Equipment
recommendations
Just so you know, some of the links below are affiliate links meaning I make a small commission when you buy stuff using these links. You don't get charged any more so it won't make a difference to you, all it does is put a tiny bit extra money in my pocket so I can buy more toys for my already very spoiled pup :)
HERE'S ALL THE TOOLS & RESOURCES I USE TO MAKE MY LIFE + RUNNING MY BUSINESS EASIER
Sony A7iv
This is my main camera for both photo and video and it's AMAZING! I have two of these bad boys and absolutely love them.
Photography
Sony Zeiss 55m f/1.8
My number one lens, I shoot 80% of the day with this lens at weddings! I could probably shoot an entire wedding just with this lens. Now the lens itself is really amazing quality, sharp, fast to focus and bright. It's not cheap but affordable compared to some other 50mm lenses.
Samyang 24mm f/1.8
I initially bought this lens to go travelling and get some wide angle landscape shots but now I use it on my second body at weddings for about half the day (the other half I use my 85mm for candids and speeches). It's super handy to fit a whole room/building if in a tight space and I use it for wide shots with the couple when I want to give a sense of scale. It's sharp, fast to focus and super small and light!
Sony 85m f/1.8
My go to for candids and speeches! The bokeh on this is amazing and it's super sharp and quick to focus. It's fairly big and a little on the heavy side but that's to be expected for an 85mm lens.
Hot shoe phone mount
This is a great tool to grab some behind the scenes videos on your phone! It attaches onto the hot shoe mount and allows you to mount your phone either vertically or horizontally.
Godox V1
I used to have one of the smaller Godox flashes and got frustrated at how slow it was to recycle in between flashes. So I switched to the V1 and I'm SO glad I did, it's so fast and so powerful, plus it has a 'model light' which is kinda like a continuous LED light and comes in handy in some situations
Sandisk Extreme Pro SD cards
These are my favourite SD cards, they're fast enough, fairly cheap, often on offer and do the job.
Macro extension tubes
Little trick of the trade for those who don't want to fork out £1000 for a macro lens... Macro extension tubes on your existing lenses do the trick! There's no loss of quality as it's a tube, no glass or anything in the way, they're super easy to use and can reduce the minimum focusing distance of your lenses until you can pretty much see the fibres on a piece of clothing. And they're super cheap!
DJI RS3 Mini Gimbal
If you like your films to be smooth AF this is the tool you need! I use mine mostly during the couple session so if we're walking around I can film while walking, and I use it for shots of the venue (ceremony room, reception room and details)
Videography
Rode Go II Mics
These little mics are great, the sound quality is really good and they're super easy to use. They come with 2 microphones so it actually works out quite cheap!
Sony TX660 Mics
These microphones are small and thin, perfect for sliding into a pocket during the ceremony and speeches as back up audio. They're cheap so you can buy loads of and chuck some back ups on tables, and the sound quality is good. Most of the videographers we know swear by them!
Integral UltimaPro V90 SD cards
If you're shooting 4:2:2 10bit 4k footage at 100fps you're going to need to invest in some v90 cards, normal SD cards won't be able to handle the footage otherwise. These ones are a little cheaper than the ProGrade ones and work just as well!
K&F Concept Magnetic Variable ND2-ND32 filter
Great for shooting in bright sunlight without having to crank up the shutter speed. This variable ND filter comes with a magnetic ring to mount on your lens so you can quickly take it on and off. It's been a game changer for me when the light changes constantly on a sun + clouds day. No more fiddling with my filter trying to unscrew it everytime I go from outdoors to indoors! Quite a bit cheaper than most variable ND filters and excellent quality with no colour cast!
Office stuff
Noise cancelling headphones
The best headphones to block out loud neighbours, barking dogs, roadworks outside your window etc. They're a bit on the pricey side but SO worth it, they're super padded and comfy (I'm picky when it comes to headphones as I wear glasses and if too tight they give me a headache!) and the sound quality is out of this world!
NAS
To back up all my photos + videos I invested in a Synology NAS. This bad boy is basically capable of re creating the data in case of a drive failure (it's set up in RAID5) so wI don't have to worry about losing any photos/footage.
Hard drives
These are the internal hard drives I've purchased to put in my NAS and they've been amazing!
