My first serious filmmaking mentor told me something I’ve never forgotten: “The best lens is the one you can’t afford.” He was talking about vintage glass. Specifically, about how Metabones Speedboosters let you adapt vintage cinema lenses to modern mirrorless cameras while gaining an extra stop of light. Here’s why that matters in 2026. What…
I’ve been shooting with a Sony FX3 for the past two years. Before that, an FS7. Before that, a C300. You know what none of those cameras have in common with a GH5 or a BMPCC? A built-in ND filter system. The FX3 doesn’t have one. Neither does the FX6 in the way an FX9…
Three months into a WFP assignment in Aden, I watched a colleague agonize over whether to sell his FX30 and upgrade to the FX3. He was shooting aid distribution in 45°C heat, sprinting between warehouses, doing everything handheld or on a small Ronin-SC. The FX3 he’d rented for a previous assignment was sitting back in…
I’ve been shooting with the DJI RS3 Pro almost every day for the past several months, and I can tell you — it has fundamentally changed how I approach handheld cinema work. I came to it from the RS2, slightly skeptical that DJI could meaningfully improve what was already a stellar gimbal. I was wrong.…
Let me save you from making a $2,100 mistake. Every week I see the same debate in filmmaker forums: “Sony FX3 vs FX6 — which one should I get?” And every week, the conversation misses the point entirely. People obsess over specs sheets, pixel counts, and feature lists as if they’re shopping for a laptop.…
Let’s get something out of the way right now: you do not need to spend $4,000 to make professional-looking films in 2026. That’s a myth the industry has been slowly dismantling for years, and by now it’s essentially dead. The cameras on this list produce images that — in real-world conditions, with good glass and…
Why the Sony FX3 Demands the Right Glass I’ve been shooting with the Sony FX3 since it launched, and if there’s one lesson I keep relearning on set, it’s this: the camera is only as good as what you put in front of it. The FX3 is a phenomenal piece of kit — full-frame sensor,…
