Hi, in this video we look at what's included in a ten thousand dollar
vlogging setup and why that's coming up
just look at that view at the top of Skiddaw mountain
Hi I'm Adam and welcome to First Man Photography now I know a lot of you have
just recently started a vlog or you are looking to start a vlog so I thought I
would make this video to share a few of the things I've learned over the last
couple of years of vlogging now like you I do not have $10,000 lying around to
spend on gear I've worked hard I've been patient and I built it up over time so
hopefully you'll be able to see what gear is gonna work for you and what
won't what things are important and then decide what you're going to use the
other day I was renewing my insurance and I realized $10,000 was about the
cost of my vlogging gear it was a little bit disturbing that I've spent that much
money but I've just been trying to develop my vlogs to take it to the next
level and that's just happens to be the amount of money I've spent I don't spend
money on a lot of other things but that's happened so it was a little bit
frightning but there we go so the main part of my vlogging setup is
the canon 800d i have this here and it's a pretty common vlogging system and
i have it on the gorilla pod which is beautiful for this kind of thing it works
as a selfie stick like this but it also lets you spread the legs out and use it
as a tripod in any given situation I've chosen this canon 800D for a few
reasons firstly it's a DSLR so you get that bigger sensor than you do on
compact cameras and it's got really good quality it's also relatively inexpensive
it's a beginner level DSLR which also makes it quite light for carrying around
all day it's got the flip out screen here if you need to be able to see in
that screen what you are doing and it also has the Canon dual pixel autofocus
which at the moment is without comparison it's the best autofocus
system out there since I've been vlogging on this camera it has not
missed focus on my face once it is slightly cheaper than the Sony
mirrorless cameras and you also have the versatility of using interchangeable
lenses which is important for me as a photographer the 800D or t7 I doesn't
have 4k but you're not going to need 4k when you first start
out. A lot of YouTube is consumed on an iPad or a phone and that is not in 4k so
it really isn't absolutely essential at the moment it also creates problems
around storage and editing the footage it's much harder to do with 4k so the
1080p that this provides is going to be just fine. Next thing is the lens if
you're shooting on a compact camera most of the compact cameras have a lens with
a focal length of 24-70mm. I'm using this Canon 10-18mm lens which has
the 35mm equivalent of 16mm. When you
hold it up like this it just puts you that a little bit further back so I'm on
the vlogging camera now and this is roughly what you'd see if you were using
a compact camera with a 24-70mm lens I've got my arm extended
pretty far away from me but I still feel like I'm quite close to you on the other
hand if we turn this lens to 10 millimeters it puts me much further away
it just feels much more natural and I'm not right up in your face it's less
intrusive and it's just better for the overall story and the overall look okay
microphone wise I'm using two things at the moment I have the rode videomic pro
which just sits on top of the camera that's an easy solution it captures good
sound in most situations the problem with the rode videomic pro is that it's
susceptible to wind noise and because it's sitting on top of the camera you
also pick up some of the lens noises when it autofocuses this is the rode
filmmaker kit. It sits on top of the camera like this and it's a wireless
system to a pack that you wear on your side and then it has a lavalier
microphone the good thing about lavalier microphones is if it's windy you can
just turn your back on the wind and then you can still gonna capture that really
nice audio it's a good system it works well it's important for me to have the
audio going straight into the camera because if you're shooting by yourself
you need things to be simple and I want it to record the sound when I press stop
and start on the camera so for a long time I shot with just this system you
can get some good video from this and it's gonna work well in the vast
majority of situations but this is the ten thousand dollar vlog setup so let's
move on to the next next is the Canon 5D mark IV, this is an
absolute beast. I use it for my landscape photography, my wedding photography
wildlife photography and water drop photography and it does it all what I
now use it for is shooting my b-roll b-roll is hugely important when you
create films and vlogs because you want to be able to cut in and out of the
talking head and add some layers and some interest to your videos and this
can capture some really good quality footage. This camera will shoot 120
frames per second which allows you to capture some really beautiful and
interesting slow-motion footage which all adds to the experience and that's
why I've started using that what this camera also lets me do is as I put a
nice big aperture lens on the front it lets me capture some of those really
beautiful shallow depth-of-field shots and in order to capture those as well
you're going to need an ND filter because when you're outside and it's
bright when you open the aperture up to things like f 2.8 it lets a lot of light
in so you start to over expose your shot unless you use an ND filter like this
this is a variable ND filter it's expensive but it's worth having because
you can adjust it so you can have it wide open like that and then as you turn
it it gets darker and darker so you can have the right amount of light coming
into the camera at all times it also lets you control the exposure of your
camera really smoothly during a shot because if you do that with the aperture
or the ISO the camera tends to jump and it just looks horrible in your shot. But you can do it
really smoothly with this to the point in your b-roll where you just won't
notice it. A good investment. next up we have the drone this is the DJI Mavic pro it
literally adds another level to your footage having those aerial shots lets
you create the establishing moments which just puts the viewer in the place
where you are and gives them a better sense of the story you're trying to tell
a really good bit of kit it's easy to fly but it's important to try it and get
really good quality footage with smooth movements, nice shots and that's the hard
thing when it comes to that. Another thing that makes up the ten thousand dollar
vlogging setup are accessories things like batteries, memory cards that you
just don't want to run out of because it can ruin your entire shoot. I
also carry a nice bag because I want to get everything in and I also want to
have easy access to all my gear. Being prepared and making stuff as
straightforward as possible on the day is what lets me get everything done I
don't want to be faffing around with gear that goes wrong because it just
detracts from me telling my story of the day so do you need a ten thousand dollar
vlogging setup? Absolutely not. The gear actually doesn't matter that much
it does help in getting the best quality shots possible but the most important
thing by some distance is you, and the story you're trying to tell. You can
actually do it all with a mobile phone you can shoot yourself you can do
slow-mo you can do time-lapses. It's all on here so if you're thinking about
doing a vlog or starting a vlog don't let the gear be the thing that
stops you, do what I've done and build it up over time and you'll know what the
next thing is that you need as that problem starts to present itself or you
want to take your footage to the next level. Okay so that's a ten thousand
dollar vlogging setup please subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see some
of my vlogs where I get out and about into the wilderness shooting landscape
photography I've also got tutorials on photography and some video stuff like
this one and I'd love it if you subscribed to the channel please leave a
comment down below as well and let me know what you think I'm not bragging
it's just the amount of money I've spent over time as I've worked hard built up
and saved the money to buy this gear and it's working for me at the moment and I
just wanted to share a few of my thoughts about the gear with you so you
can then forget about the gear and go and create some really good videos. Anyway
I'll see you on another one very very soon
I'm Adam this is First Man Photography in the studio, I'll be out and about
again soon...... Out!!!