Thoughts on Video setup with the A7Rii

[daveyboy]

Hi all, be great to get some advice from people in the community. 

 

I bought the Sony A7rii about a year ago to primarily focus on stills photography. I had a bunch of Canon lenses so bought a Metabones and have just been using that. 

 

However, I want to do more documentary filming. I would usually hire a cameraman for this, but more and more I'm interested in projects where it would be hard to find financing so I feel I need to shoot it myself. 

 

If I film on my own I really can't manually focus as well as everything else so I feel I need to buy a native Sony lens. Am thinking the Sony FE 24-70mm zoom. I might not have time to change lenses much so a zoom is ideal. It's expensive though. I've not used it before so wondering your thoughts on it for video?

 

I have the Sony XLR-K2M for audio. It's a great boom but I need a Lapel for subjects to give me the freedom of being further away from the subject. 

 

- Can I use the K2M as well as connecting up a Lapel mic? What's the best way of doing it if I want to focus audio on someone but still capture good background noise. 

 

- I really don't want the camera to pick up the mic attached to someone's shirt/jumper, etc. There seems to be a high chance of interference if you try and hide the mic, so what's the best way around this? I've never actually used a lapel before so don't know how hard it is to set up. 

 

I've not shot much video with this camera so unsure if it would be best to buy a handgrip or something for ease of use?

 

For me, it's trying to get the best quality video and sound whilst making it easy for me to use/operate and transport as it will just be me. 

 

Any advice would be amazing. 

Thanks!