There are certain jobs I do that are very much ‘one man band’ jobs where I need to turn up with everything I need and shoot some nice content for a product or company. Often on these shoots I am asked to shoot stills along side filming, supplying the client with more digital content to cover the event along with a 30 second video scissor-reel. This is the norm for many people who are true hybrid shooters but only happens occasionally with me. This is often due to the need to create different types of content to feed the needs of the many social media and marketing content platforms people use today. It can be tricky to get your head into two ‘quite different’ disciplines of stills shooting and video shooting but I have recently found a good solution.
The Rotolight NEO 3 mounted onto the Canon R5C
I have recently bought the perfect hybrid shooter combo that makes shooting video and then switching things up into a photo-shoot very simple and intuitive. These two products are both very new and only just finding their way into the hands of creatives as of June 2022. The first is a camera called the Canon R5C which is arguably the first ever true hybrid video/stills camera. This is because the interface completely changes when switching from photo to video which not only gives you the features you need for each discipline but also really helps in getting you into the right headspace. In fact apart from poor battery life in video mode there seems to be very little comprise at all with it being a hybrid camera. It's effectively a Canon R5 with a Canon cinema camera bolted onto it.
It couldn’t be more simpler to switch between the two modes.
The second part of the combo is the Rotolight NEO 3 light. This is suppose to be the most powerful toplight that mounts onto the camera ever made so can be used as a fill light even when filming outside without the need to keep moving a large light and light stand around. The NEO 3 is battery powered so can be placed anywhere if desired and of course the continuous light can be used for stills as well but in true hybrid spirit it can work as a sync flash and offers double the output in that mode. This can be used with a wireless receiver or more simply with a PC sync cable that connects directly into the Canon camera. When shooting stills this can be useful for the power output as i said previously but also for battery life as you are not constantly draining the battery as with continues video lighting. Icing on the cake is provided in the form of the RGB chips on the NEO 3 allowing the camera to use any colour you can think of in both video lighting and also flash lighting modes so carrying gels with you is no longer necessary. For video, light effects are also included which can be useful at times depending on the project.
The NEO 3 is battery powered and had a really user friendly interface.
It is great, the way these two products from different manufacturers can work so well together. In one moment I could be shooting with a model for a fashion video for on the Canon R5C shooting in video mode in 4k resolution and 120fps ‘slow-mo’. While the NEO 3 attached to the camera via the cold shoe mount is giving me a nice fill light and attractive round reflections in the models eyes. Later in the day I can switch the R5C over to photo mode and turn the model towards the sun to use as my key light. Putting the NEO3 into flash mode I can use a long sync cable to place the NEO 3 just behind the model using it as a rim or hair light with the greater light output. Doing all this with a camera and light that fits into a small backpack does feel like a bit of a game changer for hybrid shooters or any shooters that sometimes have to operate on their own. Let me know what you guys think below……..TJK Equipment List