Hi guys,

I am new in making video.
I Own a A6300, 16-50mm, 35mm F1.8 Lens, a pistol grib tripod, and a shotgun microphone.

Every time I added a new gear, I found that there is always things that I can't do. I encounter a lot of challenges, no wonder ppl says this industry is really money burning.
For example, monitor too small,when shoot in flat, can't check whether the object are in focus. Unable to monitor audio, noise too loud. beautiful image and composition but with unpleasant shake.

Recently, I save up some bucks and thought of adding new gear to my armory. Especially in improving my Camera movement.
Do you think that I should Invest in a Gimbal or Slider+Fluid head?
I am interested to shoot more on Narrative Video.

In your opinion, which one will you get first if you were me?

OR do you think that I should get other thing first?

No escaping the gimbal if you want smooth shot but I suspect it's not going to be cheap if plan to support both the camera and future heavy/bulky lenses . Why not get a shader first and audio equipment.

You must understand how they work, they're really very different.

Gimbal is more like say when you track moving subject, moving around events and all.

But if you want to do like say PERFECT sliding shots regardless of direction then you should go with slider, or a dolly, depending on your setup

Hi, thanks for reply. =)
Yes, the gimbal is pretty expensive, and I'm afraid that it contribute very least on my shot.
I owned a sony ecm-cg50, rode videomic me, and boya lav mic. Actually was thinking of getting a zoom h1 too. Just that I thought maybe I should improve my camera movement first.

Rookie like me has very little ppl to shoot, so basically the majority audio source is when I filming myself.=p so ironic, haha...

So I feel that maybe through some beautiful pictures, I could use it as a proof to give confidence to my friend. Hence more chance to shoot ppl with a dialogue. Haha

Hi, thanks for reply. =)

I actually owned a feiyu SPG gimbal that could fix smartphone and gopro.
Gimbal makes many cool shots, has more freedom of angle and easy to setup. But I'm worrying that I may not have a good hand, and hence make shakiness in the footage. Those minor shake can be pain in the ass and draw away the attention of the adience.
Furthermore, the one that I'm interested is zhiyun crane M which only support a max load of 650g. Seems like without a future proof and not much guarantee on a picture quality.

Why am I hesitating is because some user promote that these minor flaw can be overcome through practice. It does make sense but I'm not sure. What bug me is I keep thinking of "maybe" I can highly simulates slider and dolly moves. And the fact is it is just my imagination atm. Haha...

Hence I'm here to ask for opinion. Hope I can get inspired by other senior idea. I do really have the same idea like yours, coz slider can really make a near perfect camera movement. At least the outcome is more predictable...

Does your narrative video have any
1. Interview shots.
2. Close up shots.

If yes. Get the slider + pan head.
Gimbal is great for dynamic shots but for relatively static shots, it's a bit hard.

Hi, thanks for reply. =)
Yes, I'm totally agree with you!
Maybe I'm being to greedy that I thought I can perform nice movement through gimbal.
But like what you said, even a slight shakiness could be disturbing and destroy the whole scene.

Guess I'm gonna get a slider+pan head first.
do you mind if I ask you extra question?

Will you further improve your picture first or audio first? If there is only one choice can be pick at the moment?
My dilemma is 55-210mm vs zoom h1.
the tele lens is for better camera shooting distance for mid and close up. (Coz currently the longest I can go is 50mm, I need to place my camera really close even for a mid shot)
The zoom h1 provides lesser hiss noise and enriched the boldness of vocal. It is more pleasant to hear compare to camera's.

Audio.
And get a lav mic if you do interviews/have someone talking. You can hook the lav to your zoom h1 directly. And then sync ur video separately.

It wouldn't be that expensive. As for lav. There are many expensive ones but also many affordable ones. I recommend giant squid mic on amazon.its like 40usd? .Better than sub rm150 lavs. Those 30 usd audio technically lav is bad. Cable too long. Susceptible to interference.



This post has been edited by LegendLee: Oct 2 2017, 10:44 AM

Money burning is one thing. But abusing what you have is another great thing to do.

Slider + fluid head is awesome for narrative video but if you manage to find something ranging from 60cm to 85cm is even greater. I am currently using a 100cm slider and i find them too long. Not to mention harder to setup when the place is small.

Gimbal is more for action type of videos as how goldfries mentioned. I personally don't think you would need it for now

I have a lav mic already, guess I'm not gonna get another one =)
I just bought a zoom h1. Dang! The different is so huge!
Was thinking to buy 55-210 at first, but out of stock. =p

You are right.
I decided to learn from basic first.
Just order a 60cm slider+fluid head on that day.
Furthermore, that gumbal can only support 650g of weight, seems like no future proof on that money spent.

I'm broke now. Need to work hard again. Haha
Really wish to get a tele lens for close up and better pacing.

I believe your lav mic is not a wireless mic right?
So before this, you've to hook the mic directly to ur cam ?

Now you can hook it to the zoom h1

Nope. It s a normal line in lav.
I believe I have solved the "hiss" sound problem during recording. Coz a6300 can't monitor the audio, kinda lack of control before this.

But I'm curious. I know a solo production is pretty tough, do you really use lav to record dialogue in a control shot? Instead of shotgun mic?

I find myself using a lav way more frequently than a shotgun. Although I'll still have a shotgun hooked on my cam to capture clearer audio to sync or in worst case scenario... as a backup.

A regular lav will always be better (if placed properly) compared to a shotgun on your camera.
Unless you've a person with a boom holding it directly above the person speaking, a shotgun will still get background noise.

I've a rode ntg2 shotgun mic and without someone actively monitoring and adjusting, the lavalier is better.

The only problem with a lav is that you're limited to capturing the audio of one person at a time. If you want to capture 2 person, you need 2 sets.
Also, unless you've a wireless lav, it's hard to monitor. Without monitoring, your lav can come detached, it can spoil or the memory can be corrupted. All of which has occurred to me before.

Solution is to get a reliable wireless lav(not cheap) or use multiple lavs on a person.(as backup).
Before I switch to wireless, i was using 3 zoom h1 connected to 3 lav Mics.

But ultimately, it depends what you're shooting for.
If I'm shooting for a blog or myself. A rode shotgun mic on my camera is far more than enough. Esp if whoever's talking is within 1m of the camera.
But if you want to offer video as a service, sound is crucial and any hissing/unwanted background sound is a huge turn off.

Gimbal will never be able to replace a slider.

Slider being a slider, as the name, it slides - meaning it goes on a FIXED line with absolutely no mistakes.

Gimbal on the other hand you're relying on body movement, straight line? No human can beat a piece of rail that's already made to go in a straight line.

Im owning a Sony ECM-CG50 Shotgun mic. to be honest, I think its quality is bad compare to Rode.
With same distance, The H1 built in mic and Lav mic could produce better audio quality compare to Sony mic. =/
I will do more test about that. but overall, I feel kinda lack of confident with Sony mic performance.

You are right. The hissing and background noise is like a slap on your face if you are offering your service.
for me, my pride will be humiliated if I present such outcome. It's actually kinda disturbing.

I just tested The zoom H1 with Sony CG50 this morning. Here is the link : https://youtu.be/fnwvpIq0ZMM
If I have enough time and patient, I think I will be using a lav to go as close as I can to pick up the audio instead of shotgun mic. =P

Are you using Sony camera too bro?

You are right! I am so agree with what you said.
I have a smaller gimbal for smartphone and gopro. I've tested several times, because of every step of us are difference, no matter how good we are we surely will make a minor inconstancy on the move.
And that flaw is kinda kills the image.

Some people may change our mind like this Youtuber : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCPVO-ZF_w8
but to be honest, not much of us could achieve this look. It requires a lot of practice. He even share before that he can't shoot too long in that way, cause his knee hurts by performing a "ninja walk".

moreover, we need to develop skill on script, pacing, light, editing, directing, as well as shooting. In knowledge and practice.
It is hard to allocate too much time on practicing Gimbal move. The world of video graphy is too wide after all.

It depends what you're shooting. If it's vlog style, the rode shotgun mic will be more than enough. Casey netistat uses a videomic pro.

I'm primarily a canon shooter.