Cooking and food creator — Pro (boomed overhead, 300 W key, monitored)

Bring your own

• a power point or extension board within a metre of each camera, and one for the light
• a 3-pin universal socket or travel plug adapter for the USB-C charger

Why this kit

Everything here exists because the overhead camera is pointing at the floor. A C-stand with a boom arm gets the body over the centre of the hob with the base out of shot, which a tripod cannot do once the pan is in the middle of the counter, and the crab clamp is what actually hangs and levels it. The HT5S follows from the same fact: at 2000 nit you can read the top-down frame from standing height, which is the only way to keep a dish composed while you are cooking it. The SL300III is specified over a battery panel because this fixture stays on mains in a kitchen all evening, and its Bowens mount takes the LA-O90 with no adapter, so the key can be built and struck between recipes. Head and softbox come to 4.5 kg, which is why the key gets the second C-stand: its boom is rated 10 kg. The LARK MAX 2 earns its place on the internal recording alone: kitchens are full of motors, and a transmitter that keeps its own take turns the worst failure on this set into an edit-bay problem. The cameras are two Canon R8s: full frame, light enough at 671 g with the kit lens for the boom clamp's 1.5 kg rating, on USB-C power, and Canon's manual allows up to two hours per clip, so a full recipe runs in one take on both angles.