If you are just getting started with your camera, my first suggestion is to get very comfortable with the location and operation of all of your manual controls – focus, exposure, white balance, etc. You need to be able to find these controls in the dark and understand how they work.

Never trust auto focus or auto exposure to give you a good image. Practice setting exposure in different lighting environments and watch your footage to see how the camera reacts.

Find the zebra pattern controls and experiment with them. These will help you manage exposure in the field.

Once you are comfortable with the controls, just go out and shoot a bunch of different stuff. Different locations and lighting conditions. Inside and outside. Natural and artificial light. Low light and bright light. Shoot hand-held and on a tripod. Zoom and rack-focus.

That should give you a good start at mastering your camera.

Andrew

My essential add-ons are entirely dependent on the type of productions you will be doing.

Start with a good tripod (if you spent less than $1000 on it you didn’t get a good one.) It should have a ball leveling head, a quick release shoe, and telescoping legs that lock and release with one lever. Carbon fiber legs are a plus! The Manfrotto 519/546 Combo is a nice choice. Having a fluid head that can be balanced, a head that can be leveled separately from the legs, and fast reliable leg locking will be a huge asset in any kind of production.

Next, I would probably go for a good multi-stage matte box with flags to hold filters and shade the lens from flares. I like to use the flag as a lens cover – pull it down to cover the box and your glass is protected. Redrock Micros Matte Box is a nice choice. There are others higher and lower on the price scale – but avoid the really cheap stuff. Your matte box will get a good workout and you need it to be reliable. Make sure you have 4×5.65 filter stages.

Add a nice collection of neutral density filters to your kit (include some graduated ND filters too), a polarizing filter, and I liked to have a couple grades of pro-mist filters for interview work.

I also got a nice daylight balanced on-camera LED light. These things are just incredibly useful to have around for fill light or even a key light in a close-up. I like the Lite Panels line of LED lights – very durable and well built. But, there are a ton of cheap knock-offs out there too if you are on a tight budget.

Finally, you want to have a good sturdy case to hold everything. I bought a Porter Case Camera Case with Built-In Cart that served me well on the road. You can flip the handle out and stack cases on top when hauling gear through airports or in and out of locations. Then, fold the handle down and you can carry the camera onto a plane. This is a real back saver.

Now, I haven’t touched on audio gear, but this is the kind of stuff I wanted for my camera rig to give me versatility in the field (most of my shooting is location work with a tight crew.)

Let me know if you have other questions or want suggestions for specific applications.

Andrew

Loved the article bro, and haven’t really warmed up to my hvx200 Yet. What are some really great need to know tips for beginners, where do i start? what should I do with this thing