One of the weirder pieces of gear I bring to a wedding is a prism. I use it for creative transitions, for blocking out things I don’t want in a shot, and for stopping a shot from blowing out. I’ve written a whole piece on four ways I use a $16 prism in wedding films if you want the technique rather than the gear.
The main appeal of that prism is that it gets you funky shots cheaply. For about fifteen dollars you can add some pizzazz to your video. I love it.
But is it possible to improve on it? There’s a small company called Prism Lens FX trying to do exactly that, and what they’re making is pretty interesting.
It was started by Jakob Owens, who also runs the TheBuffNerds YouTube channel, but more importantly, he has a great beard. Much like people who own motorcycles or Jeeps, I felt a connection to him through our shared beards. So I reached out and asked whether I could try some of his prisms and filters at a wedding, and he graciously said yes.
The Prism Itself
Compared to my cheap prism, the Prism Lens FX one is slightly smaller, and the only real difference is a screw thread built into the bottom. Pair it with their foam handle and you suddenly have a little lightsaber, which is genuinely easier to hold than a bare prism.
Is that an improvement? Small, but yes. Here’s the bummer though: the Prism Lens FX prism is currently $65. You could buy four of my cheap ones for that. So on its own, I don’t think it’s worth it.
But hold on, because there’s an accessory that may completely change your view on that.
The Articulating Arm, Which Is The Real Product
Your biggest struggle using a prism while filming is that you don’t have enough hands. Right hand on the camera. Left hand holding the prism against the edge of the lens. And because the prism wrecks your autofocus, you really need a third hand to pull focus manually.
Since I don’t have a third hand, and I doubt you do either, what I’ve always done is set focus manually and then not move closer or further from my subject while filming, which is a real constraint.
Enter the articulating arm mount. Screw the prism into one end, screw the other end into the bottom of your camera, and voila, you have a third hand holding the prism for you.
The first time I used it I fell in love. It makes it entirely possible to use a prism and still adjust focus while you’re rolling.
A kit with the prism handle and the arm is $140, so this is well outside the impulse buy territory of a $15 prism. But if you already own a prism and you keep hitting that focus problem like I did, this solves it, and I think it could be worth it.
One practical note. I run a Manfrotto quick release plate on the bottom of all my cameras and I need to be able to film fast, so unscrewing it every time I want the arm makes no sense. I picked up a Manfrotto-compatible quick release adapter for around $20, which lets me clip the arm on and off while keeping everything else compatible.
Prism Lens FX also make an orb prism and a colour cube prism. Heads up: you can't buy the Prism Lens FX colour cube prism on Amazon, so this link goes to an equivalent, the KF Concept kaleidoscope prism filter. I haven’t tried those yet, but they’re odd enough shapes that hand holding them wouldn’t really work, so a handle is basically required.
The Filters
Prisms are only half of what they sell. They also make filters that screw onto the front of your lens.
First is the kaleidoscope filter, which does exactly what the name says. I think it looks cool, but at $85 it’s a bit too abstract for a wedding film in my opinion. It’s hard to read what’s going on, and cutting from a standard shot to a kaleidoscope shot could be jarring for your audience. If you have a deliberately abstract section, experimental shots of the couple or a crazy dance floor edit, it could work. I’d just make sure you have something in mind for it before buying.
And then my favourite by far, the chromatic flare filter.
For $65 this mimics the anamorphic flare look you’d normally only get out of very expensive, multi-thousand dollar anamorphic lenses. Pair it with a band or a DJ’s lights at a reception and it puts crazy light streaks across your footage.
I’m planning to bring this one to every wedding going forward, and whenever the mood and the dance floor get crazy enough, I’ll be whipping it out.
So Are They Worth It?
Do these improve on my basic prism? I wholeheartedly say yes. Those improvements come at a price though, so here’s how I’d sequence it.
If you’re just dipping a toe in and haven’t used a prism at all, go and spend about $15 on a basic one and see whether you like it. If you find yourself using it a lot but keep running into the problem of not being able to hold it and focus at the same time, that’s when I’d look at the arm mount and prism setup. And if you want more in-camera effects than a prism alone can give you, that’s the point to start looking at the filters.
Having one of these in the bag on a wedding day, especially at a reception where you want the dancing to look really wild, will bring your films up a level. There’s a 10% discount code, MATT10, on everything they sell if you decide to.
If you want to see where shots like these end up, there’s Henry and Victoria’s wedding film and Sarah and Chris’s, and if you want the wider technique, I’ve written about how to film a wedding reception and how to film bride and groom prep.