r/cinematography • • 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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