- Ho ho ho, it's Santa Matt.
Can you tell that I meant to record
this video before Christmas?
I even bought some beardaments, I had everything set up,
and then I had to go see family for the holidays
so I did not have time to record this.
But hey, it is now 2019, I'm Matt Johnson,
and today I want to talk to you
about my favorite camera gear from 2018.
If this video format sounds familiar,
it is pretty common, but my specific inspiration
has come from Mr. Philip Bloom,
who for the past two years has made videos
that are very similar to this that I've absolutely loved.
Don't worry, our favorite video gear lists
are very different and I will make sure to link
to his gear video down in the video description.
So yes, this video is mostly gonna be about gear
that came out in 2018.
And, most of it I've either purchased myself
or rented, or had hands-on experience with.
I've also thrown in some gear that came out before 2018,
but I didn't actually purchase until 2018
that I now use and love all the time.
I've also thrown in some services
that I started using in 2018 that I love as well.
Also, side note, this is not a sponsored video,
I'm not being paid by any of these companies
to talk about this gear,
I bought it myself with my own money.
Okay, moving on.
Took out the beard ornaments for professionalism.
Okay, we'll start off with a heavy hitter right off the bat,
my favorite camera of 2018.
In case you weren't aware,
2018 was a completely nuts year for new camera releases.
Specifically, the months of August and September
kind of blew my mind.
Because, in that two month period,
really, like a month and a half long period,
we saw new cameras announced from Nikon
with their full-frame realist camera.
Canon with their full-frame mirrorless camera.
Fuji announced a new camera,
Blackmagic announced a new one,
and Panasonic's also like,
hey we got a full-frame mirrorless coming next year.
That was insane.
Not to mention we also saw the release of the Sony a7 III,
the Panasonic GH5S, I'm sure that I'm missing some.
It was just a crazy, crazy year overall.
Of course, you're probably wondering,
Matt, okay, that's great,
what was your favorite camera though?
You can probably guess, the Sony a7 III.
I wish I had one here that I could hold to show you,
but unfortunately I only rented it,
I have not bought one yet,
but that may change in the near future.
For now though, look at these beautiful pictures
that I have pulled from the internet.
This camera is amazing for wedding filmmakers.
The video quality is very similar
to the a7S II that I love,
but Sony has fixed a lot of the issues
that came with that camera.
The battery life is nearly three times better,
the auto focus is much improved,
and there's actually a record button now.
This camera is incredible
if you do any sort of run and gun shooting.
But I hear you now saying,
Matt, what about the other cameras?
That's a lot of cameras,
you gotta have liked some of those, right?
Okay, I'll give you two honorable mentions.
And unfortunately, I have not had hands-on time
with either of these cameras,
but I've heard very good things.
The first is the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K
Which is really what people have been wanting
from Blackmagic, I think.
Small, 4k, shoots in RAW, for a reasonable price.
I've heard mixed reviews
about the battery life of this camera,
but from a spec's standpoint, and image quality,
this camera looks like a tiny powerhouse.
My second honorable mention comes from
a company who's consumer brand
is not usually associated with super high quality video.
I'm speaking, of course, of the Fuji X-T3.
We knew this camera was coming.
They made an X-T2, of course they're gonna make an X-T3.
But from a video quality stand point,
they made a passive jump forward.
4k at 60, 10bit, crazy video quality from
a camera line that is not necessarily known
for having crazy video quality.
And, I think in the future,
whenever we talk about camera brands
that offer high quality for a reasonable price,
Fuji is now gonna be included in that conversation.
For all the other camera companies out there,
better luck next year making
my favorite list of video cameras.
I really am hoping that the Sony a7S III
is on next year's list.
Let's get a bit weird here now,
because I have one other camera category,
and this is a bit more nontraditional,
but still video related.
In case you didn't hear, me and my wife Rachel,
we're having a baby in 2019, which is super exciting
and simultaneously terrifying,
which means there are tons
of baby gadgets that I been looking into.
Specifically, ways to video monitor our baby.
That got me going down the path of looking
at wireless video solutions,
and I started looking at security cameras,
and, before you know it, I had wired up our house
with security cameras, and I want to talk
to you about my favorite security video camera,
that could also double as baby monitor if you want to.
This is the Wyze Cam, and it records in 1080p
with night vision if you want it.
24 seven to an internal micro SD card.
Additionally, if any motion is detected by this camera,
it will automatically upload
a video clip to the cloud,
where you can view it for free up to 14 days.
It is also USB powered, and did I mention
that it only cost 25 dollars (chuckles).
When I found this thing, I ended up buying a lot of them,
because it's just so cheap, and just so cool.
I'm a big fan of this small camera,
and if you're into home security,
or you're baby monitoring,
or anything else like that,
I highly recommend checking it out.
I will link to this camera, as well as the other gear
that I talk about in the description of this video.
Next category is my favorite tripod,
and this tripod came out before 2018, but 2018
was the first year that I bought one
so I am including it in this list.
My favorite tripod of 2018 is the Manfrotto Beefree Live.
If you are a traveling filmmaker,
this is the tripod that I recommend that you buy.
I have brought this tripod along with me to Iceland,
to Alaska, to New Mexico, and it is very well built,
while also being very tiny and very light.
It's great for throwing in a suitcase
if you have a destination wedding to film,
or something like that,
but do keep in mind that it is still a travel tripod,
so it's not gonna be as sturdy
as a full-size, heavier, beefier, tripod.
That said though, the Manfrotto Befree Live,
if you travel, this is my favorite tripod of 2018.
Next, we have my favorite light of 2018.
Much like the tripod, this light came out before 2018,
but 2018 was the first year that I bought it,
and now I live this light, so of course I'm gonna include
it in this list.
The light is, of course, the Practilite 602,
which I have made a review about,
which I'll link up to in the corner,
and down in the description
if you wanna check it out.
This light feels like it was built for wedding film makers,
and the only real con of it,
is the nearly 1000 dollar price tag.
For that cost though, you do get a light that is dimmable,
bicolor, and it has a very clever smartphone app
that lets you remotely control
your lights from across a dance floor.
I absolutely love this light, and can't really imagine
myself shooting weddings without it now.
For the next category, let's talk about music.
Specifically, my favorite music licensing website
of 2018.
There were two big changes
in the world of music licensing in 2018.
The first was in April, whenever Musicbed
announced that they would be rolling out
a membership option for music licensing,
which basically means that you can now license
unlimited music from their library.
I've always loved Musicbed's music,
and being able to download an unlimited amount
of it for way cheaper than what I used
to spend licensing each song, is so great.
That's why Musicbed
is my favorite music licensing site of 2018.
I did say that there were two changes
in the world of music licensing, though,
and the second change came from Soundstripe,
whenever they announced Soundstripe premium,
which gives you access to over 10 thousand sound effects,
as well as access to music stems,
that you can use to remix the music that you license
from Soundstripe however you want.
For this, Soundstripe earns a honorable mention.
Time to talk about a popular piece of gear,
my favorite camera gimble from 2018.
Now, I been shooting with the Zhiyun Crane 2
since laste 2017, and I really love that gimble.
But, this past summer, DJI released the Ronin-S,
and people love that gimble as well.
So, which one of these is my favorite gimble?
This is gonna be a tie between these two gimbles,
because while I do believe the Ronin-S is better
than the Crane 2, it is not better enough
to necessarily make me switch and spend another 700 dollars
to buy this gimble over the Crane 2.
But, if you have not purchased a camera gimble,
buy the Ronin-S, you're gonna love it.
From my limited experience with the Ronin-S,
I do believe that it's easier to use
than the Crane 2, specifically
because of its 45 degree camera mount,
that makes it easier to view the screen,
and it's easier to grip handle over the Crane 2.
With that said, though, I do like
the interchangeable batteries
of the Crane 2 over the Ronin-S.
Next category is my favorite service of 2018,
and this is a bit of weird category,
but considering that I use this service
every single time that I'm making either a YouTube video,
or wedding film, I figure that I would mention it.
My favorite service of 2018 is Rev.com's captioning service.
Captions are more important than ever in 2018.
Not only because they help people
with hearing disabilities,
but also because so many people watch videos on Facebook
on their phones, with the sound muted.
So, if you do not have captions,
people are not gonna know what people
are saying in your video.
Instead of trusting Facebook's or YouTube's
automatic captioning, which is always a crap shoot,
or attempting to type out the captions myself,
and make sure that everything syncs up,
instead I pay Rev.com one dollar per minute of my video
and they have a real human type up the captions,
and it looks awesome.
This is completely worth it to me,
and why Rev.com is my favorite service of 2018.
I also have a link down the description of this video,
where you& can get a coupon for 10 dollars
off your first video captions order.
I hope it helps you out.
Time for another big cateogry,
my favorite drone of 2018.
My favorite drone is, of course, the Mavic 2 Pro.
I recently completed a review of this drone.
If you wanna check it out, I'll to it up in the corner,
and down in the description.
Why is the Mavic 2 Pro my favorite?
In a nutshell, the Mavic 2 Pro
gives you the video quality of a Phantom 4 Pro,
but in the size of a Mavic.
I love it.
I will give an honorable mention
to another drone that also came out in 2018,
the Mavic Air.
That drone is even smaller than the Mavic 2 Pro,
and still has very good image quality.
I do wish the DJI could improve
the image transmission quality of that drone though.
Unfortunately, it's not nearly as good as the Mavic 2 Pro.
Almost done.
My favorite piece of audio gear that I purchased in 2018,
it didn't come out in 2018, but I purchased it in 2018,
is the Tascam DR-10L in white.
I now use this microphone and recorder
to stealthily mic the bridge on a wedding day,
and it sounds (lips smack) so good.
I will link to my video that I made about mic'ing
the bridge up in the corner, and down
in the description if you wanna check it out.
Let's end this thing with a bonus round.
My favorite piece of relaxation gear from 2018
is the Nintendo Switch.
As someone that enjoys playing video games,
but does not have a ton of time
to sit down on the couch, and like,
sit up and be like okay, I gotta play,
this thing, small, portable, it has enabled me
to actually be able to play video games,
and have a lot of fun,
and it's very relaxing.
Also, I'm including this because I need more friends
to play Super Smash Brothers Ultimate with.
My friend friend will be listed here,
and down in the description.
Let's play.
And, that is my list
of favorite gear and services from 2018.
I'm sure 2019 will bring lots of gear as well.
Thanks so much for watching, and have a great day.
These are way more painful to take off,
than they are to put on.
Ow, ow!
- [Woman] I didn't mean to.
(beardament crackles)
- Ow, oh.
That one definitely got a hair.
Ow, I'm never using these again.
(Woman chuckles)
Maybe 'til next year.