cool $1,300 in between them…! Yikes!
On wedding days for the details and especially during bridal sessions, I’ll whip out our Sony 90mm f/2.8 G-Master macro lens. It has super interesting focus ring. When you move it, it’ll zoom in a lot on your subject so you can get the exact right focus you need and zoom back out when you let go. It’s a thousand times more accurate than our Canon 100mm macro that we used to have.
Lastly, our big monster lens that we love more than anything. We decided to splurge on the Sony 70-200 G-Master f/2.8 Because it’s the lens AJ uses the most! When he’s second shooting around me, he’s usually got this lens on his camera exclusively.
Real talk, I hated the Canon 70-200 we had. It was ginormous, super heavy, always kind of hazy?? and super soft. AJ knew how to work it, but if I had to it was such a pain in the butt.
That said, the Sony 70-200 is a dream and not gonna lie, I want one too! Even though it’s a big ole lens, it’s still super light and it’s tack sharp. It’s much easier to use and the compression is just to die for! When I switch over to it during toasts, speeches, first dances, etc. I’m no longer mad about it 🙂
Our flash set up
Our flash set up is much more simple than with Canon! We used to have four 600EX II-RTs and one of them barely got used during the reception. When we switched, we went with Godox flashes that have a built in radio system just like the 600s. But we only got 3! We’re researching video lights to add that into the mix which I’m stoked about! Not only for video, but for photo too! I always love it when videographers pull out their lights – it makes the photos that much better!
On the tops we have our MagMod diffusers – the same ones we had with our Canon flashes! We have two MagSpheres (my favorite) and two MagBounces that usually live on our off camera flashes. I love this system with the magnets and the softness of the light. I’ll always stick with Magmod!
We’ve reached the bottom of the bag, my friends!
Not pictured or described: our endless SD cards that exist all over our bag, extra batteries, a second Peak Design strap, probably thousands of lens hoods we pull out when it’s sunny, a baby Manfrotto tripod I use at home, 4 big heavy light stands I want to retire, and our MacBook that travels with us to weddings to AJ can cull during the reception!
I hope my tech talk wasn’t too intense for you. Like I said, AJ is our gear manager 😉
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