More lighting and camera gear 2014: FS7, Sourcemaker blanket, Twintube Dolly, Gruvgear Muver

New lighting and camera equipment from 2014 that bears mention:

Sony's Fs7 has been one of the most ballyhooed releases this year. I recently got the chance to do some testing Adam Wilt and Art Adams. Adam Wilt wrote some thorough articles about it which are worth reading. I'm looking forward to reading Arts writeup when its done, but here's my really quick .02 - like the smarty handgrip. All those controls you can operate without taking your eye of the eyepiece! I was also very impressed with the dynamic range. S-log 3, we were actually short of hard pressed to create an indoor situation that exceeded what camera could still resolve. Granted,  our biggest light was an 800 joker, but it was still impressive that the camera could still see detail on the t/45 white curtains where the beam of light was hitting them as well as in the unlit T/1 patch of dark wood in the foreground, about eleven stops apart.  We'll wait and see the actual test results though once Art has done the edit.

Sony FS7, test shoot w/Art Adams and Airbox Lights

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.......... 

Make women look beautiful!

This is proof, right?  That Airbox Inflatable Softboxes transform women from haggard to gorgeous in under 30 seconds!

 Exaggerations aside, Airboxes do work. And I hope people agree with me at NAB 2014, where I've got my own booth this year.  Exciting.  Expensive.  Wish me luck.

Micro Grip and Lighting Kit

Sometimes I get this notion like I've got all the answers on something, an of course that means I don't. I got my eyes opened a bit on how small you can go with gear and still be very effecive. This is particularly relevant when you're working by yourself or with a very small crew. I gaffed a Chrome spot for a dp named Norman Bonney, and he had a whole kit of totally miniaturized gear, optimized for fitting in one vehicle and for taking on airplanes.
Kit was
1 case: 4 LEDs, 2 1x1 panels and two 6" x1' panels
4 skinny little 18/3 "stingers"
A bag of slender aluminum stands, of a degree of sturdiness that I had previously dismissed as Mickey-mouse student film stuff. Some stands were 3/8" studs at the top, some were standard 5/8" studs.
Portable fold-up flag kit
Collapsible 4x6 westcott scrimjim frames and a duffel bag full of soft goods.
Instead of heavy duveteen, he carried lightweight ripstop nylon
And the grip kit: instead of heavy steel 2 1/2" steel gobo heads, these tiny little 1 1/2" grip heads. So this is what your "C-stand" looks like:

A tiny stand, a tiny head, and a tiny cardi. Slender, but big enough to handle this lightweight collapsible 4x frame on an interior set:

And all the bags and cases were 49 lbs or less and less than 62" long, making it all air-travel ready.

I dig it!  I shoot a bunch of little jobs where it's basically just me, and if everything fit in bags and cases and didn't weight all that much, that would be just fine with me.

Handy items in my kit as far as extreme portability are the inflatable softboxes I make to go with my LED lights.  They just squish down on top of the lights in the case and add barely any weight or bulk since they're inflatable. Also handy are these cheesy "Impact" brand light stands that I got a while ago and then regretted because they seemed so flimsy.  They've proved really reliable, even if they are lightweight. They work.  When I'm not bringing "any" lights, I bring my two 1x1 panels in their laptop bags and these two lightweight stands and my little briefcase of small LED units and Airbox softboxes.  

Trivium: "Impact" is one of B&H's house brands of gear, along with Pearstone and probably a few others.