Fourteen bodies, each with the rig it actually needs

Why rigging advice has to be body-specific

Generic advice covers the principles and misses the things that actually stop a shoot. A cage that blocks a battery door turns every battery change into a disassembly. A cage that covers a cooling intake produces thermal shutdowns that look like a camera fault. A body that takes CFexpress Type A rather than Type B costs substantially more per gigabyte for the life of the camera.

None of those appear in a general guide to camera rigs, and every one of them decides whether a specific build works. Each page here names the exact cage, the exact media, the exact power plan and the one thing that most commonly goes wrong on that body.

The pages also state what each camera does not need, which is often the more useful half. A body with ten stops of internal ND does not need a variable ND or, mostly, a matte box. A body with a supplied XLR handle does not need an audio recorder to start with.

The specifications that change a build

Internal ND is first and it is undervalued everywhere. A body with built-in ND removes a filter purchase, removes the strongest argument for a matte box, never vignettes on wide lenses and works identically on every lens you mount. On outdoor work it is worth more than a stop of sensor performance.

Audio inputs are second. A body with real XLR inputs, whether built in or on a supplied handle, records usable dual-channel sound without a separate device to power, sync and offload. That removes a whole subsystem from a documentary rig.

Then cooling, which decides whether long takes are limited by cards or by heat; media format, because CFexpress Type A, Type B and SD differ by several times in cost per gigabyte; and power, which decides whether you buy proprietary camera batteries forever or build one V-mount system once.

How to use these pages

Each one has a complete accessory list with a stated total that excludes the body, so you can see what a working rig costs on top of the camera. The parts are chosen for that specific body rather than being a generic list with the model name at the top.

The lists are deliberately in buying order rather than in category order. The first items prevent footage from being unusable and the last ones add capability, which is the same principle every build guide on this site follows.

If you are choosing between bodies rather than rigging one you own, the cinema camera roundup compares them on the specifications that actually change a build, and the head to head pages cover the specific pairs people cross-shop.