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Is the Panasonic G85/G80 the best budget camera for filmmakers?

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When I saw this video pop up on my feed, I instantly recognised the camera – despite its logos being covered up. It’s the Panasonic G85. Or the Panasonic G81 in Germany. Or the Panasonic G80 for pretty much everybody else. And when I read the title of the video, I immediately concurred. You see, I bought three of these last year and in my opinion, they’re fantastic little cameras.

The video above comes from Nigel Barros, who’s transitioned through a bunch of different kit and produces some pretty outstanding work with it. The G85 was an attempt for him to bring his camera kit back down to the bare minimum to “do more with less”. Initially, he picked an old GH4 a few months ago, but after his community suggested the G85, he just had to check it out.

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Five things you’re probably not doing to become a better filmmaker

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Not all photographers and filmmakers went to school for it. There are pros and cons of both formal education and learning everything on your own, but both can give you valuable knowledge and skill, that’s for sure. If you’ve decided to learn filmmaking yourself, there are many things you can do to learn and improve. But are you doing all of them? Jordy Vandeput of Cinecom suggests five things that you probably aren’t doing, but they can be great ways of improving as a filmmaker.

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The homemade DIY filmmaking gear Van Neistat can’t live without

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You might be forgiven for not knowing who Van Neistat is, but as the name might suggest, he’s the brother of filmmaker and YouTuber Casey Neistat. After their HBO series, The Neistat Brothers, the two took very different paths. Casey went full-on into YouTube and Van… well, he kind of disappeared. Recently, however, Van’s done an about-turn and finally created his own YouTube channel.

It’s filled with some pretty unique stuff compared to most of the content we see on YouTube these days and it still has that very raw feeling of Casey’s early YouTube videos and the work the pair did together. In his latest video, Van talks about some of the DIY camera gear he’s made for himself and how he finds it invaluable.

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This 3D printed motion control rig offers pro-level features at a DIY-level price

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I’m a big fan of DIY motion control rigs and we’ve featured quite a few here on DIYP before, including this crazy 6-axis (mostly) 3D printed one. But this one from Andreas Epp – who goes by FuzzyLogic on YouTube – is a really slick design. Not only is it a thing of mechanical beauty, but it also seems to rival many commercially available systems out there, too.

Andreas’ motion control system is 3-axis, including a slider and a pan-tilt head. It’s a setup that you wouldn’t expect to be all that difficult. But having had a go at building some myself, they can be quite complex beasts to nail down – especially when you’re relying on 3D printed parts.

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How to shoot a no-budget horror short film

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Shooting short films is one of the greatest creative outlets for many video shooters, especially those that might otherwise be trapped in the corporate world, always shooting to a brief. But shooting a film, even a short one, can be quite expensive, depending on what that story is, and how you think you need to tell it.

This short film above, Whispers, shot by filmmaker Joris Hermans, however, was shot on no budget at all. Of course, there are some prerequisites. You need to have a camera (Joris used the Canon EOS M50) and other basic gear, but they’re things that almost all those interested in shooting with video will have already.

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Maxima 3 LED spot announced – Maxima 7 sunlight simulator LED spot finally available to buy

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This one’s taken a while. Initially announced in February 2020 to much fanfare, the Maxima 7 LED spotlight is now available to buy. And it’s brought a little one with it, the Maxima 3. All the specs of the Maxima 7 were previously released at launch, and you can see those here, so let’s talk about the new Maxima 3.

The Maxima 3 is a 300W COB LED light with a CRI of 96+ and a TLCI of 97. It’s available in two versions that are either tungsten or daylight balanced, with a COB LED life of 50,000 hours. As with the Maxima 7, the Maxima 3 LED contains a focusable 8″ Fresnel lens and accepts Bowens mount modifiers.

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100 camera angles, shots and movements in 10 minutes for filmmakers and photographers

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Camera angles are a funny thing. There are so many different camera angles out there that we see daily in photographs and movies, and they’re not all suitable for every shot we might wish to create. Sometimes only one will work. Scottish comedian Billy Connolly said, “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing”, and I think the principle holds true with camera angles. There’s no such thing as a bad camera angle, just the wrong context.

The trick is to understand the purpose and intent of different camera angles and learning how and where they’re appropriate. In this video from Wolfcrow, we take a look at 100 different camera angles, shot types and camera movements in just 10 minutes. And while it is intended more for filmmakers than photographers, many of these can really help you to tell your story in a still, too.

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Watch and learn the difference between “YouTube lighting” vs “cinematic lighting”

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I thought this was quite an interesting video. It’s an interesting take on how we light for different subject matter. It isn’t saying that one method of lighting is necessarily better or worse than the other, just that the goals of the shoot are very different, the final use for the footage is also very different and so the lighting needs to be different.

In this video, filmmaker Tyler Stalman shows us how we can light both ways using the same equipment. But as well as simply showing us, he also goes into the why of how we light these two things differently and the motivation behind it.

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5 useful gear and camera tricks to get difficult shots the easy way

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There are certain techniques that ubiquitous to commercials we often see on TV. But achieving some of them can be quite tricky and/or expensive to achieve. They often utilise difficult-to-master techniques or require expensive equipment like motorised camera sliders.

Well, in this video, commercial filmmaker Joris Hermans blasts through five camera and gear tricks that he uses on actual shoots. Tricks that let us get some of those shots without requiring any extra gear. Well, maybe just a little cardboard and some gaffer tape.

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Stop shooting bad b-roll – here’s how to take yours to the next level

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Regardless of what you think b-roll is or how you might use it in your productions, b-roll has become a hot topic lately. It’s something that just about anybody who shoots video needs to incorporate if they want their work to stand out. And while exactly what b-roll is and how it should be used are discussions for another day, how you shoot it is relevant to all potential definitions.

It’s easy to get lazy with b-roll, especially if you just see it as a way to break up boring monotonous shots or a transition between sequences. But even then, it needs to tell a story or expand on what we’re hearing and seeing in other shots. And it’s easy to shoot it badly. In this video, filmmaker Thomas Alex Norman shows us how we can adjust our shooting techniques to make the best b-roll we can.

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