- One of the questions that I get all the time is,
"Justine, what cameras do you use?
"What gear are you using?
"What accessories are you using with your cameras?"
Today I'm gonna go through some of those setups
and show you what I think the best vlogging setups are.
(upbeat music)
I have been using Sony for the past several years
so these are all setups that are geared
toward Sony cameras
but a lot of the accessories,
they can be used with any cameras.
So this is kind of just a starting point,
some inspiration to get you guys started.
I'm making this video also in honor of Vlog University.
It's a conference that I'm having in Los Angeles.
Today we're announcing that you can bring a friend
for free to Vlog University.
I'm so excited about this
because one of the most important parts
about creating content is involving
your friends and your family
and for me that is such an important part.
A lot of you guys have so much passion for content creation
and I know that some of your friends and family
might not quite understand
this whole world that you're diving into,
so if you have a ticket already, check your email.
You will be receiving all the information there shortly
and if you haven't got a ticket yet,
get your ticket first
and then we'll be sending you a followup email
so that you'll be able to bring your friend.
For a discount on tickets, use VLOG25
and checkout vloguniversity.com for all of the info.
So now, let's get into the vlogging setups.
Set up number one.
This is Sony's RX0 mark II.
This camera is very interesting
because it's pretty powerful.
It has a one inch sensor,
that's the same sensor that's in the RX100 series
but this little guy is so small and so compact
that if you're out filming with this,
no one is even gonna question you.
They might laugh at you because this is so silly.
(laughing)
Tyler's over there, he's like,
"Justine, no one's gonna vlog with that."
And I was like well I think they will
because look at this!
(singing)
Tyler do you see yourself?
- [Tyler] I don't see myself vlogging with that.
(laughing)
Okay, not the camera just those legs.
- Okay he didn't like the tripod.
The camera he was into,
it's just this.
This was actually an accident,
I thought that I ordered a tripod
that was this size and when this showed up,
I was like this is unbelievable,
it's so freakin' cute.
I myself personally would vlog
with this little tiny thing,
I mean look at it!
It's so small and compact,
if you're looking for portability,
look no further.
For Tyler's sake I'm gonna switch
it out to a bigger tripod.
We're gonna be using this Rode microphone,
this is the microphone that I feel like
has been in every YouTuber's vlogger
starter kit ever since the beginning of time.
I've been using this one for a while,
but it's not my favorite just because
it is kind of large and you also
do have to have a 9-volt battery on hand
because the battery will die,
mostly because I always forget to turn it off
and then I forget to turn it on
when I'm recording.
But this is the standard issue vlogger mic.
It works.
So let's mount this little guy in here.
Look at this!
I love this little flip up screen,
like it's so cute.
Here's our little audio input,
I just wrap this cord just around like that.
This is a fixed focus camera so when you
hit record whatever is in focus at
the beginning of recording,
that's what stays in focus.
But once you kind of get used to
shooting in that style,
it's pretty great.
This is an option I think if you are
a travel vlogger or somebody who doesn't
want to carry a lot of gear.
This little camera can get the job done.
You could also power it so if you
do need to have it powered on the go,
you can charge it through USB.
It's small, it's light, it's compact.
I wanna put the little legs back on
just to see what it looks like with this.
(laughing)
Look at this!
It's even smaller and lighter and more compact!
(laughing)
It's perfect!
It's honestly like, it's great!
Hey guys, it's Justine,
today I'm vlogging on the most interesting rig
you'll ever see.
RX0 test with no microphone,
I really wanna give you guys a sense
of what this sounds like with
and without a microphone so that
you'll be able to judge if you need one or not.
This one I know already sounds pretty good
because I've used this camera a lot.
Now let's see what it sounds
like with a microphone.
We've now got the Rode mic attached to this.
I mean this looks so silly,
like I'm just looking at it.
(laughing)
Look at this!
This camera's so small!
One of the things I do wanna stress
is these are just suggestions.
You can swap this mic out for something different,
something smaller, something lighter,
something a completely different brand.
These are all suggestions of places to start.
Vlogging rig number two.
This is the new RX100 mark V.
It came out, well a few months ago so
it's not that new,
but the introduction of an audio input jack
right here has changed the game
as far as what you can do with this.
This tiny little Saramonic microphone
is something that really got me introduced
to their line of microphones.
I love this because if I'm filming myself
I can get my audio in the front
and then if I flip it around but I still
want my voice to come through,
I can just flip this and be able to get
my audio and continue shooting.
The RX100 series has been a camera
that I've been using for a really long time.
I've done many reviews on these cameras
in the past if you do wanna check those out,
we'll put all the links in the description.
But this is it!
It shoots 4k,
the internal audio is pretty good
so you don't really need to have a microphone,
but once you have a microphone,
it's really difficult to go back because
you realize how much of a difference this makes.
This tripod is a Benro tripod,
and this one's nice because you can tighten
and loosen and kinda move around your camera,
so that allows you to have a lot more
flexibility especially if you have a
heavier camera.
The tripod that I also use pretty often
is one of these little guys.
It's a Manfrotto.
So you push this button in,
that allows you to move the top,
but if you do have a heavier camera,
I would recommend the Benro.
I have traveled around the world
with this camera,
it has captured so many things.
If you do end up getting one of these,
I would recommend getting a screen protector.
This is a touch screen so you obviously
don't want that to get damaged
when you're traveling or vlogging,
so a protective screen will help you reduce
any shattering of the back screen
in any of the adventures that you might
be taking this thing on.
So if you want to take this rig to the next level,
I am a huge fan of SmallRig,
they have so many great cages for cameras.
This just lets you elevate this very small camera
into having a nice little grip.
You have a cold shoe right here
so you can attach audio,
you can attach a light.
Let me show you this super cute
little light that I found at CES this year.
This is by Litra.
Can you believe this?
Look how cute!
And what's great about these cages,
you guys can see,
there's all of these little holes.
You can add so many different accessories
that it's pretty overwhelming,
the amount of things that you can build
out of just these little cages.
You can continue to use this little microphone,
but I also found these recently,
these are also by Saramonic.
This is a wireless solution by Saramonic,
and what's really great about this is
there's a receiver and there's also
two transmitters so if my sister and I
are out making videos,
we both can have a microphone on
and you only need one receiver.
So this cage also has a cold shoe on the side,
so you can mount the light over here,
but right now I'm gonna mount this microphone
here for the sake of this video.
And then you just plug this in,
the wire can run right behind.
You can also attach a lav to this,
but this itself acts as a microphone.
Yeah, this might look a little bit silly,
but you don't need anything else.
You can just use this.
Or if you're doing an interview or something,
you can hold the microphones like this,
but these both connect to one transmitter.
These do record audio on the same track
and I think that's a small price to pay
for the ease of use of these things
and you basically just turn it on and go.
So let's finish this rig up.
(upbeat music)
There we have it.
I'm ready to vlog.
This is probably one of my favorite rigs
that I've ever built.
It's small, it's compact, it's versatile.
You have light, you have audio in,
you basically have everything that
you need right here.
So this is the Sony RX100 mark V,
I have a little light on and it is so bright,
I don't actually need this light on at all.
I have the little tiny Saramonic microphone
plugged into it and this is kinda just
giving me a little more of a directional sound.
There are a ton of sirens everywhere.
Tyler, I was gonna have you say something.
- [Tyler] Oh, so this morning I was
making some coffee and I realized that
I was out of coffee filters.
- Hold on, I'm gonna flip this
this way now and I'm gonna flip
the microphone over here.
Okay so no I'm like filming and
you're telling me about your story.
- Since I was out of coffee filters
I didn't know what to do,
so I grabbed a bunch of paper towels
- [Justine] Okay, hold on.
Okay, so now Tyler's telling his story,
I just decided that I think this
would sound much better if Tyler had a lav on
so I could really hear what he saying
'cause this is super riveting content.
Okay Tyler tell me about your story.
- Oh where was I?
- Paper towels?
- So I was using paper towels to try
to make a coffee filter
and I thought I did a good job,
and when I put the coffee in
and I poured the hot water over the coffee,
it went all into my coffee maker and ruined it
and then I went back to bed.
- Testing out the wireless Saramonic
with this lav microphone,
so I'm gonna set you guys down,
and we're gonna see what it sounds like!
So we're gonna go back here,
look at the plants, enjoy the view.
My trees are so dirty,
I don't understand, like this is so gross!
There's like cobwebs and dirt,
I mean I realize these are trees that are outside.
Okay, so far which setup do you guys like?
And last but not least,
this is the camera that I have been using
ever since this one came out,
this is the A7III.
This is a big boy.
This is a full frame camera,
we have a G Master lens on it.
Right now we have a 24-70mm,
but if you are vlogging I would recommend
a 16-35mm, although this 24-70mm is
probably one of my favorite lenses
that Sony has made.
We use this for almost all of the B-roll shots.
This is also one of the newer microphones
that Sony came out with.
This one is a little more expensive
but the sound quality is amazing.
What I love so much is there's no cables involved,
it sends the signal directly from the microphone
to the camera,
you don't have to power it because
it's also powered by the camera,
I definitely recommend it.
Since this is a bigger camera,
we've got one of the bigger Joby tripods.
There's so many Joby options.
I don't typically use these that often,
but if you are vlogging,
these are so nice to hold because
you can actually get a grip.
With a bigger camera and a bigger lens like this,
sometimes this is not that stable
and I had this way too close
to a swimming pool once,
and my camera fell in.
- [Woman's Voice] Justine, did you just
drop your camera in there?
- Yes!
- You have to go get this!
- Oh my god!
- Justine,
(gasps)
oh my heart hurts,
that camera is so expensive!
- Oh I'm sick.
(coughing)
(sigh)
- So since this is the camera that
I use most often,
We kinda use a little more advanced audio system.
This definitely will make your
vlogging rig a lot heavier,
but having these XLR inputs is great
because you can use different microphones,
you can swap out and have a shotgun mic.
Usually for wireless audio I will use these,
these are the Sennheiser AVX.
I've been using these for the past
couple of years and this is great
especially if we have two people
because I can record each track separately.
Being able to have two people on two
separate audio tracks I think
is really important just in case
one person's isn't working properly,
you always have the backup of the other person.
This is the Sony A7III with the 24-70mm.
I did recommend using the 16-35mm,
it's a lot lighter and you'll get a more
wider field of view.
So I pressed down slightly on the shutter button
to get a focus,
and you just kinda hope.
You just hope for the best 'cause right now
I have no idea!
It might be in focus, it might not be.
This thing is also extremely heavy.
Here it is baby tiny little teeny tiny mic!
Did you think that this was gonna
be lighter Justine?
Did you think it was gonna be lighter?
'Cause it's not.
I would say this is one of the higher end
vlogging cameras and there is
something that is kind of right in between
the RX100 mark V and this guy.
So there's a bunch of smaller Sony options.
This is the A6400.
It's not a full frame camera so
you're not gonna be getting as great
picture quality as you are with this one.
This little lens right here is very inexpensive.
This is a 10-18mm lens,
still one of my favorite lenses.
It's not gonna be as good quality
as some of the G Master ones,
but sometimes having a small portable camera is
more important to be able to just get the shot.
If you are looking for a more inexpensive option,
this is definitely the way to go.
This is the 6400 and what's great about this
is it does have a flip up screen.
This also has a hot shoe right here,
but I got one of these little SmallRig
extenders which allowed me to take the hot shoe,
turn it into a cold shoe so that I can move
the microphone right over to here.
So this is the Sony A6400.
There's a bunch of different models
of this similar type of Micro Four Third sensor,
but this one does have an audio input
which is amazing because I am obsessed
with making sure that I have good audio.
This is the Rode microphone.
This is a very similar setup that I used
when I was traveling around Germany
and Rome and Italy a few years ago.
We had the A6400 and if it was windy
I was using this type of microphone
but since it was a 6400,
we didn't have the flip up screen
so I mostly was using this microphone
because you don't need any cables or any wires.
Like I said,
this just connects right to the hot shoe.
I didn't show you guys this before,
but hold on a second!
So look at this little guy.
I call this the microphone's thong.
(laughing)
The little thong covers up these
and this is great because you do have
the left and the right audio,
but if you're doing an interview or something,
you can just pop these little guys right out,
just like that,
and you can get audio from each person.
So this is what it sounds like
without a microphone,
again A6400, no microphone,
this is all onboard, that's what it sounds like.
You do have to be careful though
because if you are zooming in and out,
(camera sliding)
you guys hear that when you're vlogging.
Yeah.
Do your zooming while you're not talking.
And that's it!
Here's a few of the vlogging rigs that
I've been enjoying and loving.
If you guys have any suggestions
on things that you're using,
please leave them in the comments below
and feel free to tweet them to me on Twitter.
If you happen to be in Los Angeles on
January 31st through February 1st,
please come to Vlog University!
If you've ever had any interest in creating content
it's gonna be so much fun.
Check out vloguniversity.com for
all of the details and be sure to
use this discount code at checkout.
I hope to see you guys there!
(upbeat music)