This is the Baofeng F22 walkie talkie is honestly the best bang for buck walkie talkie you can purchase for on film set use. Baofeng F22 cost just 20 bucks for one pair, so I bought two pairs which is enough for the camera team.
What really attracted me the most with the Baofeng F22 is that you can use professional headsets with a kenwood plug and it recharges via USB-C.
It even has a built-in torch when filming at dark locations. But the main thing is the communication of the walkie talkie itself.
The distance the Baofeng F22 should be able to communicate is around 1 to 1.5km. On set the max I have ever measured was 400 meters away in a dense forest talking to the crew who went to the car park, which honestly much more than you can get with most intercom systems, however we haven’t had any situations where we needed to talk further away than that.
The Baofeng F22 is available in PMR and FRS version, which is dependable where in the world you are using the walkie talkie, you either need the PMR for Europe or FRS version in the US.
One very important thing to do with the Baofeng F22 is to set the CTCSS or DCS privacy code, which is the 2nd number on the screen. It is to set an analog or digital code which prevents the walkie talkie to sound out signals of other walkie talkies that might be on the same channel but not the same code, but also prevent them from hearing them unless they use the very same channel and privacy code, that is why I set it to a very high number that is unlikely to be used.
The sound quality over the speaker isn’t bad, but it sounds a lot better when using a good headset.
The battery that comes with the Baofeng F22 lasts about 18 hours, however you can use some high capacity AA batteries that last even longer.
But I do suggest removing the batteries at the end of the day or after recharging, as there is a noticeable battery drain even when the Baofeng F22 is turned off. Also the charging of the Baofeng F22 batteries are inside of the walkie talkie and it isn’t a fast charger, but because it is a USB-C it is quite easy to charge it on set via a power bank or anything else.
But it is nice it can use AA batteries, as if you are days away and can’t recharge, it’s a nice option to just swap the batteries.
So why I got black and orange versions of the Baofeng F22. Obviously working with professionals who I can keep the walkie on all the time and collect from them at end of the day. But Director and AD are often a bit more annoying that they would just randomly leave them somewhere on set, making it harder to find, the orange just stands out more than having to find a black walkie on a dark film set.
Conclusion, for the price and what the Baofeng F22 achieves it is a no-brainer, it works great and really makes it easy to communicate on a film set and it’s also a lot cheaper than most intercom systems.
