My Wildlife Filmmaking Camera Kit

Having the right camera kit is an essential part of every filmmaker's journey. Whether you film weddings, landscapes, automobiles, or in my case, wildlife, having a kit that is dialed into your specific workflow is absolutely crucial. While in today's day and age where camera companies are creating some really useful tools to optimize the way we all shoot, everything has their perks and their weaknesses. As a wildlife cameraman that focuses on a combination of drone, topside, and underwater, I've built up my kit to be useful in an array of different scenarios. Filming wildlife is dynamic, it's always changing, and there's always new stories and new perspectives to capture the natural world. It's demanding, and the kits used to film in harsh environments need to keep pace with the hardy crews around the industry. If you're new around here, my name is Adam Ernster. I'm a wildlife cameraman that has worked both in the ecotourism industry and the natural history filmmaking industry throughout my early 20s. I'm a whale watching captain and naturalist that has been privileged to work in the deserts of Baja to the fjords of Alaska. And here are 10 different pieces of my wildlife camera kit. Thanks for following along on my wild journey. Okay, so here is my A-cam. This is the RED Komodo X, and this is the main camera that I use nowadays to film wildlife. It's an incredible tool that allows me to tell stories of our natural world. From its beautiful image to its small and versatile body size, I've absolutely loved using the KX over the past six months or so. Its Super 35 sensor allows for a greater reach than a full-frame counterpart, and the ability to shoot 6K gives me the flexibility to punch in a bit when producing a 4K timeline. Its greatest feature, however, is its RED RAW capabilities. Since filming wildlife is such a dynamic process and the subjects we're filming aren't really following a script, we can't always get things exactly right in camera. We don't have time to set up the perfect lighting or even expose properly when an animal quickly moves from backlit to frontlit. Thus, being able to correct things in post is absolutely crucial. The flexibility of RED RAW allows wildlife camera crews to portray our subjects in the best light possible, which is why these RED cameras have really been the cornerstone of the wildlife industry for so long. Throw in some of the other features like its pre-record options and the higher frame rates, and this camera really shines for filming wildlife. Before purchasing the Komodo X, the Canon R5 that I'm using to film this on right now has been my A-cam for the past four years. I'm happy to still have it and to use it quite a bit as my B-cam. Its image is still great, and the 8K full-frame sensor can be amazing in different scenarios. Its small size allows me to throw it on a gimbal with this 70-200mm here and create some really nice stable footage. More on this later. I've been pretty fortunate to sell quite a bit of footage recorded on the Canon R5 to some of the bigger production companies, which really speaks to the usability of this camera in the wildlife space. Boasting a 45-megapixel sensor, it can create some stunning photos as well when I want to capture a single moment frozen in time. While the R5 Mark II is an enticing buy with its 8K60 RAW and its C-Log2, the Mark I has really been a stellar buy in my mind. Lately, however, since buying the KX, I've really utilized the R5 as an underwater camera. Speaking of which, there's really nothing that draws an audience in more than filming wildlife in their element, which is why underwater camera work is so important. This is definitely the area of my skillset that needs to be improved and worked on the most, which is why I've really put an emphasis on it over the past year or so. My underwater housing here for my R5 is made by a brand named Marilux. They're a relatively new company in the underwater housing world and I've really enjoyed the creativity and hardiness of their products. As the story goes, a few guys from Nauticam kind of split off and started Marilux, so there's a lot of similarities between the two companies. A few features that I really love are its metal makeup, which means it can take a beating out in the boats. Its pressure detect system is great and with the push of a button and a quick pump, I can assure that no water is getting into this housing and if there does happen to be a leak, I'll know immediately. It has button layouts for pretty much anything you could ever want and I've really enjoyed using it since I bought it in the summer of 2022. It's cheaper than Nauticam and I feel it has a similar build quality and robustness to it. While I'll probably go for a more established underwater housing company like Gates or Nauticam, when I eventually decide to spend a fortune on a housing for my KX, but for now I've really enjoyed this housing made by Marilux for my R5. I think they're great. If you have a mirrorless camera setup and you're looking to get an underwater housing for it, I can't recommend this brand enough. Now if you'd like me to go more in depth on this housing and make a review of it, let me know in the comment section down below. Okay, we are kicking right along here. So stepping away from the underwater world, another crucial part of my kit that I recently purchased is, let me go get it, is this absolute beast of a tripod. Now if you know what this is, this is the Flowtech 100s from Software paired with one of their newer heads, this is the Active 10. And while it's taking me years to afford this tripod, the weight was absolutely worth it. Software is kind of renowned in the world of wildlife filmmaking, tripods are used by a bunch of different crews across the industry, and I've been thoroughly impressed with this setup. Having a sturdy tripod is a must for long lens work. This allows for smooth movement when panning with subjects, and the sturdier the tripod, the less micro jitters you'll get in your footage. The carbon fiber design of these legs means it's relatively light for what it is, which makes it so incredibly helpful in the field, shedding every pound matters. Now what makes this software so revolutionary for wildlife filmmakers, it's really just these levers here. Software is known for this lever system, it's really just these three levers here, and the tripod can adjust to any height that you want. Super easy, and you can literally do it with one hand. The other part that makes this new Active head really, really helpful is that with just the flick of this lever, you can balance off your head in just a second. So it's really important to have that nice level playing field, right, when you're panning with an animal, otherwise your horizons are going to change, but this whole setup is just amazing. It has a great carrying capacity of about 25 pounds, and can easily accommodate the KX when fully rigged out, with a long lens and audio equipment. Now if you have a bigger setup like a RED with a CN20, obviously a 150mm bowl might be better than this 100mm bowl, but for what I do, for the lenses that I work with, the camera that I work with, the KX, this 100mm bowl is perfect. Now if you have a bigger setup, I definitely recommend going for the sideload plate. This is the touch-and-go plate, it's essentially just a smaller plate, but with the sideload plate, you get a much longer plate, which essentially allows you to balance your camera setup with longer lenses on this tripod. Okay, I'm going to put this guy away now, nice to see you Mr. Sockler. I'm going to shoot in like four days with this thing, just really excited to get out there and do some long lens work. Alright, what's next, what's next? Okay, next we're going to talk about drones. Drones have become a crucial part of my filmmaking career, and have allowed me to capture some really incredible, never-before-seen animal behaviors. They've been a staple in my wild journey, and have allowed me to kind of carve out a niche here on the west coast filming whales. They allow breathtaking new perspectives into the lives of whales and dolphins, and have been so crucial to witnessing new wildlife behavior. I currently have two drones in my wildlife kit that each have their own use case. I don't want to bust this thing out, okay, hold on, okay, I'm not going to put this thing together. Okay, I'm not going to put this thing together, but this is my DJI Inspire 2. Now the Inspire 2 is my more professional kit that I'll use for dedicated shoot days. Its Super 35 sensor creates amazing images, and the Cinema DNG RAW is heavy and annoying, but allows for incredible flexibility in post. The ability to swap lenses on this thing means that I can capture scenic wides as well as tight close-ups of my subjects. It's a pain in the ass to fly, especially when compared to the drones of today, but the image on it is still top-notch, even eight years after its release. However, since the Inspire 2 really requires two people to catch and launch this thing responsibly, and the flight time on it is maybe 18 minutes, I've turned to its younger brother, the Mavic 3, for everyday use. Okay, let's get this thing out of here. The Mavic 3's 5.1K Hasselblad sensor is spectacular, and its small body size makes it the perfect drone for most scenarios at sea. It has a much better flight time than the Inspire 2, and I can often get away with just four batteries for a half-day shooting. I never really mess with the long lens on it because the footage just kind of turns into mush, but the Hasselblad sensor really creates some beautiful images. Well, I personally think that flying drones is kind of the easiest skill set I have in my arsenal, and they've kind of been way overdone in both the wildlife industry and social media, for sure. Being able to get right in the middle of the action in a moment's notice is absolutely game-changing. This drone in particular, well, not this drone. I had the Mavic 3 Cine that's currently at the bottom of Poseidon's lair, but the Mavic 3 really has been crucial in the development of my career. Without this drone, I wouldn't be where I am today. And with the Mavic 4 on the horizon, I'm hopeful that that can be the perfect middle ground of image quality, ease of use, flight time. I really think that if they do it right, it's going to be the perfect drone for wildlife filmmaking. Okay, put this guy away. Literally just surrounded by gear. Let's talk about long lenses. Oh, I guess I should grab this again. Okay, long lens. Long lenses are crucial for getting up-close looks at wildlife. So keeping a distance and kind of being a fly on the wall, but still being able to get those tight details of our subjects is one of the hardest parts of being a wildlife camera person. While I would love to someday own a CN-20 that has a range of 50 to 1,500 millimeters, that $70,000 lens is unfortunately not in the budget currently. Instead, I'm using this classic lens, which is the Canon 100-400. Now while 400 millimeters is probably about the minimum I would go for wildlife filmmaking, pair this with the small crop factor of the Komodo X, I think it's like 1.33, you get about 530 millimeters with this setup right here. Now this lens is really small for what it is. It's really sharp and it creates a beautiful, clean image. But when I find one for the right price, I'll definitely be upgrading to the Sigma 60-600. It's kind of like the baby CN-20. A lot of people use it in the wildlife filmmaking industry and it definitely packs quite a punch for the price. I'm just trying to get a deal on one, you know. So if anybody's out there selling a 60-600 EF, let me know. Okay, put this guy away really quick. Long lens, absolutely crucial for wildlife camera work, obviously. Okay, so next we're going to talk about audio gear. So just like in any other type of filmmaking, the importance of immersive audio for wildlife filmmaking may actually be more important than the actual visuals themselves. To capture not only, you know, clean audio of whales and dolphins and, you know, their ocean environment, but also scientists and researchers that have devoted their lives to protect our oceans, I use a few different key pieces in my kit. First off, going back to the red, this is the Sennheiser MKH 416. This is my shotgun mount. I'm currently labbed up with a pack of Sennheiser G4s. Having this shotgun and lab combination is really important to kind of just get all your bases covered. Now, I love the Sennheiser G4s, they're super robust. They connect right to the KX via XLR and have a really strong connection, even from a distance. It's great to always have the receiver on my rig, whether I'm in the field or filming an interview. As a backup, I also have the DJI Mic 2s somewhere, I don't know. If something ever goes wrong with the Sennheisers or I want a second angle shot or second person filming the R5, 32-bit float is super helpful to ensure audio is never too blown out or too soft. So the Sennheiser 416 is another industry standard mic that I'm really privileged and fortunate to have. It provides, you know, a great source of audio for interviews and also captures ambient sound in the field. Now, I really want to set up the Sennheiser 416 with this Zoom H6 and kind of have like an audio pack on me. I think it'd be great to kind of boom up and hang over the side of the boat to capture whale blows. I haven't really had the opportunity to do that yet, but that's why I bought the Zoom H6 as well. But when I do get this setup dialed in, I'll definitely make another video on it. Now, the last piece of kit that I use for wildlife filmmaking in terms of audio is this little guy. This is a underwater hydrophone. Now, I haven't really been able to test out this exact hydrophone yet, but I will again definitely make a video of how I capture not only, you know, blows of whales, you know, the spout, the exhale, but also any underwater audio of them talking to each other, chatting it up. So, I'm definitely excited to use this in 2025 and beyond. Okay, moving on. I guess you can, uh, I guess you can call this my CCAM. This is the DJI Osmo Action 5. Now, I always have this thing on me. It's great for getting, you know, behind the scenes shots, maybe some different angles. It's great to kind of vlog with it with the DJI Mi2s, and I also use it to throw it on the front of my underwater housing on the dome to kind of get just a secondary angle, different perspectives, kind of a wider viewpoint than, you know, the 16-35 that I use in my underwater housing. Now, I won't get into this too much as this video is probably horribly long, but I did make a video on my thoughts on this thing that you can check out right here, or here, somewhere. Okay, now, one of the most difficult things to do out at sea is get really smooth, stable footage. Now, unless you have access to a quarter-million-dollar GSS or shot-over system, it's really hard to acquire that really nice, smooth, stable footage. With the release of cameras like the R5 and the a7S III back in 2020, these kinds of shots became more accessible with features like in-body image stabilization and resolution slash frame rate options such as 4K 120. With these features, a relatively stabilized footage revolution exploded in the social media wildlife space. You know, it really seemed like everybody and their grandmas had an R5 or an a7S III and was able to capture really stunning images at 4K 120. However, in my mind, this isn't a real solution to the hardships of capturing stabilized footage while out at sea. But when the RS3 Pro dropped, I was really, really excited. Now, it's nothing crazy, but throwing this 70-200 on the R5 or the Komodo X and putting it on this gimbal, you know, obviously it's not a CN20, but if you're able to get close enough to your subjects, it can really create those wildlife documentary shots that we're all so accustomed to. Then the main issue I kind of had with shooting 4K 120 on the R5 was exactly that. It was too slow. To build a proper wildlife sequence, you know, you can't shoot everything in slow motion. Filming on the RS3 Pro allows me to use some of the more real-time frame rates like 30 and 24. I love its auto-lock features compared to the RS2 that didn't have it. It just makes it really easy to kind of put away. While I would eventually like to get a Mobi Pro or maybe the Ronin 2, I can't say enough about this little gimbal with the 70-200 on it. It really can capture some amazing shots, and it's allowed me to capture footage that's good enough to be used on the highest of wildlife productions. Okay, folks, we're almost done here. Now, if you made it this far, thank you for watching me blab on about camera gear. You know, after talking about cameras and drones and audio equipment and gimbals, I'm sure you're wondering how I carry all this crap around. Well, that's where this guy, the 50-liter F-STOP Talofa, really comes in handy. So lugging around all this equipment can be extremely taxing on the body. That's where this bag in particular really comes in handy, mainly because it has these two giant waist straps. This camera bag is actually more like a backpacking bag over, you know, a camera bag, and these straps are really, really useful. They put the weight on your hips instead of on your shoulders, and that definitely is way more comfortable, and it really does wonders. And this Durad Diamond material on some of the newer models is really tough. It's water-resistant, you know, you can throw dirt or water or rain and snow, mud, whatever on here, and it's just gonna come right off. So it definitely keeps everything inside the bag nice and safe and warm and clean, and I really, really love this Durad Diamond material. I love the included rain cover in it for, you know, extremely wet days out in the field. Typically I'll put like the R5, the 7200, the 16-35, maybe the Mavic 3 in the backpack, and I'll strap the gimbal on here as well, and I'll typically just carry my Komodo and the Sockler in my hands. Obviously, you know, there's enough room for me to put a water bottle and extra layers, so it really just is the perfect camera bag for wildlife filmmakers. Now if you're interested in an in-depth look into all of the goodies I pack in here for a day out shooting, let me know in the comments down below, and I will definitely make that video. Oh gosh, okay, I didn't know where to put anything. And that's pretty much it. If you've made it this far in the video, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate your time and patience and energy and curiosity. I know this is a really long video, but I kind of just wanted to give you an idea of what a professional wildlife kit kind of looks like, and you know, there's a lot of moving pieces and a lot of hard-earned cash that has gone into this kit. I'm a big believer in kind of investing in yourself. Every cent that I really make goes back into my career, into the gear, into traveling, into becoming the best cameraman that I really can. You know, I do all this for the sole purpose of pushing myself as a cameraman, creating better shots to tell better stories. Now this kit has taken me the better part of seven years. I mean, a lot of it's kind of come together in the past year for me personally, but if you want to create something similar, there's no reason you can't. Just be patient, put your head down, and don't stop filming. Okay guys, thanks so much for watching. I really appreciate your patience and your time. If you have any questions, leave them down below. I'm happy to answer them. If you enjoyed this video, please do all the things down there. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you on the next adventure. Look at this stuff. Look at how much stuff is out here. Gosh. Look at this. There's just... I gotta... I gotta clean that up.