When people talk about what you need to have in your video production kit, you will often find a list of the most expensive and newest camera kit, lenses and accessories. While yes, they are the essentials, there’s some items that deserve more of a shout out. The unsung heroes, the items that certainly don’t get enough attention but put in the graft. Here’s a list of our favourite underrated tools that we would be lost without.
Variable ND filter
This is one of those things that every videographer should have but when most people start out, it gets overlooked. Technically yes, you can film without an ND filter but if you do any sort of outdoor or bright light shooting then you’d be silly not to invest in an ND Filter. Specifically the variable kind, so that it can easily live on the lens and be adjusted to any shooting environment. The amount of times having an ND has saved us on shoots with unexpected outdoor filming, it’s certainly earned its spot in our camera bag. It really is one of those things you don’t realise how helpful they are until you forget it and your footage looks…less than desirable. All the while wishing you had the humble ND by your side.
Camera multitool
A tiny tool with so many uses, what’s not to love?! You really don’t realise how many situations you’ve needed a multitool until you get one and find yourself whacking it out every shoot. Have a random bolt to tighten on the gimbal? The multitool saves you. Need to tighten a tripod base plate but you don’t have your keys or a 50p on you? Multitool. Need to look like you’re more prepared than you actually are? Multitool’s got ya. We’ve got so much use out of ours and we haven’t even got round to using most of the little attachments. A well deserved spot in the camera bag for our functional, compact and above all cool friend, the multitool.
External battery pack
The amount of batteries we used to burn through before we got an external battery pack was insane. It was so inconvenient having to stop every half an hour to change batteries and it simply isn’t feasible if you don’t have constant access to mains power. Now we go full shoot days without even thinking about battery power, which just allows us to concentrate fully on the shoot rather than stressing about batteries. Having one less thing to think about is always a win in my book. It does add a little extra weight to the camera, but in my eyes the pros heavily outweigh the cons here.
All the gear and no idea?
That’s our round-up of the unsung heroes in our camera kit. Of course, it’s possible to have the most well-furnished camera bag in the world, but still get poor results if the person holding the camera doesn’t know what they’re doing. Fortunately, that’s not a problem for Studio 91. Our small but perfectly formed team has over 30 years’ combined production experience between us, and these are the tools of our trade. So if you need beautiful video content with a human touch, let’s talk.
