TIPS 

"This tip wouldn't be possible before smaller, high quality cameras became available...not to mention AFFORDABLE! Also, this is focused on the budget and solo-to-small crew (mostly solo) so keep that in mind. As mentioned in the summary, my main goal (besides quality, of course) is portability. That translates into faster setup and breakdown times, and less stress overall...which helps keep you focused on creativity. So, let me go over how I do this, but check out my 3 KIT PLANS for the whole list. The main thing I do is to manage the lens sizes, as full frame camera bodies aren't much bigger than cropped sensor cameras any more. I also buy compact LIGHTS and AUDIO gear but I mainly focus on CAMERAS:

1. THE WIDE SHOT:
For this shot I use either a full frame (1x crop) body with a modest wide angle (35mm is enough for me) or a crop-sensor (1.5 or even 2x crop) body if I want to use a TILT SHIFT adapter. I also use a GoPro or DJI action camera (for the WIDE shot) if I only have 1 real camera body, but this tip is mostly for when you have 2 (or more) REAL cameras available (which isn't too expensive these days, see my list of low budget cameras).

2. THE TIGHT SHOT:
This is the shot you see in most talking head interview shots, and while it can be achieved with any of the 3 sensor sizes (1x, 1.5x, 2x) I like using either a 1.5x crop sensor with a (vintage) 50mm, or the same lens on a full frame camera (but in crop-sensor/super 35 mode). With a 2x Micro Four Thirds sensor I use something close to 35mm but only manual focus lenses are available (natively) at this focal length.

3. THE TELE SHOT:
The key is DO NOT use a full frame camera for the TELE shot. This is where you can really save space (and weight, and cost) by using a smaller sensor. I use a vintage 70-300 (from the 1990s) and a 2x crop Micro Four Thirds camera body for this type of shot. If you were to get this shot using a full frame camera, the lens would be so big and expensive you would need to pull extra luggage behind you...not joking (and I've seen several sports photographers do this). I want to be able to move quickly, so I use the smallest (and most affordable) option I can for a telephoto lens. There are a TON of these 90s vintage 70-300s out there, and my favorite (for price-performance ratio) is the Quantaray 70-300 version 2 (most likely made by Tamron, as it looks almost identical)."