BUYERS’ GUIDE
12. FILTRATION: VOCAS MB-256 MATTE BOX £546/$837 vocas.com
To fit professional filters to your mirrorless camera, you need a pro-style matte box, as it’s the only way of fitting the 2mm-plus standard broadcast filters, which are just too fat for stills photo-style filter holders. It’s possible to spend thousands on a matte box, but for a more realistic budget, Dutch company Vocas makes a range of matte boxes to suit different cameras sizes. The MB-256 is a wide-angle matte box with two filter trays, one fixed and one that can be rotated, so it’s ideal for grad filters or polarisers. The kit comes with two filter holders in 4x4-inch size, although a whole array of sizes can be bought to take filters up to 4x6 inch. To fit it to your camera, you can either buy the kit that fastens it to standard 15mm rails, or via an adapter ring that screws into your lens filter thread. The standard kit also comes with internal eyebrows to stop light leaking in and prevent flare, and a top flag to prevent flare, which can be adjusted and removed quickly if you don’t need it.
13. PROTECTION: THINK TANKVIDEOWORKHORSE 19 £209/$179 snapperstuff.com Of course, you can use pretty much any bag designed for stills cameras to carry your mirrorless camera and its accessories. But unlike stills shooters, using a mirrorless camera for video often means it will be in a cage or rig, have a mic or external recorder fitted or even a cinema lens with follow focus. Unless you enjoy taking all that kit off your camera every time you pack away, then a bag like the Think Tank Video Workhorse 19 makes sense, as you can just drop your rigged-up camera inside and zip it up. It’s designed for the rigours of everyday professional video use, built with an aluminium-reinforced collapsible lid. Other materials include ballistic nylon, YKK zips, welded metal hardware, nylon seatbelt webbing and high-density foam to give your gear plenty of protection. It’s a shoulder bag, but has a wide handle pass-through to attach it to a trolley or rolling luggage, so is ideal for travel. The bag is available in different sizes, but
14. FILTRATION: FORMATT HITECH FIRECREST ULTRA ND/IRND 0.9 £440/$577 formatt-hitech.com
Formatt Hitech’s Firecrest Ultra IRND filters come in the traditional 4x5.65-inch size for use with full-size matte boxes. Firecrest is a rare earth mineral coating used to create very neutral ND filters. The filters are made from 4mm-thick Schott Superwite glass, and the multicoating is bonded in the middle to increase scratch resistance. Firecrest filters are designed to be neutral across all spectrums, including UV, visible and infrared. Not adding a colour cast to your footage is one of the biggest issues with using ND filters and the three-stop 0.9ND version is certainly very colour neutral. Having the coatings trapped inside the glass means the filters are built to be far more rugged than conventionally coated versions, where it’s easy to damage the coating. Instead, the outside of the Formatt Hitech filter is pure optical glass, which is stronger and more resistant to damage.
the 19 model fits camera rigs up to 48.3cm/19in long and 19cm/7.5in tall, and accessories.
15. PROTECTION: MANFROTTO PROLIGHT CINEMATIC BACKPACK £234/$290 manfrotto.com
Manfrotto’s Pro Light Cinematic Backpack Balance is specifically designed for videographers on the go, and there’s plenty of scope for adjusting its innards to whatever kit you’re using. It’s ideal for a mirrorless set-up but can be used for a camcorder or drone. There’s also plenty of laptop room for editing on the go, and on the exterior it’s easy to affix a tripod, slider and gimbal. But maybe best of all is, however much you load it up, how comfortable the ProLight Cinematic is to carry, with plenty of padding and relief from its well-designed shoulder and sternum straps.
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AUTUMN 2019 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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