Last week I shared with you my current go-to shoulder rig. The ACT recoil rig, the only camera rig you need? This week we are aiming for an even smaller setup with a couple of accessories. The past year I have accumulated a lot of them, but I will only talk about the ones I often use every time I have a DSLM/ DSLR in my hands. Whenever I need a quick and dirty setup to shoot in seconds, these are currently the 5 accessories I use.
This is a brand that you might already know… Smallrig! They sell tons of little pieces, bolts and screws, handles, cages, and handy accessories, anything that can turn your camera into a more friendly photography and most certainly video tool. You have to love building things, so if you are a lego freak, then you will love creating your own little setup. One of the reasons why I love Smallrig is that most of its accessories are not super expensive. My partner and I use them regularly, especially when we do not need a full rig for really simple handheld shots.
These accessories will help you have a better grip on your camera, you will be able to mount things easily around it, they will help you keep some of your ports secured, and also make things look nice and clean. For this article, we are going to concentrate on the accessories we use with the Canon EOS R5.
The first accessory we got for the R5 is obviously the cage! SmallRig makes cages for almost all known brands and camera models out there. The advantage of a custom cage is that it will keep most of the functions of your camera available. Once it’s on, you have multiple options now to mount things on or around your camera body. You probably have seen my behind-the-scenes videos where I use a 360 camera. I used to mount the ONEX 360 on top of the hot shoe mount, and if I had one piece of advice, to share, do not ever do that! The hot shoe of your camera is not made to support too much weight or tension, and if you break this mount it will cost you a lot to repair. So this is where the cage comes in handy. You can screw your 360 camera on top, use the cold shoe, or even add another one wherever you want on your cage. Now you know where my ONEX 360 camera sits. If you want it further away you can use a magic arm that can give you a bit more flexibility or you can use the Swivel and Tilt Monitor Mount by SmallRig. This Swivel and Tilt Monitor Mount is of course made for your monitor. I usually put this Swivel and Tilt Monitor Mount on the handle and now I can hold on to my camera with one hand and have the monitor close and adjust the angle when needed. I sometimes when needed add a microphone on the side too! One of the biggest flaws of most of today's DSLMs is the Micro HDMI and USB connections. The Micro HDMI port is notoriously known for its fragility. To solve this issue SmallRig has different options for you. A Micro HDMI to Full HDMI converter will help reduce the stress and tension on the ports when mounted on the cage and that will additionally, let you use a full HDMI cable. Or the SmallRig HDMI and USB-C Cable Clamp, which will hold both your HDMI and USB cable in place, and take the majority of the tension and stress off your camera. The SmallRig Universal Cable Clamp is another favorite, that will help you manage your cables. I hate having all these cables dangling around so thanks to this I can keep things clean.
These are only a small selection of the accessories I use on a daily basis. You should check their website for more, some of these tools are really useful. What about you? What are your favorite accessories?
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