5 Must Have film tools Under $50

Published on August 15, 2017

Cinematography & Filmmaking

We’re back with another list of top film making tools and gadgets. This time everything is under $50 and to even my surprise, some tools are pretty unique.

Filmmaking is for many an expensive hobby or profession, but we shouldn’t get caught up by the media so quick. You don’t need the most expensive lens, haze machine or lights to become a great filmmaker. Often cheap tools can achieve similar results when used properly.

This is exactly what we want to prove with this list, in fact many of these tools are my favorite go-to’s. Like the smoke machine we start with. We use this one is many productions and have never felt like we needed an expensive haze machine to get the job done.

Fog/Smoke Machine

• Buy a Fog Machine: Ebay – Fog Machhine

Some videos shot with this fog machine: Ho-Ho-Hopeless Shortfilm (Christmas Special), How to film a PRODUCT VIDEO, How to create an Epic Corporate

Super Clamp

This clamp might not be considered ‘cheap’, but it’s such a versatile tools I believe any filmmaker should have at least one. Be careful you buy the right one. Some people name their simple clamp ‘super clamp’ on Ebay to get some sales..

• Buy the Super Clamp: Ebay – Super Clamp

Cheap LED Light

LED lighting is still pretty expensive, unless you wanna get bad knockoffs. However, these low quality LED lights actually have their function in a film production. So for as low as $30 you can’t do anything wrong. We talked about this before when we did a video about reveling a product. With even some simple flashlights you can create amazing results.

• Buy a cheap LED Light : Ebay – LED light search results

Cine Foil / Black Wrap

Not to wrap your Sandwich in, but to remove spill light or create your own DIY quality film light under $10! A roll of black wrap will set you back for $30 and lasts forever!

• Buy some Black Wrap (or Cine Foil): Ebay – Cine Foil / Black Wrap

50mm Lens

Lenses is the biggest brainwash topic. You’ve probably heard it everywhere that the lens is the most important element of a camera. To a certain degree that’s correct, but it’s been proven many times that we can’t even see the difference between a $100 lens or $10.00 lens. In fact, the 50mm lenses produced around the 80’s are super lenses for a fraction of the price. Everyone wants great auto focus or lens stabilization, but if you’re taking filmmaking serious, these things don’t matter. So for under $50 we can buy great lenses that produce a gorgeous image!

• Buy a 50mm old lens: Ebay – Canon/Nikon 50mm lenses

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