These days you kind of have to be a mixed bag of talent. If you shoot stills, you should also know how to shoot motion, or at the very least, be able to direct a good film to go in conjunction with that campaign you just shot. I primarily shoot stills on Nikon, but I have an A7SII for motion projects because the thing rips and puts out some pretty amazing 4k footage that you can use on most any scale.
I recently was commissioned to shoot a commercial for CASIO / GSHOCK, they wanted a short 40-60 second piece on a relatively tight budget on a super tight timeline. So here’s what I used:
- Sony Alpha a7SII
- Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM (G Master)
- Zeiss 18mm f/2.8 Batis Series Lens
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/4.0L IS USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
- Sony 70-200mm f/4.0 G OSS
- Ronin M
- iKan Cage with Trigger
- Lexar 64GB Professional SD Card
This shoot was super streamlined and our crew was micro, but that’s what’s great about having a well-rounded Sony gear bag – you can scale it to whatever size production.
On this shoot, I was Director and Camera, and we had one assistant and the talent. Add to that one bike, a skateboard and a timeline of half a day to pull something off.
The Sony camera is a beast if you dial it in appropriately to what you’d like. I shot everything on Cine4 as opposed to SLog to allow adapting to lower ISO’s than the native 1600 that’s the minimum with SLog. I did this because I was limited on ND’s and knew we’d be shooting in some bright open daylight.
The 24-70 mm was my workhorse on this shoot. It’s the newest addition to the G line and is an absolute dream. The internal stabilization is incredible to pair with the stabilized sensor and with a good grip you can get away with a lot of handheld shots. The build is comparable to the likes Nikon & Canon – including weather sealing, which for photographers like myself, is necessary.
(Alongside the 24-70 G, they also released an 85mm prime that’s pretty incredible. It’s a bit of a beast weight and size wise, but a super beautiful lens to play with for some more specialty shots. Sony put a lot of time into mastering the depth & bokeh from these two to keep a super clean look from the glass.)
My other favorite lens on the shoot was the Zeiss Batis series 18mm. These are wild, they weigh nothing, incredibly fast auto focus and silent. Super cool build and design.
Really, really liking this series from Zeiss.
This paired with the Ronin M was a great combo and super responsive to the shots we needed it for. The Batis 85 and 25 are also super rad extensions of this series that are definitely worth looking into if you like that feather weight, prime aesthetic. I’m a big fan of this line.
The 16-35mm is an awesome Lens to have in the bag. Versatile enough in the range that you can get away with using it for a variety of looks while being specific enough to have for dedicated looks. I often use this lens for shooting motion and other motorcycle work.
It’s a wide enough perspective that it adds a lot of speed to the foreground while telling a good story and perspective. Good lens to have in the bag for a mixed variety of uses.
And lastly, a must have for any commercial work, the 70-200 is the go to for anything action-based where you need either a bit of compression or to hone in on something specific. The skate shots were a quick fill for the piece but paired with the 1080 / 120p speeding on the Sony it got exactly what we needed. This lens is rad because it’s pretty small for a standard 70-200 f/4 and is light enough to throw into the bag.
As an overall look at a bag, this is a pretty great start. No primes or specialized lenses, but it’ll cover all your bases for stills and motion work.
