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The 3D printed MicBack turns your on-camera mic into a wireless shotgun

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Despite being referred to as on-camera microphones, the array of such microphones from companies like Rode, Deity, Sennheiser and others are just as capable when used as an off-camera microphone, too. However, the one problem with using them off-camera is that the cables supplied with them are extremely short. After all, they’re only designed to go from your hotshoe to your microphone socket.

Even if you do pick up a long third-party cable, these microphones aren’t designed for long cable runs. The best option is to use them wirelessly. That, too, can be tricky on the end of a boom pole. However, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter has created a great-looking solution, called the MicBack, to solve this problem with several small on-camera shotgun microphones.

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Personalise your camera with spray paint and sandpaper

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A few years ago, I remember there was a craze of people buying brand-new guitars and immediately attacking them with sandpaper to make them look “vintage”. If this video from Caleb at DSLR Video Shooter has any say, it looks like that trend is coming to cameras, too. And not only is he making his camera gear look old and worn with sandpaper, but he’s also attacking cameras with spray paint.

You might be seeing Ryan Reynolds in your head right now, asking, “But why?” I was also thinking that while watching this video. But customising your kit isn’t a new idea. Even completely painting your camera isn’t a new idea, either. Although, Caleb does it much better than Kai did back in 2010. Caleb didn’t even have to take his camera apart to do it, either.

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Is this the perfect portable and versatile key light setup for video?

Whether you’re shooting stills or video, the key light is arguably the most important part of your lighting setup. Getting it looking just right can be challenging, especially if you’re regularly switching between different setups for different shooting angles. But what if you could have one single setup that worked for everything? Wouldn’t that be great?

In this video, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter walks us through the ultimate video key light setup he’s been using for the last couple of years. It’s a complete setup that allows Caleb to shoot a bunch of different angles and lighting setups with ease and efficiency. He explains how it’s made, how he uses it and the kinds of shots you can get with a setup like this.

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This DIY battery adapter lets you unify your battery power system across your video devices

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We’re quite lucky in the photo and video industries that there aren’t many weird or non-standard batteries, for the most part. Sure, some companies do seem to update their battery design every time they release a new product – which gets very frustrating every time you upgrade and need to buy 3-4 more spares – but for mirrorless cameras, field monitors, LED lights, etc. there aren’t many different ones.

One of the most common types of batteries out there that many photographers and filmmakers will own are the Sony NP-F style batteries. As the name implies, these were developed by Sony, primarily for their own products but they’ve become a standard for many brands now. In this video, though, Caleb Pike shows us how we can adapt our regular camera batteries to work in NP-F slots.

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How to turn your old TV into a stunning photo and video background

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TV isn’t only for spending countless hours in front of it when you don’t feel like doing anything. Instead, you can turn it into a creative prop, and a pretty awesome one.

Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter will show you how to turn a TV, a monitor, or even a projector into a fantastic background for all sorts of product shots. He guides you through the process step by step, helping you build a setup for some neat stills and videos.

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Here are 15 filmmaking items you can buy for under $100

Once you get hooked to them, photography and filmmaking can become pretty expensive hobbies. But it’s good to know that there are many items that offer a fantastic price-quality ratio. In fact, there’s a bunch of gear you can buy for under $100, whether you’re a photographer or a filmmaker.

In this video, Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter gives you 15 affordable items that will kickstart your filmmaking career or just be a great, yet cheap addition to the gear you own.

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Everything you need to know about adapting lenses

Adapting lenses has become a lot more common in recent years as now that pretty much every DSLR and mirrorless camera out there shoots some form of video. Older lenses give us a favourable aesthetic that’s often lost with the latest high tech lenses that try to eliminate every lens imperfection possible. I’ve been doing it myself for about a decade now and it’s a lot of fun to see what some of those old lenses can do for your footage.

While adapting lenses might seem quite easy now, there are a few things you’ll want to look out for when buying an adapter and a couple of “gotchas” you’ll want to beware of. In this video, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter walks us through the adapting process and things we will need to think about when buying adapters and using old lenses on our current cameras.

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Check out these 20 filmmaking gear items you can buy for under $20

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For filmmaking and photography there are a lot of expensive pieces of kit out there that we either need to do our jobs or will make our lives easier and save us time in our workflow. But there are also a lot of very inexpensive items out there, too, which can make our quality of life much easier when shooting and working. There are also a bunch of cheap alternatives to expensive gear, too, if you get a little creative.

In this video, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter walks us through 20 of his favourite filmmaking accessories that each cost less than $20. It includes a variety of tools covering lighting, grip, power and various other aspects. Some of these are things that Caleb’s been using in his workflow for over a decade and still prove useful.

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Is this the perfect camera rig for video shooters?

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When it comes to shooting video, we all have our favourite rig setups that we like to use for different tasks. I have three Panasonics here that I use for different things and they’re all set up differently so that I can just grab one and go whenever I need each. But is it possible to build the perfect camera rig on a single perfect camera that meets 99% of your shooting needs?

That’s the topic Caleb Pike explores in this video, and he believes that he’s found it. At least, he has for his needs. There are so many different ways of setting up a camera and everybody has their own personal preferences but Caleb’s setup offers a lot of versatility and options for different shooting demands.

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Use these ten tricks to save money when buying camera gear

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We all know that photography is not a cheap hobby. But hey, just because the gear is expensive, it doesn’t have to be that expensive. There are some tips and tricks that will save you tons of money when buying gear, and Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter will show you as many as ten of them in his latest video.

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