If you’ve got a kid or teen in your life that’s interested in making videos or becoming a Youtuber or Tik Tok star, there’s plenty of ways to help encourage their creative side. These gifts are picked out specifically for children who want to learn filmmaking and other cool ways of making videos. These gifts are perfect for aspiring directors, producers, screenwriters, documentary filmmakers, or digital video creators. Some gifts are fun while others are to help teach them filmmaking skills. Check them out.

Cool Gifts for Aspiring Filmmakers

1. 100 Movie Set Terms Poster

Perfect for the dorm room of a filmmaking major, this brightly colored poster features 100 movie set terms with accompanying illustrations. These terms used by professionals on film sets will help anyone looking to work on TV or Hollywood movies.

Available in three sizes: 12″ x 18″, 18″ x 24″, 24″ x 36″

2. The Movie Making Book: Skills and Projects to Learn and Share

If your elementary or junior high aged kid isn’t interested in filmmaking, this book is the perfect guide for them to up their skills. With tons of ideas and projects perfect to learn movie-making skills, your budding director just needs a smartphone or digital camera to get started.

The authors Dan Farrell and Donna Bamford run a film school for young people in London called Sparks, and this book draws on their experience. Kids can learn basic filmmaking skills like how to make basic shots and even creative angles to use. Once they’ve mastered the skills, they can try out 14 projects to help inspire them to make their own movies.

Recommended Age Group: Grades 2 to 7

3. We’ll Fix it in Post Filmmaker Mug

This phrase often uttered by filmmakers on set is always regretted in post production. When there’s a problem, we’ll fix it in post. Aspiring filmmakers will appreciate this funny mug. Include some of their favorite hot chocolate, tea, or coffee to create a nice gift bag.

Available as either a 11 oz. ceramic coffee mug.

4. Future Movie Director T-shirt

Let the aspiring filmmaker in your life display their career goals. This cool t-shirt features the title “Future Movie Director” along with a projector, film strip, popcorn, and a clapper board.

Available in men’s, women’s, and youth sizes in five colors.

5. Movie Clapper Enamel Pin

This the coolest accessory for any aspiring filmmaker’s backpack or jean jacket. This enamel pin features a modern movie clapper (SMPTE Time Code Film Slate) with a timecode. This pin has a cool feature though: it glows in the dark! Makes a fun stocking stuffer for any aspiring filmmaker.

6. Vintage Style Movie Clapboard Slate

This wooden vintage style clapper board makes a fun decoration for a dorm room or bedroom. Or your budding filmmaker can use it for their next video project. Just use chalk which will easily wipe off when they need to change the take number.

7. Movie Color Palette Poster

This gift is so much cooler than a typical movie poster. EeekPrints makes these beautiful posters featuring color palettes from movies. Each poster has a still frame from a movie, with the color swatches below. Perfect for framing or hanging on the wall as is. Movies available include Amélie, Parasite, Lady Bird, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and many more.

8. Vintage Director Megaphone

Perfect for decoration or for kid filmmakers to use on their projects. This vintage style megaphone is 13″ long and says “Director” on the side in gold letters. This fun item is made in the US.

9. Go Away, I’m Writing the Next Blockbuster Notebook

A great gift for anyone interested in writing movies or TV. The aspiring filmmaker in your life can start on their screenplay idea with this notebook. It has the warning message, “Go Away, I’m Writing the Next Blockbuster.

This spiral-bound notebook is available with ruled lines or graph paper. 120 pages.

Check out more gifts for screenwriters.

10. VTech Kidizoom Action Camera for Kids

If your kid is too young to have a smartphone for video making or wants to make action videos of themselves on their skateboard or hoverboard, then this is the perfect gift. Designed for kids on the go, this action cam comes with a waterproof case, three different mount types, and a wrist strap. In addition to taking regular pictures and videos, the camera can also do stop motion videos and time-lapse photos.

This action camera is meant for elementary aged kids, so if you want some more appropriate for a teen, consider these action cameras under $100.

Recommended Age Group: 4 to 9 years old

Check out more action cameras for kids.

11. Masterclass Membership

Even if your teen is too young to go to film school, they can still learn about film. With a Masterclass membership, they get unlimited access to courses on filmmaking from some of the best directors and writers in the field. Classes are led by greats like Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Ron Howard, Werner Herzog, Aaron Sorkin, Jodie Foster, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and more.

The courses cover the full breadth of filmmaking, from acting to screenwriting, and directing. With a subscription, they can take as many classes as they want at their own pace. A gift subscription is perfect to keep your teen busy over summer break.

12. Stopmotion Explosion: Complete HD Stop Motion Animation Kit

This kit is perfect for kids who are interested in animation or love Legos. It has everything they need to make stop motion animated video at home! Read the instruction booklet or watch the videos to learn how stop motion animation works, then use the included HD camera and software to make their own movie. They can use toys or modeling clay included in the kit to create characters to act our their stories. The software will help them edit and add audio or sound effects.

Software is compatible with Windows and Macs.

13. The Evolution of Cinema Laptop Sleeve

College-bound film students and budding editors will love this cool gift. This laptop sleeve features “The Evolution of Cinema” with silhouettes of the evolving film camera types over the year.

Laptop sleeves are available for a variety of Macbook sizes.

14. Director’s Chair

Every aspiring director needs their own director’s chair! Perfect for a bedroom or dorm room, this classic black director’s chair is functional and fun.

Available in classic height, counter height, and bar height.

15. Film School

The perfect shirt for aspiring filmmakers that dream of going to film school or are teaching themselves how to make movies. Classic design features a bold font that says “Film School.”

Available in men’s, women’s, and youth sizes in five colors.

16. Ring Light with Tripod Stand

If vlogging and online videos are what your teen is interested in, this is a great kit to help them get started. This ring light comes with three color temperatures, perfect for lighting all types of Youtube videos. It also includes a stand to hold their smartphone for recording. The Bluetooth remote makes it easy to start and stop video without having to get up. They can record in their bedroom or on the go.

17. My First Movie: Twenty Celebrated Directors Talk about Their First Film

An inspirational book for aspiring filmmakers, this collection includes stories from 20 amazing directors talking about their first films. It includes interviews with greats like Kevin Smith, Ang Lee, Oliver Stone, and more. Not only are these stories inspiring, they also get into the details of pitching movies, finding funding, and actually getting the film made.

18. Headphones for Editing

If your aspiring filmmaker plans on editing their own movies, they’re going to need a good pair of headphones. The best headphones for filmmakers is the Sony MDR7506. These over the ear headphones are used by many professional filmmakers and audio engineers.

19. Cheap Movie Tricks: How To Shoot A Short Film For Under $2,000

This handbook is the ultimate guide for young filmmakers looking to make independent movies cheaply. This book covers all the tips young indie filmmakers need to know to create a short film for under $2000. Essential reading for college film students and high schoolers, it covers every step of the filmmaking process, from planning and shooting to screening and promoting the completed film.

20. Pitchstorm Party Game

This is a game the whole family can enjoy! In this game, each player is a writer trying to pitch movie ideas to the worst studio executives. As you’re pitching your idea, you have to incorporate random ideas given to you by the executives. Perfect for parties and family game night, this is a game full of creativity and laughs.

Recommended Age Range: 14 years and up

Need more gift ideas? Check out these stocking stuffers for movie lovers, gift ideas for documentary filmmakers and gifts for screenwriters. Inspire your kids with these gifts for aspiring young writers.

The post 20 Gifts for Aspiring Filmmakers & Content Creators appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

What does Royalty-Free vs Rights Managed stock footage/photos or music mean?

Let’s define some terms.

What is stock footage or stock photography?

Stock footage or stock photography is material that you didn’t create yourself that you are using in your project after having obtained it from an outside source. Stock photo websites provide images you can license, usually after paying a fee and agreeing to terms of use (although some websites offer free stock photos).

For instance: Let’s say you’re making a documentary film and one of the people you’re interviewing casually mentions the Eiffel Tower. Later, while you are editing, you decide that you need footage of the Eiffel Tower to help illustrate a part of the story. You don’t have the budget to fly to France and shoot the footage yourself so instead, you decide to find a clip of the Eiffel Tower on a stock footage website which will be much cheaper. So you license stock footage of the Eiffel Tower for use in your project.

What are royalty-free stock footage and royalty-free stock photos?

Stock footage and stock photography (as well as stock music for that matter) generally comes in two different flavors: royalty free and rights managed. The simpler of these two is royalty-free. What does that mean?

Royalty free means that you may use the footage or photos or music in virtually any type of project as many times as you like, to be distributed in any fashion you prefer. It does not mean that the stock photos are free (although depending on which website you find them on, they might also be “literally free for download” in addition to having a royalty-free rights status).

Instead, “royalty-free” just means that you aren’t limited in how many times you incorporate the material into your projects or which types of projects you can use it in. So, for instance, you could use the same royalty-free stock song in 10 different projects. And it doesn’t matter if you’re making a TV commercial or a YouTube video. Royalty-free licensing generally means there are very few restrictions on how you use the material you’ve downloaded. You might even build up your own little private library of royalty-free stock photos or music as you make various different projects over time and find yourself re-using elements.

What are rights-managed photos or footage/music?

Although royalty-free stock footage/pictures and music are common, it’s also common to encounter stock materials that are available only for licensing on a rights managed basis. This tends to be more expensive in general.

Rights managed stock footage/photography etc is material that you are only allowed to use under specific conditions, subject to the licensing agreement that you are bound by. For instance, you might license a specific stock photo for use in a specific project on a rights-managed basis. You might be asked certain questions like what type of project you’re using it in and how it will be distributed before the stock photo website gives you a price for how much it’s going to cost for licensing.

Examples of rights managed agreements include:

• Web use only
• Advertising use
• Publishing & editorial use
• Fictional films or TV programs
• Documentary film use

Often times stock footage websites and so forth will offer low-resolution material for less money, while full quality footage licensed for television broadcast or films is more pricey. Licensing imagery or other material for use in advertising is often the most expensive of all, for rights managed photos, music, or footage.

Related: Storyblocks Audio Review – Is Storyblocks Audio Worth It? All you can download Royalty Free Stock Music Review

What is the difference between creative licensing vs editorial licensing?

There is another important distinction that you will encounter on many websites: whether photographs or footage are available for licensing on an editorial or creative basis. Let’s break down the difference:

Creative use licensing is usually available when a photographer hires models or actors to portray any featured individuals in the footage or photographs. Since they’re hired, they’ve filled out a model release form and have agreed that the material can be used by anyone who buys a license. Stock pictures or footage that you’ve licensed under a creative use agreement can generally be used in fictional storytelling or advertising.

Editorial use licensing is less permissive. Editorial photos or footage are created when the photographer does not have the express permission of the person appearing in the imagery and thus is provided without warranty and should only be used in news or informational content. For instance, a stock photograph of the president taken by a news photographer will likely only be available for licensing under an editorial use agreement so it can probably only be used if you are publishing news reporting or documentary films or nonfiction programming.

Why is this important? Occasionally filmmakers may accidentally use editorially licensed material in a “creative use” manner that may violate the rights agreement. For instance, in one well-publicized scenario in 2019, filmmakers editing a fictional film made for Netflix called Bird Box used real-life news footage of a train wreck in their film. Because the footage wasn’t meant to be used in a “creative use” case (it was really only appropriate for editorial news distribution), Netflix had to re-edit the film to remove the shot. The mayor of the town where the train crashed in real life and 47 people died said Netflix’s use of the footage demonstrated “a lack of respect” for victims.

What does “public domain” mean?

Stock footage licensing, especially for rights-managed materials, can certainly get expensive. But not everything needs to be licensed! Some items are in the public domain which means they can be used for free without any licensing agreement needed.

Public domain footage, photos, or other material are items that are generally not eligible for copyright because of either:

• When the material was made – for instance being so old that the copyright has expired
• How the material was made – items published before a certain date without a copyright notice may be ineligible for copyright protection
• Who the material was made by – items made by US federal government employees as part of their job duties are public domain for instance, which is why all NASA photographs taken on the surface of the moon for instance are un-copyrighted.

Even when materials like footage or photos are not in the public domain, you may be able to use them without paying a license fee if your use falls under a limited set of exceptions called fair use. For more information and examples of the Fair Use Doctrine, at least as it relates to documentary filmmakers, check out the Documentary Filmmakers statement of best practices in fair use.

Frequently asked questions

I’ve heard that if I only use 30 seconds or less of copyrighted material, it’s fair use. Is that correct? No. This is a common misconception but, at least under US law, there is no free blanket right to use copyrighted material if you only use a small part of it. Under the Fair Use Doctrine, it is true that judges may take into account the amount of material used in a courtroom setting in the case of a copyright lawsuit, there is no rule of thumb about how many seconds of material you can use. On a technical level, an artist or creator can be found guilty of copyright infringement just as easily of using 10 seconds of unlicensed copyrighted material versus using ten minutes of material.

What are the rules for using footage on YouTube? YouTube has a content recognition engine that can identify many types of copyrighted material although it will not be able to tell if you’ve properly licensed the footage or songs or are using them unlicensed. If you get a copyright strike or a copyright notice on YouTube, you’ll be able to file a dispute if you have indeed licensed the material. If you haven’t licensed the material, YouTube may take the video down or monetize your video for the copyright holder by putting an advertisement on the video page with the revenue going to the owner of the copyrighted work you infringed upon. Repeated violations may eventually subject your YouTube account to deletion.

What other factors should I be aware of when licensing copyrighted material? One other factor you will want to pay attention to is the term of the license. Royalty-free agreements are generally permanent, while rights managed license agreements may be limited in time (for instance for 1 year or 5-year terms after which it would need to be renewed).

How much does stock footage or photos cost to license? The cost of licensing footage of photographs can vary wildly depending on how rare of a photograph or footage it is, plus how old the material is, plus how you want to use it (in a commercial vs in an indie film for YouTube), plus how long you want to use it for (permanently vs getting a 5 year rights window). It won’t surprise you to learn that the more unique a piece of footage or photograph is, the higher a price the licensor can demand.

Here are some sample footage/photo licensing costs, although there is quite a wide range and these costs may be far higher or lower for particular pieces:

$5 – a photograph of a hand holding an iPhone on a discount stock photo website

$5,000 – rights managed cost for licensing unique photograph of a well-known celebrity at a particular event

$25 – generic b-roll footage of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

$100/second with a 30-second minimum regardless of whether you need to use all 30 seconds – TV news footage licensing agreement for a 2-year rights window

Free – Creative Commons licensed material from a free website like Pixabay

For more on this topic, see our related article: How to license TV news footage for a documentary: How much does TV news footage cost to license?

See also:

What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make a documentary

Creative B-Roll Ideas for Documentary Filmmakers

Storyblocks Audio Review – Is Storyblocks Worth It? Royalty Free Stock Music Review

How to Make a Low Budget Documentary Film

The post What is the difference between royalty free and rights managed stock photo/film/music licensing? appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

Premiere Pro, one of the most popular cross-platform video editing programs today, offers a few different options for subtitling videos. In this article we’ll explain how to add subtitles or captions for a video using Premiere Pro on your Mac or PC. We’ll go over a few different methods to add subtitles in Premiere Pro.

Option 1: How to manually add subtitles to a video in Adobe Premiere Pro using the Title Tool

The most basic way to add subtitles to a video in Premiere Pro is to use the same Title Tool that you may have already used to create titles in a video. Here’s how it works:

1. In Premiere Pro, set up a sequence and place your video inside it (if you’ve already been editing, just make a duplicate version of your sequence so you have a backed up copy of it using the right click or control click… Duplicate option).

2. Use the text tool or press the letter T on your keyboard to get a cursor. Click where on the video you’d like to place the video and type out the text, just like you would for a normal title.

3. Double click on the title (subtitle) in your timeline and open up the Effect Controls tab (Shift+5 or Window… Effect Controls from the menu bar). From there, scroll down to the text options where you can adjust the font, color, size, stroke, drop shadow and other parameters to make your text more readable.

The next subtitle you create will also have these same attributes (you can also duplicate your subtitle in the timeline by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard, and dragging a copy over on your timeline if you wish to keep the exact text alignment intact).

Pros of this approach: You can customize just about every element of how your subtitles look using the Title Tool in Premiere Pro. Color, size, placement: it’s all up to you. And if you’re already familiar with using the Title Tool, this won’t be a new tool to learn how to use.

Cons of this approach: You’ll have to be pretty careful to make sure that each subtitle is placed in the same exact spot on the screen for consistency’s sake. And also you don’t have any option to import subtitles generated elsewhere with the Title Tool.

Option 2: How to add closed captions using Premiere Pro’s Captioning Tool

What is the difference between making subtitles using the Title Tool, and making captions using Premiere Pro’s official Captions option? Partly it’s how the text looks, and also partly how it function. Here is the subtitle tool on the left, and the caption tool being used on the right. (Both tools can look slightly different using their customization options, but these are examples.)

As you can see, the caption option allows you to put a black rectangle (with a user-selectable transparency level) behind your text for legibility. The normal Title Tool option gives you the choice to add drop shadows instead. Both options allow you to change the size, font, font color, and add a stroke outline around the text to improve legibility.

The other big difference in how these tools are set up is that the Captions tool is designed specifically for captioning or subtitling a continuous stream of video, rather than being for one-off titles like the Title Tool.

Here’s how to use Premiere Pro’s Captions tool:

1. Go to File… New… Captions. For the Standard, select Open Captions (which will allow you to determine the font options etc – closed captions are the television standard). Hit OK.

2. Drag that newly created Caption file on to one of your video tracks in the sequence containing your video. Next, double click on the sample caption it provides to open the Captions setting box. From there you can adjust font size, placement, color, etc, as well as length and timing. To create a second caption, simply hit the + button at the bottom of the captions window. You can also adjust the timing of a caption by dragging either end of it out in the timeline.

3. When it’s time to export your video, go to the Captions tab of the Export screen and choose the Export Option: Burn Captions Into Video. Otherwise, the captions won’t actually be exported in your final file.

Pros of this approach: It’s designed for captions so you can add a nice black box (of your own opacity choice) for legibility. Plus, since the tool is designed for subtitles, it has more features to automatically lock in title placement and so forth that the normal Title Tool doesn’t have.

Cons of this approach: There are occasionally bugs in the Captions tool since it’s newer than the Title Tool. Additionally, it can be time consuming to manually input all these captions and make sure their placement is perfect (especially if you have to add subtitles to a long video). Which is a problem that is solved by the next option:

Option 3: Use a cheap and fast third party captioning service to generate a captions file, then import it into Premiere Pro for burning the captions into the video

If you’ve got a long video (or even if you have a short video but don’t want to spend the time manually typing out the captions and placing them perfectly), you could use a third party captioning tool to spit out a timed transcript and then import that into Adobe PPro using its Captions tool.

Here’s how it works: A service like Rev.com can generate English captions for as little as $1/minute so a 5 minute video would cost you only $5 which is a pretty affordable rate.

Here’s how to use Rev subtitles with Premiere Pro:

1. Go to Rev.com and choose the Captions option. Upload your video (as an .mov, .mp4 or whatever file format you have) and enter your payment information. For caption format choice, choose .SRT:

2. Ater Rev emails you the subtitle file (which could take a few hours or as much as a day), import the .SRT file into Premiere Pro and drag it on top of your video in your sequence, just as you would with a Caption file. You may have to adjust the timing of the first title by dragging the full captions track over a bit, but the rest of the captions should stay synced as long as you’re moving them all together.

If you would like to change the text size, etc of all your captions at once, simply go to the Captions window and select the first caption, hold down the Shift button, and scroll to the last caption and click to select it. This should select all your captions at once, and you can now adjust the font parameters and so forth.

3. When it’s time to export your video, go to the Captions tab of the Export screen and choose the Export Option: Burn Captions Into Video. Otherwise, the captions won’t actually be exported in your final file.

Pros of this approach: Extremely efficient if you have a long video you need captioned. Reduces the amount of manual work you need to do. Also has translation options for foreign language subtitling.

Cons of this approach: Costs money (an hourlong video will cost $60 at the $1/minute caption rate for English captions).

Frequently asked questions about making captions or subtitles in Premiere Pro

How does Rev work? Rev is a captioning and subtitle service that does a first pass using advanced speech to text transcription software which is then cleaned up by humans who correct errors and add punctuation as needed. You still may need to make some corrections (especially if the people speaking in your video are mentioning specialized terms or unusually spelled names), but generally Rev works as a great first pass.

If you’re importing subtitles or captions from Rev into Premier Pro, you’ll still want to watch your video with imported subtitles as a quality control pass at the very least and to double check the timing of various titles (plus to make sure the captions don’t conflict with any on-screen elements).

How do I move caption placement so it doesn’t conflict with something important happening at the bottom of the frame? In the Captions window you can select from 9 pre-defined “title safe” placements for your captions.

Can you add a drop shadow using the captions tool? Currently, as of the time of this article is published, the closest you can get to a drop shadow is adding a dark colored stroke around the edge of your text. Of course, Premiere Pro is updated several times a year and there’s no reason Adobe couldn’t add this feature later on.

See also:

10 Ways to Make Subtitle Styles More Readable

How to get audio/video transcribed – speech recognition & manual transcription programs

What does a documentary script look like? How to write a script for a documentary film

The post How to Easily Add Subtitles/Closed Captions to Video Using Adobe Premiere Pro appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

XLR is a professional grade connector mostly used in balanced audio cables and microphones. The XLR standard consists of a male and female three-pronged plug shielded in a round metal tube. XLR inputs and outputs are found on a variety of professional quality gear such as pro video cameras, shotgun microphones, and more. Four-, five-, six- and seven-pin XLR cables also exist but they are less common and used for equipment such as fog machines, intercom systems, and theatrical lighting controls.

In this article, we’ll look at a few examples of equipment with XLR audio connectors and we’ll also talk about the pros and cons of using this audio connector type. Finally, we’ll provide some links to help you choose the best equipment for your purposes.

Examples of XLR cable connectors

Here are some examples of several types of equipment you might encounter that uses XLR connectors.

• Here’s an example of a standard XLR audio cable. This particular one measures 6 feet long but XLR cables come in all sorts of lengths.

• The Sony HXR-NX100 HD NXCAM Camcorder is an example of a professional video camera with 2 XLR inputs. In the case of this camera, the dual XLR inputs are housed in a box on the front of the top handle. TwoFor instance, two XLR cables can be plugged into the HXR-NX100, which can lead to a shotgun microphone and an XLR lavalier microphone. Not every video camera has XLR inputs, so XLR adapters for DSLRs and camcorders exist to bridge that gap and allow you to use XLR shotgun microphones for instance with these cameras.

• The Shure SM58 microphone is a well known handheld microphone with an XLR connector at its base. To connect this microphone to a camera, you’ll need to use an XLR cable in the middle, for instance, like the 6 foot XLR cable we linked to earlier in this article.

• Here’s a sound mixing board that has six XLR audio inputs and two XLR audio outputs for speakers, in addition to several other audio inputs. A sound mixer like this might be useful if you need to patch together six different XLR microphones, each from a different person, for a live event, with the sound going to a set of speakers (such as a discussion panel on a stage where everyone has a microphone, for instance).

Pros & Cons of using XLR audio connectors

If you need to decide whether or not to use gear with XLR connectors or not, here are some factors to consider in making your decision.

Space/weight: Gear with XLR connectors tends to be heavier and bulkier, in part because of the metal connectors that are used and partially because the cables tend to be heavy duty. This is because they’re designed for professional use and therefore it might be either a pro or a con depending on what your needs are.

Size: A normal 3.5mm headphone jack (1/8th inch) is quite a bit smaller than an XLR connector and consequently the gear features full-sized XLR connectors tends to be larger. There isn’t room on a DSLR for full sized audio inputs. Depending on what’s important to you, you might have to make your choice based on the size of the gear.

Balanced vs unbalanced audio: For longer cables, the issue of balanced vs unbalanced audio becomes important to prevent signal interference and audio errors. XLR cables are balanced whereas many other types of cables are not.

Understanding male vs female XLR

Which side of an XLR cable or connector or port is male or female? In the photo above, the female XLR connector is shown on the left in blue, and the male XLR connector is shown on the right. The side with the pins is the male side of an XLR connector. XLR ports on equipment like cameras are generally female XLR ports because you’re plugging things like cables that lead to microphones into them.

It is sometimes also possible to reverse the direction of an XLR cable to plug in combinations of equipment that would not normally connect together. To do this you may need additional equipment like an XLR barrel adapter like a male to female XLR adapter, or a female to female XLR adapter, or male to male XLR adapter.

Browse more XLR adapters, gear & accessories

Here are an assortment of articles about other gear that uses XLR audio connectors.

The Ultimate Guide to Lavalier Microphones & Lapel Mics

XLR to RCA Audio Adapter Cables & Converters

XLR to 1/4th Inch TRS Adapters & Patch Cables

What are the Best DSLR XLR Audio Adapters?

5 Best XLR to USB Adapters, Converters & Preamps

Best XLR Shotgun Microphones and Boom Mics for Filmmakers

XLR to 3.5mm (1/8th inch) Audio Minijack Cables & Adapters

How to connect an XLR shotgun microphone to a DSLR

The post What is an XLR Cable? What Are XLR Microphones & Cameras With XLR Inputs? appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

Canon C300 Sample Test Footage

Here is some C300 Mk II sample footage. Pay attention in particular to the C300’s shallow depth of field, color, low light situations, and slow motion. This video also highlights some nice bokeh effects.

Sony FS7 Sample Test Footage

Here is some FS7 II sample footage. This video has some silhouettes and timelapse examples in addition to FS7 slow motion examples, shallow depth of field, color handling, low light situations, and slow motion.

Canon C300 vs Sony FS7 Tech Specs Compared

Below we’ll compare the technical capabilities of both the Canon C300 Mk II and the FS7 II cameras. How much do these two cameras overlap and how much is different?

Specification	Sony FS7 II	Canon C300 Mk II
Sensor Type:	CMOS	CMOS
Max Resolution:	4K (4096 x 2160)	4K (4096 x 2160)
Max ISO:	ISO 2,000	ISO 25,600
Max Framerate:	60fps (4K), 180fps (1080p)	30fps (4K), 60fps (2K), 120fps (1080p)
ND Filters	5 Settings	3 Settings
LCD Monitor	8.8cm	10.1cm
Video Format(s)	XAVC, MPEG-4 H.264/AVC	MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
Max Bitrate	600Mbps (4k)	160Mbps (4K)
Media Type	XQD Card (Example price)	CFast Card (Example price)
Weight without lens	4.4lbs (2.0kg)	3.9lbs (1.7kg)
Shoulder Mount?	Included, detachable	Requires kit
RAW/Log Modes?	Yes & Yes	Yes & Yes
Price	Check Price	Check Price

Bottom line on technical comparison between the FS7 and the C300: Both cameras are capable of shooting extremely high quality video in resolutions up to 4K. The FS7 can record higher frame rate 4K video at a higher frame rate than the C300, and at a higher maximum bitrate, but it’s also bigger and heavier (comparing both cameras before adding lenses). Both cameras have pretty different form factors which needs to be taken into consideration as well, which brings us to our next section…

Ergonomics of the Sony FS7 vs the Canon C300

While these two cameras record similar quality footage, one key difference between the C300 and the FS7 is that they have slightly different form factors. The Canon camera, perhaps owing to the still camera ancestory, is configured a bit closer to a chunky (but still small) DSLR than a video camera. Meanwhile the Sony, perhaps because of its own video camera heritage, has a form factor that’s more like a traditional video camera.

While both cameras can be set up with rigs to work in any way you desire, it’s worth considering whether this form factor difference will impact your decision to buy either the Canon C300 or the Sony FS7. The FS7 for instance comes with a detachable Smart Grip with rec recording control as well as a zoom controller and more.

What type of media cards do the Sony FS7 & Canon C300 use? Video out options?

The Sony FS7 has two slots for XQD memory cards. The FS7 also has an SD card slot but that’s only used to copy configuration settings from one camera to another (the FS7 cannot record video to SD cards).

Meanwhile, the Canon C300 Mark II has two CF card slots for recording to CFast cards and one memory card slot for SD cards (which are not fast enough to record at the highest quality settings).

In addition, both cameras have HD-SDI video out and HDMI output ports, allowing you to connect an external hard drive for high quality recording to solid state drives, etc. Both cameras can also output a feed to a range of high quality external monitors. Here are the technical specifications of the video output port options on each camera.

C300 Video Out Ports:
2X HD-SDI MON. terminal, REC OUT terminal, HDMI OUT terminal, headphones terminal, SYNC OUT terminal (also serves as GENLOCK terminal), TIME CODE terminal (input/output switching), VIDEO terminal

FS7 Video Out Ports:
BNC(x2), switchable with 3G-SDI/HD-SDI, SMTPE292M/424M/425M, HDMI

What lens mounts do the C300 and FS7 use?

Here’s what the Sony website says about FS7 lens options:

Sony’s α mount lens system offers unsurpassed compatibility with both Sony and third-party lenses. The FS7’s E-Mount can take Cinema lenses and SLR lenses with a third party adaptor, as well as Sony’s E-mount and A-mount lenses. So whether buying new lenses, or making use of lenses you’ve already purchased, the FS7 makes it easy.

Here’s what the Canon website says about C300 lens options:

Expand your creative options by shooting with more than 90 of Canon’s current interchangeable EF and EF Cinema lenses. Servo zoom support further increases shooting versatility. The camera’s EF lens mount can be switched to EF mount with Cinema Lock or to PL mount, and back again by an approved Canon service centre.

Both cameras can also use lens mount adapters to attach other types of lenses.

How much do the FS7 and the C300 cost? Where to buy the FS7/C300

Amazon offers fast shipping and a great return policy on camera equipment.

The post Sony FS7 vs Canon C300: Video Camera Specs, Sample Footage & More (Which pro video camera to buy?) appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

Here’s the catch: depending on what model of Zoom (or other brand of digital recorder) you have, you’re going to have different audio input jacks. So in this article we’re going to provide you with great lavalier microphones for Zoom recorders by model type. Let’s get started.

Lavalier microphones for the Zoom H4, H5 or H6

The Zoom H4, Zoom H5, Zoom H6, and many other digital audio recorders have full-sized professional XLR audio inputs. These recorders can use both wired and wireless lavalier microphones that provide you with an XLR output. If your Zoom digital audio recorder (or other brand recorder) has full sized XLR inputs like these Zoom models, here are some options for some of the best lavalier microphones you can choose to use:

Sennheiser EW 112P G3-A omni-directional wireless lavalier microphone system

The Sennheiser G3 is known as a workhorse in the documentary filmmaking community. It provides clear, professional quality audio when it’s hooked up to either video cameras or portable audio recorders like the Zoom H5, Zoom H6 or similar recorders with full sized XLR inputs. The G3 is rugged, easy to use and can be operated at a wide variety of radio frequencies to avoid nearby interference. This wireless lavalier microphone’s range is up to a couple hundred feed and it runs on AA batteries (two in the transmitter, two in the receiver unit which is hooked up to your camera or audio recorder like a Zoom).

Movo WMIC70 Wireless 48-Channel UHF Lavalier Microphone System

If you’re looking for more of a budget conscious lav microphone for use with your Zoom audio recorder or other digital audio recorder with full sized XLR inputs, the Movo 70 Wireless Lav is worth considering. It’s definitely cheaper but can also provide decent quality sound within a 328 foot wireless range. Like the Sennheiser units listed above, this lav mic comes with both XLR and 3.5mm audio outputs so you can plug it into either a pro level video camera with 3-pin XLR inputs as well as DSLRs and camcorders with 1/8th inch audio minijack inputs. If you’re interested in getting a Movo, also be sure to check out the other kits and configurations available such as a dual wireless lav setup or kits with reporter style microphones.

Two-pack of wired lavalier clip-on microphones

If you’re using your Zoom recorder for a podcast or interview format audio recording, you’ll probably want to consider something like this set of two wired lavalier microphones from Movo. It consists of two lavalier microphones with foam windscreens and mounting clips that you can plug into the dual XLR inputs on your Zoom H4, H5 or H6 audio recorder. The mic cables are 6 feet in length, easily long enough to set the recorder on a table in between two people sitting in chairs on either side with plenty of extra slack for comfort.

Related: The Complete Microphone & Audio For Film/Video Guide

Saramonic UWMIC9 96-Channel Digital UHF Wireless Lavalier Microphone System

The Sarmonic wireless lavalier microphone system is a great budget friendly choice of wireless mic for digital audio recorders. It has a wireless range of up to about 300 feet and it provides clear high quality audio. This kit includes both an XLR output cable as well as a 3.5mm minijack for your Zoom recorder or other digital audio recorder.

Stony-Edge Condenser Lavalier/Lapel Microphone for Digital Audio Recorders

This wired lavalier microphone for Zoom audio recorders with 3.5mm microphone jacks (like the Zoom ZH1 or Zoom H2n) also works with smartphones like Android or iPhones with a 3.5mm headphone jack. It includes the microphone with a 4 foot cable (1.27 meters), a foam windscreen, a reversible mounting clip, and a convenient carrying bag.

Frequently asked questions about lavalier microphones for digital audio recorders

Do these microphones require external batteries?

Generally speaking wired lavalier microphones don’t require additional batteries unless otherwise labeled. Wireless microphones require additional batteries in both the transmitter and receiver packs on the other hand.

What are the pros and cons of using wired lavalier mics vs wireless lavalier microphones?

Wireless lavalier microphones or lapel mics provide freedom of movement for your interviewee and a range of typically around a hundred feet or more. On the other hand, wireless mics are also more expensive, require batteries, and can occasionally experience radio frequency interference resulting in bad audio.

Why would you want to use an external microphone with a Zoom audio recorder or similar device?

Generally speaking, the closer your microphone is to the person speaking, the better audio you’ll pick up. This is true in quiet environments and it’s even more true in noisy spaces. Putting a microphone a foot away from a person speaking vs three feet away can make a world of difference, which is why professionals place microphones quite close to the people speaking. Lavalier microphones or lapel mics are a common way to supplement Zoom audio recorders (or similar digital sound recorders) to get high quality audio interviews. They’re also used for filmmaking to get clear audio in cases where audio and video are recorded separately and synced up with each other after recording.

The post Best Lavalier Microphones for Zoom External Digital Audio Recorders appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.