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The kit room
What to buy, and what not to. Cameras, glass, lights, sound, support and post — two hundred-odd things chosen by hand, with a line on each saying what it is actually for.
219 products · 6 shelves · 95 makers
Cameras
Bodies that shoot a film — from the Pocket 4K up to the cinema cameras people buy used.
- ARRI ALEXA Mini — The industry’s workhorse, now reachable second-hand
- Sony FX9 — 6K full-frame shoulder camera
- RED KOMODO-X — The faster KOMODO: 6K 80fps global shutter
- Canon EOS C400 — Canon’s 6K full-frame production body
- Sony FX6 — Full-frame, variable ND, the documentary workhorse
- Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K — Shoulder-mount 12K Super 35
- RED KOMODO 6K — Global shutter, R3D, the cheapest way into RED
- Canon EOS C70 — Super 35 DGO sensor in an RF-mount body
- Canon EOS C80 — Full-frame back-illuminated, built-in NDs
- Canon EOS R5 C — A stills R5 with a cinema camera inside it
- Nikon Z8 — A Z9 in a smaller body; 8K raw
- Sony FX3 — Full-frame Cinema Line in a palm-sized body
- Sony a7S III — The low-light stills body crews shoot video on
- Blackmagic PYXIS 6K — Full-frame box camera, swappable mount
- Z CAM E2-S6 — Super 35 6K box camera, ZRAW
- Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro — The 6K with built-in NDs and a tilting screen
- Sony a7 IV — The all-round full-frame hybrid
- Canon EOS R6 Mark II — The affordable full-frame RF hybrid
- Nikon Z6 III — Partially stacked sensor, N-RAW internal
- Fujifilm X-H2S — Stacked APS-C, F-Log2, open gate 6.2K
- Sony FX30 — The FX3’s Super 35 sibling, half the price
- Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX — The S5 II with raw out and ProRes internal
- Panasonic LUMIX GH7 — Micro Four Thirds, ProRes RAW internal
- Sony ZV-E1 — Full-frame, tiny, built for one-person crews
- Panasonic LUMIX S5 II — Full-frame, open gate, phase detect at last
- Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 — Super 35, EF mount, BRAW to a USB-C drive
- Panasonic LUMIX GH6 — The last GH before phase detect, cheap used
- Sony a6700 — APS-C hybrid, a first serious camera
- Fujifilm X-S20 — Small, cheap, 6.2K open gate
- Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K — The camera that put raw in a student’s hands
- DJI Osmo Pocket 3 — A gimbal and a 1-inch sensor in a pocket
Lenses
The glass that decides what the picture looks like, including the cheap vintage primes worth more than their price.
- Cooke Panchro/i Classic 32mm T2.2 — The Cooke look, in the cheapest Cooke there is
- Atlas Lens Co Orion 40mm T2 anamorphic — The 2x anamorphic indie features actually shoot on
- DZOFilm Vespid Prime 4-lens kit — Full-frame T2.1 primes, PL and EF mounts
- ZEISS CP.3 50mm T2.1 — Full-frame cine prime, interchangeable mount
- DZOFilm Catta Ace 35-80mm T2.9 — Full-frame zoom, light enough to hand-hold
- DZOFilm Pictor Zoom 20-55mm T2.8 — A parfocal Super 35 cine zoom at an indie price
- DZOFilm Pictor Zoom 50-125mm T2.8 — The long half of the Pictor pair
- Laowa Ranger S35 28-75mm T2.9 — A light parfocal cine zoom
- Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II — Long lens coverage without a second unit
- Canon RF 85mm F1.2 L USM — The close-up lens people buy a body for
- Samyang XEEN CF 24mm T1.5 — Carbon-fibre cine prime, full-frame coverage
- Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM — The RF standard zoom, stabilised
- Canon RF 15-35mm F2.8 L IS USM — Canon’s wide zoom for the C70 and R5 C
- Canon RF 50mm F1.2 L USM — The portrait-adjacent normal
- Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II — The standard zoom most FX bodies wear
- Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II — The wide end of the same set
- SIRUI Venus 50mm T2.9 1.6x anamorphic — Full-frame anamorphic, the cheapest there is
- Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM — A stop and a half past normal
- Rokinon Cine DS prime bundle — Geared manual primes — most people’s first cine set
- Tokina Cinema ATX 11-20mm T2.9 — Wide cine zoom for Super 35
- SIRUI Saturn 35mm T2.9 1.6x anamorphic — Carbon-fibre anamorphic, full-frame coverage
- Laowa Nanomorph 35mm T2.4 1.5x — Anamorphic small enough for a gimbal
- Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art — Wide, rectilinear, for interiors and skies
- SIRUI Nightwalker T1.2 cine prime set — Three fast Super 35 primes for the price of one lens
- Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM — The prime that lives on an FX3
- Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN Art — The first full-frame f/1.8 zoom
- Meike 25/35/50/75mm T2.1 cine prime set — Four matched primes under what one costs elsewhere
- Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | Art — The full-frame standard zoom, half the GM’s price
- Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art — Close-ups, and the cheapest flattering 85
- Sigma 50-100mm F1.8 DC HSM Art — The 18-35’s long partner, same stop
- Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB — Autofocus f/1.2 at a third of the price
- Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D — Ultra wide with no barrel distortion
- Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG DN Art — The reportage prime
- Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Art — The zoom that behaves like a set of primes
- Viltrox AF 56mm F1.2 LAB — The APS-C portrait prime that embarrassed the brands
- Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4 — Warm, radioactive, beautiful wide open
- Nikon AI-S manual prime — Cheap, metal, de-clickable — the budget cine set
- Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 — The swirly Soviet prime — a look for the price of a meal
Lighting
Fixtures, modifiers and the grip that holds them up.
- ARRI Orbiter — One hard source, every optic
- ARRI SkyPanel S60-C — The soft source the industry standardised on
- Aputure Nova P600c — The bigger Nova, for a whole wall of soft light
- Litepanels Gemini 2x1 Hard — Soft panel with a hard mode
- Godox KNOWLED MG1200Bi — 1200W bi-colour — daylight through a window
- Aputure Nova P300c — RGBWW soft panel — windows, screens, neon
- Aputure LS 600x Pro — The 600 with colour temperature you can dial
- Aputure LS 600d Pro — The daylight point source indie sets are built around
- Nanlite Forza 500B II — Bi-colour 500W point source
- Quasar Science Double Rainbow — Twice the output, same hidden tube
- Aputure LS 300X — Bi-colour 300W — the one-light interview
- Amaran 300c RGBWW — Full colour at 300W, Bowens mount
- Nanlite Forza 300B II — The 300W bi-colour workhorse
- Godox VL300 II — Daylight 300W at a budget price
- Astera Helios Tube — Battery, wireless, no cable in the shot
- Westcott Scrim Jim Cine 6x6 kit — Diffusion, bounce and negative in one frame
- Quasar Science Rainbow 2 linear LED — The tube that is on every set, hidden in every frame
- Amaran F22c flexible light mat — A 2x2 colour mat that rolls up
- Aputure Spotlight Mount SE — Gobos, hard edges, a window that is not there
- Amaran 200x S — The affordable bi-colour key
- Nanlite PavoSlim 60C — A thin RGB panel for tight rooms
- Nanlite Compac 200B — A cheap, big, soft panel
- Aputure INFINIBAR PB6 — Pixel-mapped bar — practicals, car work, backgrounds
- Nanlite PavoTube II 30C — A four-foot colour tube
- Nanlite PavoTube II 6C 4-light kit — Four small tubes in a case — the hide-a-light kit
- Astera NYX Bulb — A practical bulb you can colour from across the room
- Aputure Light Dome III — The softbox most Bowens fixtures wear
- Aputure Lantern 90 — Soft from every direction — ambience in one piece
- Godox Litemons LA200D — A first proper key light
- Amaran COB 60x S — Small, battery-friendly, a good first fixture
- Matthews Full set of apple boxes — A seat, a riser, a mark and a shelf
- Avenger 40" C-stand with grip arm — The stand everything else hangs off
- Manfrotto Variable Friction Magic Arm with Super Clamp — Puts a light where there is nowhere to put one
- Aputure MC Pro — Pocket RGBWW — an eye light that fits in a pocket
- Aputure MT Pro — A pocket pixel tube
- Impact 25 lb sandbag — What stops a light landing on an actor
- Rosco Cinegel filter pack — CTB, CTO, diffusion — the colours a set runs on
- Neewer 5-in-1 reflector, 42" — The cheapest light on any set
Sound
Microphones, recorders and radio — the half of a film an audience notices first when it is wrong.
- Sound Devices 833 — A proper mixer-recorder for a sound mixer
- Schoeps CMIT 5 U — What the best boom operators are holding
- Sanken CS-3e — The tightest shotgun on the market
- Sennheiser MKH 50 — Supercardioid for interiors, where a shotgun fights the room
- Zoom F8n Pro — Eight inputs — a one-person sound department
- Sound Devices MixPre-6 II — Six inputs, 32-bit float, timecode
- Sound Devices A20-Mini — Radio transmitter that records its own backup
- Sennheiser MKH 416 — The shotgun on half the films ever recorded
- Deity Theos wireless kit — Digital UHF radio at half the usual money
- Sound Devices MixPre-3 II — The cheapest Sound Devices preamps there are
- Rode NTG3 — RF-bias shotgun that shrugs off humidity
- Sennheiser EW-D ME2 Set — Digital radio lav, wide tuning range
- Zoom F6 — Six-input 32-bit float recorder with timecode
- Sennheiser EW 112P G4 — The analogue radio lav crews still swear by
- DPA 6060 subminiature lavalier — Smaller still, for a close frame
- DPA 4060 CORE lavalier — The lav that disappears under wardrobe
- Rode NTG5 — Light, open-sounding shotgun — the indie boom mic
- Tascam Portacapture X8 — Touchscreen 32-bit float recorder
- K-Tek Avalon boom pole — Internally cabled carbon pole that holds all day
- Rycote Super-Blimp — Outdoors, in wind, this is the one
- Countryman B6 lavalier — The size of a match head
- Rode Wireless PRO — Two radio mics with 32-bit float backup recording
- Deity BP-TRX — Pocket recorder, timecode and radio in one box
- Deity S-Mic 2 — A shotgun that punches far above its price
- Zoom F3 — Two channels of 32-bit float in a cigarette packet
- DJI Mic 2 — Radio mics with on-board recording and noise cancelling
- Sennheiser MKE 600 — The 416’s affordable cousin
- Zoom H6essential — 32-bit float, six tracks, no gain to set
- Rode VideoMic NTG — On-camera shotgun that doubles as a USB mic
- Rode NT1 5th Generation — Studio condenser for ADR and voice-over
- Rode Blimp — Wind protection and a shock mount in one
- Rode Boompole Pro — Carbon fibre, internal cable
- Rode Wireless GO II — The clip-on pair that made radio mics cheap
- Sony MDR-7506 — The headphones in every sound bag on earth
- Sennheiser HD 280 PRO — Closed-back monitoring that isolates on a noisy set
Support & Monitoring
Tripods, gimbals, monitors, filters, cards and the rig that joins them.
- Steadicam Aero 30 — A real vest-and-arm rig, second hand
- Sachtler aktiv8 flowtech 75 — Touch-and-go legs — set up in seconds
- Teradek Bolt 6 LT 750 — Zero-delay video to the director’s monitor
- Miller CiNX 3 fluid head — Heavy payload, very fine drag control
- SmallHD Ultra 5 — The bright one, with the new interface
- Sachtler FSB 8 — The documentary head, properly damped
- Dana Dolly Portable Kit — Speed-rail dolly moves without a dolly grip
- Atomos Shogun Ultra — 7", 2000 nits, timecode built in
- SmallHD Cine 5 — 3000 nits on the camera, readable in sun
- Tilta Nucleus-M II — Three-channel wireless lens control
- Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR 7" — Monitor, recorder and scopes for the price of a monitor
- Tilta Float handheld support arm — Takes the gimbal’s weight off your arms
- SmallHD Indie 7 — A bright 7" director’s monitor that takes LUTs
- DJI RS 4 Pro — Heavier payload, for a cine body and a zoom
- edelkrone SliderPLUS PRO — Twice the travel of its own length
- Manfrotto 504X fluid head with tripod — The first proper fluid head most people buy
- Zhiyun Crane 4 — Gimbal with a fill light built into the handle
- Atomos Ninja V — The 5" recorder-monitor that made ProRes RAW normal
- Atomos Ninja (5") — The current 5" recorder-monitor
- Hollyland Pyro 7 — Wireless monitor and receiver in one
- PortKeys BM5 III WR — Monitor that can also run the camera
- DJI RS 4 — The gimbal most small crews own
- Tilta Mirage matte box — Magnetic filters instead of fumbling with trays
- Zhiyun Weebill 3S — Built-in sling grip — low mode without rebuilding
- Anton/Bauer Titon 90 V-mount — Powers the camera and everything hanging off it
- DJI RS 4 Mini — A gimbal light enough to carry all day
- ProGrade Digital CFexpress 4.0 Type B — The card rental houses keep buying
- Benro S8 Pro video tripod kit — A real fluid head on a student budget
- SanDisk Extreme PRO CFexpress Type B 1TB — Fast enough for raw, in most cine bodies
- Core SWX NANO V-mount battery — Light V-mount with a real fuel gauge
- FEELWORLD LUT7 PRO — A bright 7" monitor at a quarter of the price
- Tilta Nucleus Nano II — Wireless follow focus that costs less than a lens hood
- Accsoon CineView SE — Video to a phone, for under three hundred
- PolarPro Mist Edition VND — Diffusion and ND in one piece of glass
- NiSi True Color 1-5 stop VND — Variable ND that does not turn faces green
- Angelbird AtomX SSDmini 1TB — The drive an Atomos recorder wants
- SmallRig Universal shoulder rig — Takes the camera off your wrists
- Samsung T9 portable SSD 2TB — Record to it, cut off it, post it
- Tiffen Black Pro-Mist 1/4 — The filter that takes the digital edge off
- SmallRig Cage for Sony FX3 — Mounting points on every face
Post & Workstations
What cuts, grades and renders it — including the parts an Unreal machine is built from.
- ASUS ProArt PA32UCG-K — Mini-LED HDR reference-grade panel
- NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada — 32GB for the scenes that will not fit
- Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra — The big one, with memory to match
- Apple MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max — A cutting room that fits in a backpack
- EIZO ColorEdge CG2700X — Self-calibrating reference monitor
- Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel — The full grading surface, short of a console
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X — 32 cores, for simulation and heavy renders
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 — What an Unreal scene and a 12K timeline both want
- Apple Mac Studio M4 Max — Silent, quick in Resolve, no build required
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 — Still the best value in used compute
- Apple Studio Display — 5K, accurate enough to cut on
- Synology DiskStation DS1823xs+ — Shared storage for a cutting room of two or three
- Apple Mac mini M4 Pro — The cheapest machine that cuts 4K properly
- NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada — Workstation card, single slot, 20GB
- BenQ SW272U — 4K, hardware calibration, a grading-adjacent price
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 — The sensible half-price render card
- Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel — Three trackballs — the moment grading clicks
- Yamaha HS8 studio monitors — Honest speakers — they tell you what is wrong
- OWC ThunderBay 4 — Four bays of Thunderbolt storage for rushes
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X — 16 cores — the sweet spot for a cutting room
- Blackmagic DeckLink 8K Pro — Clean video out to a reference monitor
- LaCie 2big RAID 16TB — Mirrored archive that survives one dead disk
- Intel Core Ultra 9 285K — Quick Sync, which some codecs still love
- Dell UltraSharp U2723QE — The sensible 4K second monitor
- Corsair 128GB DDR5 kit — For Unreal, caches and twelve open applications
- Tangent Ripple — The cheapest set of real trackballs
- Samsung 990 PRO 4TB NVMe — The scratch disk a grade runs off
- Kali Audio LP-6 V2 — Near-field monitors at a student price
- Calibrite Display Pro HL — Calibrates the monitor you are trusting
- Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor — A search dial, and Resolve Studio in the box
- Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio — The paid Resolve, bought once, kept for ever
- Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850X 4TB — The other one, usually cheaper
- G.Skill 64GB DDR5-6000 kit — The floor for 4K raw with effects
- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen — Two inputs for voice-over and ADR at the desk
- Audient iD4 MkII — One very good preamp, which is usually all you need
- Blackmagic UltraStudio Recorder 3G — SDI and HDMI into a laptop over Thunderbolt
- Calibrite ColorChecker Video — The chart you shoot so the grade has a truth
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