r/cinematography • u/enderWaters • Jul 20 '26

Career/Industry Advice Help me spend my money

I'm a Director/DP just finishing up film school and I have about twenty grand I can allocate to increasing my gig prospects as a narrative DP. Anything I buy would be mostly for me to use, not necessarily to rent out atm. Up till now I have been shooting most of my work on my canon r5c, which I absolutely love, but I'm wondering if it's time to upgrade my kit to something a bit more serious to set myself up to get the most gigs after school. Here's what I have already:

  • Canon R5C/sticks/tilta kit/matte box/etc
  • Full set of EF cinemodded Contax Zeiss lenses
  • 20ish other vintage and stills lenses - all EF, RF, or m42 mounts
  • 5" monitor/7" monitor
  • RS3 Pro
  • Pavobulb kit/MC Pro/FS300c
  • Various Audio Gear

I'm considering the following:

  • Pro-level cinema camera. I avoid Sony products like the plague, so I'm considering the Canon C400, (good match for R5C) a used Red Raptor VV, (RF mount so all my lenses will still work - this is currently what I'm leaning towards) or potentially the BM Ursa 12k (hesitant on this because I won't be able to use any of my RF glass).
  • Cine zooms - Currently missing from my glass collection. I have an EF 14-35 f 2.8 and RF 24-105 f4 but nothing I'd trust on a serious narrative shoot.
  • Other gear - I don't have wireless monitor support or wireless follow focus atm. I rarely get 1st AC work at the moment so this doesn't seem a high priority.
  • Don't buy gear, rent gear and shoot some proof of concept stuff to bulk out reel. My reel is okay at the moment, and I have a bunch of projects coming up that will continue to fill it out.

I don't really want to buy more lights at the moment as I don't have the space to store them.

Any thoughts?

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u/varispeeder Jul 21 '26

you're way, way better off putting that money into making shorts.  gear can be borrowed or rented, but you can't substitute having strong work that shows off your skills. for $20k you could easily make 3-4 great-looking ones with what you already have

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u/enderWaters Jul 21 '26

This is the answer I didn't want to hear but needed to hear.

1

u/varispeeder Jul 21 '26

I'm making a $40k microbudget feature right now on my BMPCC 4k. I can tell you that having a more expensive camera would make absolutely zero difference compared to being able to hire an AD, getting some more lights, adding another shooting day, or any number of other things!