Personal Question Camera/sound/editing equipment

[Briztank]

Gidday Mark, not wanting to step on toes or steal viewers etc. but I'm a teacher from New Zealand and I guess you could say I've been inspired highly by your videos, so much to the point I want to start creating my own. More so for my school/particular classes than for entertainment but having higher quality and flow such as your own would make for higher educational purposes and more motivating lessons. If you dont mind sharing, what camera, microphone and editing tools (basically what would i need other than my fine self and "staging") would I need to create quality content?

Cheers,
Brad.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I do not know what products Mark is using. I do know he's bene working on improving his gear over the past year, including getting better internet connection when out in the garden.

I think figuring out what kind of lighting works best for you and your content can already help a lot. Depending on the kind of content you make, you might want to adjust what is in the background. Is it something formal like teaching, perhaps a calm non-distracting background might suit best. And if you're in the garden, try to avoid moving objects behind you (like busy road traffic, working machinery not included in the topic, etc).
If you're out in the garden, or other loud areas, getting a microphone with a muffler could work well. They can significantly reduce any wind noise, making for more quality sound.
Even what one uses as a camera can significantly depend on preferences. Do you need something you can move around? Or do you want to buy something that stays plugged in and indoors? Will you be out in wet weather, and perhaps have to think about waterproofing? Will you be doing sports, so maybe need to look at something like a go-pro you can connect to your body as well?

There are a lot of stores that have great customer service, and can help you pick out selections best suited to your purpose. I definitely recommend going to a few stores and seeing what the staff might recommend to you. Make a list of pros and cons.

 

[KIGardening]

How about you ask the oracle this question: "what equipment is needed for a YouTube channel". You be surprised how long your evening will be

 

[Briztank]

I've got a good quiet section away from noise etc. but good tips, more so keen to learn what equipment I'd best acquire (may also be able to get funding through school for this!) to have good quality sound and visual, very much like Marks videos...come in Mark!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Mark's been very busy and is only occasionally on the forum, so him responding might take a little while. On top of that, he's been between equipment himself as he's been working all of last year on improving his equipment for content. There is a chance he is trialling things himself, so might not be able to give you anything concise.

It'd be cool if the school gave you funding! I think something that might prove a significant difference is if you want the microphone attached to the camera gear, or if you want to opt for something seperate. Seperate often gives better quality sound. Stationary microphones are often the best in price and quality, whereas bluetooth microphones attached to clothing can drop in sound quality more easily. Sometimes this means you might have to look at higher costs to get better quality.

Another thing to consider is if you intend on doing voice-overs as well. A stationary microphone might prove more comfortable to use in those occasions.

 

[Berkeloid]

My advice is to start using what you already have, like your phone. Get a small cheap tripod for it to hold it steady and use that.

There are two reasons for this. First is that people want good content, and don't really care as much about the quality of the video and audio. Plenty of popular YouTube videos are shot on phone cameras. It would be a shame to spend so much money on pro-level AV equipment only to find that you don't actually have the time, skills or patience to properly plan, record, re-record and edit videos. It would be better to use what you have until you get into the swing of things, and by then if your equipment is lacking, you will know exactly what features you want when looking for something new. After all, today's mid-level phones offer video quality that can be better than prosumer equipment was a decade ago.

Second, it's not until you start using the equipment regularly that you realise what you need. Maybe your environment causes the autofocus to hunt a lot, or there's background noise the mic picks up, or it takes forever to transfer the videos to your computer for editing. You don't want to have bought something that is specialised for someone else's environment only to find it doesn't have the features you need in yours. If you're fairly static in a teaching scenario then you might favour a camera that can be quickly locked into manual focus, whereas if you're walking around looking at different things you may want to pay extra for a faster, higher quality autofocus mechanism. You won't really know until you start producing videos so in my opinion it's best not to rush in to buying something until it has become clear to you that what you already have isn't meeting your requirements.

Who knows, you might find like a lot of YouTubers, that your phone on a tripod is perfectly fine already.

It's probably best to think of it as though the equipment you use for your first few videos will need to be replaced once you know what you're doing, so you might as well use something cheap (or free, if you already own it) for that. No point buying expensive stuff to start off with if you know you'll have to replace it a few months later when you know what you really want.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Have you looked in to what gear you might use?

 

[Briztank]

No however my wife did just get a new iPhone so could trial that one! Next will be editing skills

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Sounds good! Using a phone stand can help significantly, and they are quite afforable.