This video features Co-Founder, Nicholas Hui, talking about how some easily accessible gear can help you launch your video career. You don’t need to start with anything expensive or fancy, just something simple such as your smartphone can be good enough to get your feet off the ground.
Nicholas Hui started with a standard definition video camera that recorded onto DV Tape, which is foreign to the new generation of videographers. It was the only tool used to spark his interest into videography, which resulted in his current livelihood.
Full Transcript:
Hey, what’s up Today you’ll learn what the best camera equipment is for your budget to make your YouTube videos.
Let’s get started.
Hey Nick Hui here, your video friend who will give you tips and tricks on how to improve your video skills. So I’ve worked in the industry for almost a decade as the Co-Founder of Level 2 Productions where we film interviews live performances and commercials around the nation for companies like Amazon, Dolby, Uber, and Facebook. I also used to edit Animal Planet shorts for the Discovery Channel. There’s a lot of great information about video out there that can only be learned through experience, and I want to do the best I can to offer what I’ve learned to you. I’d like to show you my view of three different price points of gear. We’ve got smartphones, entry level DSLRs, cinema cameras, and there’s also the Red scarlets out there. Oh, baby… Hey, I’m a smartphone, hey go F*#& yourself. These are great for those of you who don’t want to spend much to get started and dabble into making videos. The quality’s good enough to get by and a small cheap tripod like this one is like $20 in Amazon, there’s even cheaper ones like $8. As for lighting a window with indirect sunlight is good or a basic desk lamp can be helpful too. So this is probably good enough for some people to start making videos just get a window, camera, a little mini tripod, you might not even need a mic if your phone’s really good with a mic system already built in. So this is your basic setup for an ultimate $20 budget. Assuming you already have a smartphone and headse. Moving on! You savvy videographers out there who want more than just the bare bones of vlogging, grab an entry level DSLR such as this one. It’s 80D with a kit lens. Yes, it also takes excellent photos and has a built in Flash. That’s fancy! I like to use this $29 mic hooked up to this the Zoom H1, the newer models are $120. And this light I’m using is called a pixel K80 for $90 and the light stand is cheap, like $15 on Amazon. So now I’m using the lavalier that’s only like $29 and using the 80D as the camera. Still with the window as the main light and the h1, the lavalier is directly hooked up to the h1 and its recording onto here. So you can either use a bunch of books, or in this case, a bunch of soap. There’s also the pixel over here that’s on. It kind of illuminates the room. So not everything is like pitch black like earlier. Here’s two videos side by side so you can see what it looks like with the smartphone versus the DSLR. For you pros out there, the Canon 5D MKIV is my choice for recording with this Canon 24-105 millimeter L lens. So now we’re recording on the Canon 5D MKIV and we’re using the Sennheiser g4 Wireless lav system hooked up to the zoom h4n. So this is my go-to setup excluding the tripod and headphones. I didn’t talk about tripods or headphones because these are what I think are the minimum essentials to get started to record video; all the gear is listed in the description below. This is what it looks like on all three cameras where that’s the smartphone, the 80D and the 5D MKIV with no light except for the house lights. And this is what it looks like. So I’m going to turn on the light right now to show you what that looks like.
Flip, light! Okay, I’m talking to you with just the smartphone and the smartphone microphone. This is what it sounds like.
Now I’m talking to the 80D and this is what it looks like. And this is what it sounds like on the zoom h1. I’m talking to the 5D and this is what the Sennheiser mic sounds like. Alright, so this is with the light on and this is Leo, say “Hi”! Which of these equipment sets do you resonate most with? Do you have different brand options or will you mix and maatch different equipment? What gear Are you thinking about purchasing next? Please leave your response in the comment section below. And don’t forget to hit that like button if you’ve found this helpful, and subscribe for upcoming tips and tricks on all things video. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you all next time!