A rig sheet site, not a review channel

CameraRigSetup.com exists to answer one question properly: what do I actually buy, in what order, to build a camera rig that works. Not which gimbal won a shootout, but what goes on the rig, why it goes on in that order, and what it costs when the totals are added up honestly.

Why the site is split into two ladders

A solo documentary shooter and a narrative crew both build camera rigs, and almost every decision they make points the opposite way. One wants autofocus and the other wants marked manual focus. One wants a variable ND on the lens and the other wants fixed densities in a tray. One treats every gram as a payload cost and the other treats mass as neutral.

Averaging those two into one set of recommendations produces a rig that is slow for one buyer and imprecise for the other. So this site keeps them apart: three complete run and gun tiers and three complete narrative tiers, each with every line item priced and linked and every total stated.

How the picks are researched

From published manufacturer documentation, mounting and interface standards, stated load, power and speed ratings, and verified owner reviews describing long-term use. Every product on this site is a real product with a real listing, and every price is a figure recorded while researching.

We do not claim to have had every one of these items in our hands, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Any site claiming hands-on testing of forty camera cages is telling you a story. What we can do is read specifications carefully and say which numbers change how a piece of gear behaves on a real rig, which is a different and more useful job.

What we try to get right

• Totals that are stated. A build guide with no total is a wishlist. Every build here adds up, and where a line is unpriced the page says so.
• Advice about not buying things. Every roundup has a section on who should skip the category. That is usually the most useful paragraph on it.
• Thresholds rather than preferences. Three powered devices is when V-mount beats NP-F. Five pounds is when a shoulder rig beats a top handle. A threshold survives your gear changing; a preference does not.
• Numbers you can check. Every calculator shows its formula, and every rule of thumb is labelled as one rather than presented as a specification.

How this site is funded

Through affiliate links. When you buy something through a link here, we earn a commission at no additional cost to you. That is the entire business model, and it shapes the site in one specific way worth being honest about: we are paid when you buy, which is why several pages here go out of their way to tell you not to.

The safeguard against that pressure is simple and boring. A recommendation that makes somebody buy the wrong thing produces a return and a reader who never comes back, and this site is built to be useful for years rather than to convert once. The full affiliate disclosure covers the details.

What this site is not

It is not professional advice. Load ratings, airline battery regulations and electrical specifications should be checked against current documentation for the exact equipment you own. Rated payloads assume balanced loads, quoted brightness assumes full backlight, and quoted wireless range assumes clear line of sight. Where those assumptions matter, the pages say so.

It is also not a news site. There are no release announcements and no first looks, because a rig that works this year will still work next year and the useful part of this subject changes very slowly.

Where to start

If you know what you are building, go straight to the build ladders. If you are working out what you need, start with how to build a camera rig, which covers the order that removes failures rather than the order that adds capability. If you have a specific body, the camera pages name the exact parts for it.