It is possible to get started making youtube videos with just an iPhone, webcam, or an entry-level DSLR. This post is going to cover the equipment needed to produce YouTuber style videos with good production value.
The best camera is the one that’s with you.
Chase Jarvis
There several things that you will want to get right before investing in expensive gear and most of them will take time and skill but little or no money. The first is quality content, you can have high production value, but if your content is weak, then it will be a waste of time. You can’t polish a turd as they say. People will forgive low-quality video, but they cannot ignore low audio quality. Find a quiet place to film, make sure that the mic is not picking up any external noises, and remember the closer the mic is to your mouth, the better the quality will be. Finally, plan your background.
In photography, the term framing refers to how you design what is in the picture. You will notice that academics usually have a bookcase in the frame to infer that they smart, or there might be some plants and exciting objects on a bookcase in the background to set a scene. However you frame your shot, make sure no lines coming out of the back of your head and google the rule of thirds to understand you to position a portrait.
An important point to make is that whatever camera you use will have different resolution settings make sure you set these up to record in the quality you want. An excellent place to start is with a 4K resolution, a framerate of 25fps, shutter speed 1/50, a 1.8 aperture (this will depend on your lens), and a 160 ISO for a cinematic look with a slight blur to the background. You can set up the white balance and picture profile too but read up on the camera you have to get the best quality you can out of it.
The Camera
There are many high-quality cameras targeted at youtube content creators; Sony’s Alpha 7C, the upgrade to the popular Sony A7iii is an excellent choice if you have the budget. Sony has added a rotating monitor and updated the autofocus specifically for video creators. The addition of a Sony 35mm F/1.8 or 25mm F/18 G-Master lenses works well for talking head videos. A quality tripod that can handle the weight of the camera and allow a variety of positions is a good idea. For audio, the ECM B1M mic that connects to the camera via the flash adapter or lapel mic will work, and for lighting an Aperture 120dII with the light dome II softbox will create soft light.
To edit your videos, I suggest Premier pro and access to a stock video library such as storyblocks. A couple of 4+ TB solid-state hard drives will keep everything backed up and be fast enough to edit some video directly off it. However, it is a good idea to have the video stored on your computer during editing to make sure it can be accessed without any lag.
Good luck and let me know on Twitter if you select this gear or an alternative.
SamuelJTanner 