Technical equipment sourcing & setup

Equipment Sourcing:

Excellent techniques can contribute to excellent product regardless of the equipment quality.  That said, specialized audio & video equipment can complement your work, often amplifying it to new levels of quality.  Plus, it is flat-out fun to play with cool gear.  The following is a fairly comprehensive sourcing for cameras, lighting, and audio:

Abel Cine  877 880-4267
www.abelcine.com

Adolf Gasser Photography  415 495-4365
www.gassersphoto.com

B&H Photo & Video 800 606-6969
www.bhphotovideo.com

JCX Expendables  415 824-4110
www.jcxex.com

Sammy’s Camera  310 450-4365
www.samys.com

Talamas Broadcast Equipment 617 928-0788
www.talamas.com

When investigating new equipment be sure to take into account accessories that can either make your existing equipment work better or new stuff you’ll need to accompany new equipment:

Cables
Batteries / auxiliary power
Tripods
Microphone stands / windblocks
Lights

Setup:

As you build up your inventory of tools, consider a mindful studio setup.  Depending on what and how you shoot—people, products, action, stills, interviews—you’ll need to tweak your setup.

Here are instructions for creating small photo studio for product photography—includes suggestions for lighting and backdrops.  (From luthier Frank Ford, Palo Alto, CA)  This is a solid platform for experimentation!

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/General/PhotoStudio/photostudio.html