Sony A7III - Accessory Advice

[SRV1981]

Hi all,

I ultimately went with the Sony A7III after careful consideration and advice from members here.  I have to say I am much happier with the hybrid capabilities than my X-T3.  Low light is better, autofocus is better, and being able to make use of it is overall better.  I'd say the only thing about the camera I miss form my XT-3 is the physical buttons for ISO, etc. as well as the ease of menu.  I am still struggling to learn how best to setup, save, and access different settings for photo, video, slow-mo, low light etc.

I am looking to make educational videos for my students and have been working a little with Google Slides and other plug-ins to animate.  Two big things that are glaringly missing from basic setup (tripod, a73, Tamron 28-75) are a green screen/green cloth and an audio solution.  I like simplicity and ease of use.

Does anyone think I could just buy green fabric/cloth from Amazon and use pins behind me?  I am shooting most of the educational clips in my small NY apartment.

Also for audio, what are both inexpensive and semi-quality solutions?  An on camera mic would be best with fairly good sound quality up to 10 feet away.  Second to that would be an off camera mic on a stand (table or boom) that would plug into the camera.

I am eventually looking into a single mic option, hopefully, to record/play acoustic guitar but think I can get away with a cheaper separate mic for my camera (in apartment or run/gun on the street). 

 

So quick recap:

 

1. Easy green screen Amazon option - is fabric/cloth pinned to my wall okay enough?

2. Mic option

Thanks!

 

Examples:

 

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C72ISMF_D0&t=587s

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfzx9Y0rr_Q

 

[rawshooter]

3 hours ago, SRV1981 said:

I am looking to make educational videos for my students and have been working a little with Google Slides and other plug-ins to animate.  Two big things that are glaringly missing from basic setup (tripod, a73, Tamron 28-75) are a green screen/green cloth and an audio solution.  I like simplicity and ease of use.

Does anyone think I could just buy green fabric/cloth from Amazon and use pins behind me?  I am shooting most of the educational clips in my small NY apartment.

Also for audio, what are both inexpensive and semi-quality solutions?  An on camera mic would be best with fairly good sound quality up to 10 feet away.  Second to that would be an off camera mic on a stand (table or boom) that would plug into the camera.

 

I'd say: forget about green screen. Not only is proper lighting - and postproduction - for grey screen complex/difficult, but the Sony isn't really the right camera for that task because of its 8bit 4:2:0 codec. (Greenscreen work is one of the reasons for using raw cameras...) 

For a good and inexpensive mic, I'd first go for a lavalier, especially if you speak to students. The Audio Technica ATR3350 is a really good low-cost solution. - And I wouldn't use an on-camera mic 10 feet away...

[SRV1981]

27 minutes ago, rawshooter said:

I'd say: forget about green screen. Not only is proper lighting - and postproduction - for grey screen complex/difficult, but the Sony isn't really the right camera for that task because of its 8bit 4:2:0 codec. (Greenscreen work is one of the reasons for using raw cameras...) 

For a good and inexpensive mic, I'd first go for a lavalier, especially if you speak to students. The Audio Technica ATR3350 is a really good low-cost solution. - And I wouldn't use an on-camera mic 10 feet away...

Thanks for the feedback.  I'd point out that being able to add custom images/slides/videos in the background would be nice and I would pushback that the a7III can't handle that.  

I'll either be standing in my apartment against the wall or sitting at a small desk with my computer.  Both instances I will be speaking to the camera for instructional purposes (i.e. info on history, science, writing, reading, etc.)

A green screen/cloth as a backdrop will allow me to add custom slides and videos.  The mic doesn't need to be lavalier because the students will never be in my apartment 😂.  A shotgun mic of sorts would be optimal in this situation.  Additionally a shotgun mic will afford me the opportunity to use it overhead and out of shot in the videos at my apartment while also allowing me to mount them on the a7iii and doing run/gun work in the streets and eventually back at school.

I am coming here because I know many of you are creative and knowledgable.  Remote learning is a thing for us and I anticipate next year that video equipment (along with audio, lighting, etc.) will come in handy to engage and help our students.

So for an apartment... 

1. mic

2. green cloth/fabric creative setup

3. LED lighting that can be on my desk, attached to a stand, and have the ability to be on the shoe-mount along with the mic

 

I think that should allow me to have a decent setup to help my kids.

 

I just need suggestions on how to achieve that.

[anax276]

There are a lot of inexpensive green screen setups (including lights) on Amazon. I had one of these but the problem was that the cloth was very large and it had a lot of wrinkles after removing and setting it up again a few times. If you have the place to set it up and leave it there, there shouldn‘t be a problem. 

For me a setup like this was much more flexible and avoided wrinkles on the cloth (which can be very limiting in the keying process):

Elgato Green Screen Chroma-Key-Panel https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0743Z892W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_TpIZEbNWVGBFC

or even simpler:

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00E89Q5OY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_WqIZEbPZR7XDV

These are of course only examples.

Lighting is essentiell for a good keying and a single light most probably won‘t work well. I could get quite decent results with 2 lights, but 3 lights are best (1 for each side to light the green screen and 1 to light you).

As for the mic... I have the Rode VideoMic Go and it‘s OK if you‘re not very far from the camera and there isn‘t much noise in the room.

[Snowfun]

I too make academic videos - P4K with a greenscreen and Rode lav. I use two lights most of the time (two Blindspot Gear LED panels lighting the speaker and the greenscreen). Occasionally I add a third to light the speaker and a hair light to bring them to life. But no one other than me notices the difference. I have a pop up green screen which is very convenient and a cloth one which is significantly larger so easier to coordinate arm movements for pointing at content. It’s a hassle to mount - I use a length of aluminium angle on two light stands and small plastic clamps.  You could (?) paint the wall...  I find that FCP makes it trivial to key (it just works!) whereas Resolve is very complex.  If your University can fund it, I’d be tempted to get a P4K specifically for this purpose rather than the Sony. 

[BTM_Pix]

Probably the simplest and most effective solutions to do chroma key particularly for small spaces was created many years ago by a company called Reflecmedia.

The system comprises a piece of retroreflective cloth as a backdrop and a ring of blue or green LEDs mounted to the front of the lens.

It works by the principle of the retroreflective cloth firing back any light it receives back to its source which in this case is the ring of LEDs surrounding the camera lens. So whilst the cloth remains a neutral grey colour, the camera sees it as a solid block of blue or green and it makes for an incredibly simple but effective key and one that doesn't require any additional lighting.

This is an overview of it in action.

The big drawback to the system though is cost.

Although you have to balance that out against how simple it is to use and get the results you need and how often you are going to be using it.

It has had many different incarnations over the years in terms of kits and sizes (look out for Play Holoset which was a licensed version of it) so there are usually quite a few used ones available on eBay to lower the cost.

However.....

If you want to lower the cost dramatically and don't mind doing a bit of work, or finding someone to do it for you, then there are a number very viable DIY versions of it which use the principle.

Here is one such example and I have to say that whilst it seems a lot more work in the short term than buying a backdrop and lights etc I think the payoff is worth it.

Cheaper too.

 

[Mark Romero 2]

On 5/23/2020 at 3:27 PM, rawshooter said:

And I wouldn't use an on-camera mic 10 feet away...

Great advice. Hope the original poster pays attention to that.

If the original poster wants simplicity, maybe a Rode Wireless Go mic??? 

[SRV1981]

Thanks all!  I am going to be doing more HW.

For audio I think that a Shure sm7b mic, cloudlifter being fed into an Audient ID14 may be the best for audio in the apartment/studio for video narrations in addition to playing/recording music (vocals/acoustic).  Thoughts on this for audio?

I am not going to get an on camera mic yet as I am not doing much videography outside of the apartment for these productions yet.

For lighting I am trying to find an inexpensive 1-2 light easy setup.  I like the RGB features of the cello 10" shown by Manny Ortiz but not sure if I know enough about lighting to know if that is the type of light to use.