- Now, you've probably heard from a lot of people
that your smartphone camera is more than good enough
for creating videos these days.
And you've probably even seen some of those videos
that have been shot on iPhone or shot on smartphone
and they look really, really good,
but you've probably also seen
how much gear and how much behind the scenes work
is really involved in those iPhone commercials.
Usually much, much more than the average person
has access to.
So as a regular content creator,
are smartphones actually enough,
or should you be going for something like a DSLR?
So in this video, I'm gonna compare the two,
to work out which one you really need to create
awesome YouTube videos.
Now I do wanna preface this
by saying that there really is no perfect camera.
They're all just tools to make video content.
So we're gonna start out by looking at the pros of one
and then the other to help you decide which one
is the best one for you.
And also when I say DSLR,
I'm really talking mirrorless, point and shoot and DSLR
all kind of packaged into that group.
So really it's phone versus camera,
that's what we're talking about.
So let's take a look at the pros of the smartphone first.
They are small, they are light,
they are super-convenient, because you've got it with you.
It's something you're already carrying around
and it's really easy to use.
It's really fast to get up and running,
just a few button presses or a few screen taps.
You can have the camera open and ready to record.
And the automatic settings are pretty damn good.
Just stock, just default.
Meaning that to get good results,
you don't need to have a solid understanding
of all the manual settings and diving into menus
and everything to get everything set up,
these do a great job just on full auto.
Now, while you don't have the level of features and controls
that you would have on a regular camera
there are aftermarket apps that give you
a lot of that functionality.
Things like Filmic Pro is an amazing app
to help you unlock I guess, DSLR-like settings
on your smartphone.
But also, I'd say for a lot of people
just the built-in stock camera app
is probably going to be more than enough.
You also have the ability to plug in and use
a lot of professional grade microphones
with your smartphone as well.
Even if you're thinking that your phone
doesn't have that headphone jack plug anymore,
you can get adapters from the lightning or the USBC plug
to adapt it for a lot of microphones out there.
Now I'll have links down in the description box below
to help you with all of our recommended gear
whether you're on the smartphone side or regular camera too,
but having the ability to connect an external microphone
is huge to help you create professional videos.
Just the same as with a DSLR or mirrorless camera,
the built-in microphones, they're just meh,
they're really not that good.
You're gonna be much better off and be able to create
much better videos,
if you're using a better microphone.
Another pro for the smartphones
is the size and the quality of the screen.
There's not many cameras out there
that have a screen anywhere near the size
of what we've got on our phones, let alone the quality.
So this can allow you to get more creative
or just to be able to easily see
what it is you're recording.
But probably one of the biggest pros with the smartphone
is that it's not just a camera.
It is so much more.
You have the ability to shoot, to edit, to upload directly
all from this one device.
So it really can be your one stop content creation tool,
from filming right through to release.
And it's also likely it's gonna be connected
to the internet,
meaning that you're opening yourself up to do live streams
and professional broadcasts,
again, all from the one device.
A lot of smartphones these days
will also come with more than one camera lens built in.
It might be a super-ultra wide
or even a telephoto, giving you more options and creativity
when you're filming.
And obviously, the switching between them is seamless.
It's super-fast,
it's not like you need to unscrew a lens
and put another one on,
which means you need to be carrying multiple lenses
as you would with a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
It's literally the tap of a button
to totally change up your shot.
Now, while you don't have the range of the lens
and the filters that you can adapt to a regular camera
you can actually purchase aftermarket lenses
or clip-on lenses and filters as well.
And there's some really high quality ones out there.
There's also a really fast growing range
of accessories for your smartphone videos too,
things like Gimbal stabilizers
and even portable lighting options
and mounting options designed specifically
for your smartphone to help you make better videos.
Now, again, while there definitely isn't
the range of options and accessories
as there is for regular cameras
it's crazy to see how far and how fast
this area is evolving for smartphones too.
And I say the last pro really comes back to the overall size
and the convenience of being able to shoot videos
with your smartphone,
is that you are able to get away with and film
in more public places than you would if you showed up
with a really big professional camera.
So because your phone is smaller
and a lot more inconspicuous,
you can generally get away with filming
in a lot more places than you would
if you had a more professional setup.
So now we're gonna look at the pros for the DSLR,
the mirrorless, the point and shoot the actual cameras.
So generally, they're gonna have a larger sensor size
which means they're gonna perform better in low light.
They're gonna be able to capture more data
and for the most part, create higher quality videos.
Now that's not to say that you can't create
high quality videos using a smartphone.
And if you're just uploading to places like YouTube,
it's likely your viewers won't be able to
tell the difference for a lot of the content out there,
but having access to higher resolutions,
higher quality recording and lower light performance
can definitely give you much more creativity,
not just in the filming,
but also in your editing and final productions too.
They're also typically larger and weigh more
than most smartphones.
And yes, I did put this in with the pros,
because I do think it can help you create
a more stable shot.
If you are doing something handheld
and you're gonna be moving around
it is much easier to do it with some weight
and with something that is bigger in your hands
than a thin, light phone,
but also the size and weight
comes down to the individual camera,
but also the setup that you've got on there.
If you've got lots of really big lenses
and lots of big battery grips and things,
yes, you can customize all of this up
to change the level of creativity that you have,
but also to change the feel of using the camera too.
Another pro that I just touched on is the lens options.
Unlike a smartphone where you might be lucky
to have a few lenses built in,
and yes, you can get some clip-on lenses.
On the camera side, depending on your camera,
you can have access to a massive range of lenses,
everything from fish eye to wide,
to ridiculously long telephoto lenses.
And there's a huge range of adapters
to help you even connect different brand lenses
onto your cameras too.
And these can again, help you with creativity
and changing up the look and feel of your shot.
It is much easier to get that blurry background
shallow depth of field look
that a lot of people want in their videos
with an actual camera versus something like a smartphone.
And yes, on the smartphone side
you can use portrait mode
or there's some apps out there
to help you get that blurry background look,
but in order to really have it look real,
this is when it's usually done
with a actual camera DSLR, mirrorless,
something with a low aperture lens,
something that's gonna let in a lot of light.
So if you're after that blurry background look,
it's gonna look more real and it's easier to achieve
with an actual camera.
There's also lots more control
and customization on an actual camera.
Most of them will have some sort of
menu system where you can dive in
and customize everything up and set everything up
the way that you want,
but also that you have a larger range of recording options
of frame rates, of resolutions, of video codex and formats,
far more than you get access to on your phone.
And you also have physical buttons and manual controls
to really help you dial everything in to nail the shot,
but also, so that you've got quick access to the things
that you're going to need most.
So you don't have to dive into menus or tap on the screen
and potentially tap the wrong area.
You can use the buttons and the dials and everything
to get everything set, how you would like.
And while a lot of them do have a very decent auto mode
where you can just turn it on and hit Record,
and you're probably gonna get something fairly decent.
If you're serious, it is worth it to invest the time
to learn the features, learn the controls
so that you can truly master the camera
and get creative as you would like.
Another pro is the better audio options.
So while I said, you can plug in
a ton of microphones into your smartphone.
You can pretty much do exactly the same
with a lot of cameras out there too.
But what you'll generally find
is that the audio inputs are usually higher quality.
You'll also have more control over things
like your volume levels
and again, the ability to configure everything up,
but generally the pre amps
or the quality of the audio that you can record
is higher than what you have on a smartphone.
You also get far more storage options and flexibility.
With your phones, especially on the iPhone side of things,
you're pretty much locked into whatever it is that you buy.
If you buy the 512 gig
then it's very hard to expand the storage beyond that.
And you'd have to make sure that
you've got enough storage on there
before you start making videos
so that you don't run out of space.
On the camera side,
typically, you're using removable memory cards
like SD cards.
Some cameras will even have multiple memory cards slots.
So that you can either record directly to both,
so you've got some redundancy or backup,
or you can record to one when it's full,
it's gonna record to the next one.
And this is where you can have a few memory cards in place.
So if you fill one up
you don't have to worry about copying it off
to your computer or deleting it from the device.
You can literally just put in another one
and keep recording.
It also makes it easy to transfer that footage at high speed
over to your computer by just taking the card out
and putting it in the computer directly
without needing to transfer over wifi or any of that.
And very similar as well with the battery situation.
With an actual camera,
the batteries are generally much bigger,
so they'll last longer,
but they're also interchangeable,
meaning that you can have multiple batteries
in play throughout the day.
So if you're running out, you can just swap it out,
and you can be charging them up as you go,
but with your phone, it's literally all built in.
Yes, you could take some USB charges
or portable charges with you.
You could even have it plugged in while you're recording
if you're recording from home,
but there definitely isn't the flexibility that you get
with an actual camera with removable batteries.
Actual cameras also have physical ports.
So you'll have things like a microphone input.
You'll have probably an HDMI output,
if you wanna take video out of your camera.
You might also have a USB port to use it as a webcam
or to charge it or to transfer files.
Whereas with the phone,
you've typically got that one USB-C or one lightning port,
maybe a headphone jack if you're lucky,
but definitely again, not the flexibility that you have
with a real camera.
And probably the biggest pro
is that there's a lot less distractions.
It's literally a tool for taking photos, making videos,
and that's it.
You don't have to worry about stopping recording
and taking phone calls or having it up against your face
when you're on a call and you're smudging the camera lens.
You've got a dedicated device that you might even be able
to leave set up and ready to go in your home office
or in your studio.
So you don't need to set up
and pack up everything every time.
And for me, this one is huge.
If I've got everything set up and ready to go
and all I need to do is just walk in, turn the camera on,
turn a couple of lights on, and I'm good to go,
that just saves so many headaches.
And I'm far more likely to create more videos, even easier,
because it's not a hassle.
Now in regards to the pricing,
this is where you'll find there is a huge range
on both sides of the fence here.
There's really cheap smartphones,
right up to the top line ones,
which are gonna set you back thousands of dollars.
Exactly the same on the camera side,
there's cheap ones that you can get,
cheap point and shoots which are pretty decent,
right through to spending thousands of dollars
for something more professional.
Now, what you'll probably find
is that you can pick up a decent camera,
not the latest, not the most professional model,
but a decent camera
for less than what you would likely be spending
for a smartphone,
because again, it's one dedicated tool
instead of having a device
where you've got a ton of other functionality
built in there too,
but it's gonna come down to personal preference.
So for me, there really are just two different tools
to get creative, two different tools to make videos.
And I use both of them almost daily.
For our YouTube videos,
I do still prefer to use an actual camera.
I'm still using the old faithful Panasonic GH5.
I like the control that I have,
I like the flexibility that I can easily control it
from my iPad.
I also like the look of the video that it makes
with a little bit of that blurry background
in there as well.
And I am someone who geeks out on tech
and I love this stuff,
and I love that I can set the recording quality
to a lot higher than you can
with a lot of smartphones out there.
But I also love that I can set it up and I can leave it
and just know that it's good to go
whenever I wanna make a video.
But for creating content on the go,
this is where these days I'm not looking to
carry an extra device or camera or anything with me,
I'm just going to use my phone.
And for anything like quick short little videos
or Instagram posts, anything while I'm out and about,
it is all gonna be done on my smartphone.
Now, going back to the original question,
is a smartphone all you need?
Is a smartphone good enough for creating videos?
Yes.
This entire video was just filmed with my iPhone 12 Pro,
so not the latest version,
not the best phone out there at all,
but it is more than good enough to create videos.
And I'm doing nothing fancy here.
This is a really simple setup.
I've literally just got my phone mounted
with a wireless microphone here
and a light on top of the camera.
And the rest of the light is just coming in
through the window.
So is the smartphone good enough?
Yes, but I personally choose to use a DSLR
or a mirrorless camera, because I like the way it looks,
and I'm someone who does geek out on the tech
and does love having access to
all the features and controls and things.
But that's me personally.
It is definitely not needed.
So for most people, I recommend they just use their phones.
You've probably got more than enough right now
to create videos in your pocket.
And you can always switch out or upgrade down the track
when you're ready,
but it's definitely not required.
And it certainly doesn't mean
you're gonna have better results on YouTube
or any other platform from using an actual camera.
But if you are someone who loves geeking out
with tech and cameras and stuff,
then yeah, a DSLR could be the one for you.
Now, if you're looking for easy ways to level up
your smartphone filming,
then check out the two videos that are linked on screen
whether you're on iOS or Android
for a complete professional video production process
that you can follow along for every one of your videos,
knowing you're doing everything right
and creating the best possible video.
I'll see you in there.