Shooting corporate documentaries and cooking videos for a number of years, I started off with a larger shoulder rig, but these days I’ve landed on a pretty minimalist camera rig with only the essential components to help me capture good b-roll. Today I wanted to share this set up with you, and hopefully give you some ideas on building your own camera rig.
This minimalist rig is:
・Portable
・Stable
・Quick to set up and use
“b-roll” is supplementary video footage that you can use to support your main video, making it more interesting and easier to understand. It’s also really useful for covering up edit points to make your finished show smoother and professional.
Some examples of b-roll could be extra street scenes and interesting locations for travel videos, people busy at work for corporate documentaries, or close ups of hands and ingredients for cooking videos.
Granted, the most -minimal- set up for b-roll is just a camera and lens. It could even be just your phone. But I’ve found a few attachments that help me do the job better and get higher quality results.
First a disclaimer: This is not a sponsored video and I bought all of these parts with my own money.
Okay, so on to the rig.
One of the first things I attach to any of my cameras is a quick release plate, which is good for attaching the camera not only to tripods, but other system pieces as well. I use Peak Design plates, but others will work also.
For a b-roll rig, stability is important, and I find that having a hand strap helps to balance the weight of the rig across my entire hand rather than just using my fingers to hold the camera. I can also loosen my grip a bit when I need to, and not worry about dropping the camera.
I use the Peak Design Clutch hand strap because it’s both comfortable and adjustable, and it’s quick to attach… or remove as necessary.
The next part is a follow focus unit from Smallrig that serves two purposes on this set up.
The first purpose is to help make manual focusing easier. I just find it more intuitive if the wheel turns in a plane perpendicular to me (show near to far) where I can turn the ring away from me to move the focus point farther from the camera, and turn the ring towards me to move the focus point closer.
Normally a focus ring rotates side to side, and some lenses rotate in different directions. I simply don’t have the muscle memory to instinctively know which direction to turn, left or right for near or far focusing.
So the follow focus unit takes the guess work out of focusing and helps my brain work better in 3 dimensional space.
The Smallrig F60 follow focus unit comes with this short 15mm rod and a rod holder that is meant for attaching to a camera cage.
What I did for this minimalist rig is attach the rod holder directly to an Arca style clamp, then attach the rod and follow focus unit. I think this is about as small as you can go for a follow focus set up.
When I want to use it, I just place my camera onto the clamp, lock it in place, and then angle the follow focus unit to engage the lens’ focusing ring.
The double purpose part of this Smallrig follow focus unit is this little round handle that attaches to the bottom. With this in place, I can comfortably support the camera with my left hand while still operating the focus wheel. This extra support really adds to the stability of the rig since I can support it with both hands.
Most follow focus units that I’ve seen don’t have a built-in handle so your focusing hand doesn’t really help with supporting the rig itself.
I really do recommend this Smallrig follow focus unit. I have zero affiliation with Smallrig, and this is just an unbiased recommendation. I’ll put a link to the F60 in the description in case you’re interested in getting one for yourself.
Finally, I use an external monitor to help me with my manual focusing. My eyes just aren’t good enough to judge accurate focus on a camera’s small built in screen, especially when holding it low or high… so a large external monitor is a must for me.
This large 10” monitor is a bit of a splurge on the “compact” theme of this rig, but I find that it really helps me to more accurate achieve focus. If your eyes are better, you could definitely use something smaller, like a 7-inch or 5-inch monitor.
The monitor is mounted to the camera via a Smallrig swivel and tilt monitor mount that slides onto the camera’s hotshoe, making it super quick and easy to attach or remove.
And that’s it.
My base camera and lens for b-roll as of 2024 is a Panasonic Lumix S5IIX with a 24-105mm F4 lens.
But the parts of this rig will work with just about any other camera and lens combination you like.
Now, there are a few things I intentionally chose -not- to include on this rig. These were personal choices since I wanted to keep the rig as light as possible and these items weren’t as critical for how I shoot.
Cage — Cages protect your camera, they allow you to mount all kinds of gear to your rig, and they can make it look more professional, which, quite frankly, can be important if you need a client to feel like they made the right decision in spending money to hire you.
I have cages on some of my other cameras, but for my minimalist b-roll rig, I really didn’t think a cage was necessary so I saved on some weight there.
Matte box — These help shade your lens for better color and contrast, and on some models you can swap lenses on a rig and filters very quickly. They also make your rig look more professional, which can make clients feel good. But matte boxes can be bulky, clumsy, and heavy.
I decided to just use the hood that came with my lens because it does a good job of shading the lens, and it’s very lightweight.
Top handle — With this rig I decided not to attach a top handle. I found that putting a large monitor on top of a handle made things too unwieldy and balanced poorly.
Power — For this minimalist rig, I usually just go with the camera’s internal battery and keep a couple spares in my pocket that I can swap in a few seconds. A lot of my b-roll shots are short clips, only lasting a few seconds to a few minutes per scene, and it’s easy to swap batteries when necessary.
For powering the monitor, I use a Sony style battery that keeps it going for hours.
If I know I need to do longer takes or leave my camera running for extended periods, I would use a power bank with USB power delivery, and velcro it to the back of the monitor, but this does add extra weight and I prefer not to use it if not necessary.
There are also V-mount batteries which can give hours of run time and power both the camera, monitor, and other accessories… but these add considerable bulk and weight, and I prefer not to use them on a minimalist rig… But I will use them on larger tripod or shoulder mounted set ups.
Sound — A lot of the time I don’t use the sound from b-roll footage, so I didn’t add a shotgun microphone to the rig. Occasionally if I’m following someone around for b-roll footage of their work day, I’ll hide a wireless microphone on them and have the receiver on the camera.
One thing I should mention about this minimalist rig is that it is lop-sided when I put it down because the 15mm rod is only on one side. It doesn’t fall over, but I do need to be a bit careful about where I set it down.
So that’s my minimalist b-roll rig. This is just what works for me and the kind of videos I do, but I hope that by sharing this video it might give you some ideas on how you can set up your own minimalist camera rig. If you have any questions about the parts or setup, please let me know in the comments.
Affiliate links
・Smallrig F60 follow focus unit https://amzn.to/47GTJkk
・Smallrig swivel and tilt monitor mount https://amzn.to/3ZCkcO1
・Smallrig seamless focus gear rings https://amzn.to/3Y2C1U7
・Peak Design Clutch hand strap https://amzn.to/4egLFt9
・Peak Design camera plate https://amzn.to/3ZFwmWo
・Arca-style clamp https://amzn.to/4eEp1dN
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