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10 video LED lights for stills or video between $50-100

Not too long ago, we saw a comparison of 7 popular LED lights for under $50. We all like ultra cheap, but sometimes you need to stretch the budget just a little bit more. Jumping up to the next level gives a rather substantial increase in both power and versatility.

In this video, Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter compares 10 popular LED lights ranging between $50-100. So, if you’ve been thinking about skipping the ultra low budget and investing a little bit more into your continuous lighting setup, have a watch. A couple of the results are rather surprising.

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How to use your exposure settings for creative effect

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Whether you’re shooting photography or video, film or digital, exposure generally boils down to three elements in your camera. ISO, aperture and shutter speed. All three of these things will affect your exposure, how bright the image is. But each will also change how the final image appears on the camera. Aperture changes your depth of field. Shutter speed changes motion blur. ISO determines the amount of noise you get.

There are differences in how you might approach certain problems when it comes to shooting video vs stills, though. We may be limited by technical issues, such as flash sync speed for photography. Or the 180° shutter rule for video. So, in this video, filmmaker Caleb Pike talks us through what each does, and how we can use them to our advantage to get the results we want.

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Build your own custom vlogging rig to fit any camera setup

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Vlogging has seen a massive boom over the last couple of years. But, there still aren’t really any perfect options out there when it comes to the gear used and how to set it up. Everything seems to have a compromise. You get touch screen, but no 4K. 4K but no touch screen. Or you get both, but the AF can’t keep up. Or you get everything you want, but you can’t see the camera’s LCD and have no idea how your framing is.

There’s all kinds of different workarounds out there to make life a little easier. Some options, though, aren’t quite as versatile as others. Switching from a mounted camera to handheld (or vice versa) can be a pain. In this video from DSLR Video Shooter, Caleb Pike shows us how to build out own vlogging rig that can be easily adapted to almost any setup.

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7 LED lights for video or stills for under $50

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Lists are good, we like lists, especially when they aim to try and save us some money while letting us get the best value. This particular list comes from Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter. In it, Caleb tackles LED lights, in particular, super low budget LED lights.

It can be difficult to know what to buy in this area. Some are cheap because they suck. Others are just really good value. But, if you don’t really have comparisons and some kind of frame of reference, it can be a bit of a gamble. It’s even a gamble when going with names you know and trust for super low budget gear.

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This DIY wooden rig makes your DSLR or mirrorless feel more like a cinema camera

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Since Nikon introduced video to DSLRs,the biggest complaint has been about the form factor of DSLRs. When Canon released the 5D Mark II, the demand for these cameras for video work surged. I’ve seen reports stating that as high as 40% of 5D Mark II sales were to video production companies. But, the ergonomics are just wrong. Today, there are many companies selling all kinds of cages and doohickies you can bolt onto your cameras to make them more useful.

But what if you could build your own? What if you could customise it to your own specific needs? That’s what Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter wondered, and so he set out to build his own. He used about $240 worth of materials and components to build his rig, but you could probably build it for a lot less depending your needs and what bargains you find.

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Increase your DSLR or mirrorless audio recording quality for only $23

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DSLRs & mirrorless camera internal microphones are pretty much useless. They also have notoriously bad preamps when using external microhpones. No matter how good a microphone you plug into it, when you bump up the record level on your camera, you add noise. Lots of it. The typical solution to this is record to an external unit, like the Tascam DR-70D, and then feed a line from your recorder into your camera to make it easy to sync up in post.

But what if you could skip the external recorder and actually get decent quality inside the camera to begin with? Well, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter has the answer. A $23 adapter for using your microphones with your cellphone. In this case, that adapter is the Saramonic SmartRig. Caleb offers two ways to use SmartRig to get quality audio into your camera.

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How to create beautiful slow motion slider shots

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At some point or another, most of us that shoot video have to create a clip sliding past, or moving around some kind of static object. Perhaps something small, like a pair of rings for wedding shooters, or it could be something as large as a car.

In this video from DSLR Video Shooter, Caleb Pike walks us through the process with techniques and tips to get a smoother final video using some slow motion tricks.

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How to build your own overhead camera rig

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Whether on Youtube or elsewhere, we’ve all seen the overhead camera shot. While it might seem fairly straightforward, the process is actually quite a doozy to set up, especially if you want to ensure you have proper and even lighting.

Thankfully, for anyone wanting to build their own, Caleb Pike from DSLR Video Shooter has released a video showing how he built his overhead camera rig for shooting hands-on and other product shots.[Read More…]

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