The PERFECT Camera Rig!

this is the perfect camera rig or at the very least the perfect rig for me it is a culmination of 10 years worth of tinkering with camera gear and ergonomic lessons learned from filming hundreds of projects and in this video i'll show you how to build a rig like this for your own camera how it can transform in seconds to meet your needs and why you might need a camera rig like this in the first place every single filmmaker has different styles of shooting and different requirements for their day-to-day rig over the years i have

found that i like a really compact camera system like you see here and while i have used several different shoulder mounted systems and built several over the years i really find that i end up bringing the camera down and kind of in front of me like this and while camera or sensor stabilization has improved immensely since i started filming 10 years ago i still find that good old-fashioned weight gives me the most natural looking handheld when it comes to a rig like this another critical feature for me is speed i hate having to tweak rigs

on the go or use tools to make slight changes on set with this setup you can change up the rig in seconds and everything is powered off of a single battery i also hate how most rigs don't sit firmly or flat on a table or the ground this camera rig has a really really strong stand built into it so you can set it down like this now you have two hands to be able to make changes and adjustments to the rig it's not flopping around on you which is just the worst finally i really like

my rigs to be able to drop into a case without having to tear everything down this whole setup slips perfectly into my favorite case which is the porter brace cargo case for those of you who might be curious while i built this rig for my sony a7s iii you could use it with most any camera that said cameras with a flip out screen work best as you can see the display here folds perfectly in line with the rig so i can still see my settings and if i need to i can still flip it out

so that i can view it while filming but if i need to get it out of the way it's as simple as that in a second we'll dive into building this rig from scratch but i want to quickly go over the other great features of this setup the monitor and evf which we'll talk about can be attached and removed very quickly using these nato rails which are all over the camera rig there's a top handle which also has a nato rail functionality letting you quickly remove it and change up the setup there's also a focusing

system which allows me to with one finger change the focus while also holding on to the camera grip and of course i can remove it completely if i'm using auto focus lenses or just replace it with a really nice wooden handle and of course if i need to i can completely remove the camera from the entire setup here are just a few configuration options all of which can be set up in seconds thanks to the quick release plates and nato rails on this rig i did a quick calculation and there are over 20 different setups

that you can build using the different modules that we'll be talking about a little bit later now let's start building this rig from scratch links to everything will be in the description and we'll begin with what i call the core rig this is the heart of the camera setup and it allows us to quickly add accessories the first thing i did was add a cage to the camera this gives us several mounting options for other gear for my a7s i went with the tilt-a-half gauge for the a7 s3 as i really wanted to keep this

rig as compact as possible an optional mod would be removing the a7s's port covers i hate dealing with those darn flaps so i just removed them following a tutorial i found online which i'll include in the description next we need this 15 millimeter camera base plate and a pair of six inch 15 millimeter rods add the rods to the base plate so it looks like this next i took this small rig arca swiss quick release added the plate to my a7 s3 and bolted the clamp to the camera base plate you can use any quick

release plate but i exclusively use the arca swiss standard and this particular plate has a really nice side latch making camera removal a breeze next we can add the incredible kessler quick stand this big chunk of aluminum does two things for us first is actually an arca swiss quick release plate allowing us to mount the entire rig to tripods or other support gear but it also has four little rubber feed pads that keep our rig from tipping over or scratching up surfaces now let's work on the battery mount for this rig i went with the

new nitsy knightsy mini v mount plate this thing has a d-tap and a barrel jack on both sides of the unit and has a microscopic footprint compared to standard battery plates to mount this to the rig i used a cheese plate connected to a 15 millimeter rail block from there i was able to bolt the battery plate onto that setup and add it to the rest of the rig for batteries you could use standard sizes but to keep things compact i'm using these awesome little cane tv mini batteries at 145 dollars each you really can't

beat these little things they give you an additional two dtap jacks and even a usb jack on the top for additional stability when filming i added a 15 millimeter rosette adapter and this sweet wooden handle to the left side of the rig's 15 millimeter rods this makes holding the camera much more comfortable and is perfect in those scenarios where you'll be using video autofocus if you need to focus manually you can quickly remove the handle and throw it in a bag now we can add our camera to the core rig connect a d-tap dummy battery

to the camera and the battery plate tuck the excess cables between the camera and the battery plate and with that our core rig is complete next we will work on three accessory modules which include a top handle a monitor or evf and a wireless focus control module let's start with the top handle there are tons of top handles out there but i opted for this tiny nato top handle to install it simply add a nato rail to the top of the camera cage and slide the handle on these nato rails have little locking pins so

the handle won't accidentally slide off of the camera the handle i'm using isn't the cheapest at around 75 dollars but i love how compact it is you could of course swap it out for something much cheaper like this 35 version to complete the handle setup i'm going to add another nato rail to the front of the handle this will allow us to easily add and remove other accessories like a monitor which we'll talk about next the monitoring module consists of either an hdmi display or an evf for the display i went with the atomos shinobi

as it is only 300 and weighs almost nothing to attach this 5 inch monitor to the camera you can add a nato friction monitor mount these are great as you can adjust the angle of the monitor with one hand and since it has a nato clamp removing the monitor takes seconds to power the monitor we need a battery adapter as the shinobi doesn't have a power input luckily atomos sells this nifty battery eliminator which works great with the angled male-to-male dc cable i bought on amazon the shinobi monitor accepts any voltage between 6.2 volts and

16.8 volts our v-mount battery plate supplies 14.8 volts which is perfect for the monitor if you end up going with a 12-volt monitor make sure you get a power cable that steps down the voltage finally i added one of my favorite hdmi angle cable to the setup and with that we have a monitor that can quickly be removed from our top handle or we can replace the top handle with just the monitor for an even more compact setup while the shinobi is nice and bright i often find myself wanting an evf on my rigs viewfinders

give you another point of contact while also giving your eye a miniature theater to compose your shots portkeys recently released this l-i-e-v-f and at 400 this is easily the best and most affordable option for setups like this and fortunately for us this evf has a similar voltage range as our monitor so we can simply add another monitor mount to the evf and swap between the shinobi and this evf without changing our cables this evf has a nader rail built onto one side so for even more flexibility i added a dual nato clamp magic arm which

makes finding the perfect evf angle very easy unfortunately this particular magic arm with the dual nato clamps isn't really available online so you could purchase two of these nato arms and put them together to get the same thing lastly for manual focus lenses which i use a ton i built this focus module this allows me to change my focus from the side handle mounted to the left of the rig and yeah yeah yeah i know i could just do this and manually change the focus of my lens but this is so much more secure and

whenever you're doing this number you're not going to keep your rig as stable to build this module i stole the motor 15 millimeter rod and usb to usb cable from my tilta nucleus nano kit attach the motor and 15 millimeter rod to the side of my camera using this 15 millimeter mount which is super compact and i absolutely love and installed this tilta focus side handle to the rosette adapter we added to the rig earlier using that usb to usb cable you can connect the motor to the handle and bam you have a super nice

handle that focuses your lens with one finger all without loosening your grip on the rig the only downside to this setup is that the focus handle needs a sony mpf 550 battery for power if you're good with a dremel and soldering iron however you can hack a 550 dummy battery with a step-down converter to work and power the handle from the v-mount plate which is what i did and with that the rig is complete now i can turn everything on and have manual focus at the tip of my index finger if i'm using autofocus lenses

i can ditch the focus module i could also throw that wooden handle on there and if i want an evf instead of a monitor i can swap them out and use the same cables and finally for incognito mode i can simply remove the entire camera from the rig for stealth filming or stills capture so how much does this entire thing cost and is it worth it well for every piece of gear that we've mentioned in this video you're looking at just under two thousand dollars to put it all together and have other accessories like the

evf that includes the battery cage focus modules just absolutely everything remove the evf and you're down to fifteen hundred and fifty dollars and if you remove the manual focus gear you're looking at eleven hundred dollars you can also swap out the atomos monitor for a cheaper seven inch display and now you're down to nine hundred dollars from there you can lower the price even more if you wanna switch out this expensive top handle for something a little more affordable and then there's other bits and pieces you could remove change things out like the quick release

plate and so on so is it worth it i think absolutely to have something i can just pull out of a bag when i need to film and i'm good to go i can do manual focus or auto focus change up the entire rig and my favorite feature is that when i upgrade from the a7 s3 to the a7 s4 5 6 whatever other cameras i'm going to use i can simply pull it out take a new camera with a cage drop it in and keep filming for years to come so hopefully this video gave

you a couple ideas when it comes to rigging up your camera i love to hear how you would modify this setup for your use subscribe to the channel for more videos about making videos thank you so much for watching i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and we will see you in the next video