Vlogging – a brand new world

Working on the 1st season of my new youtube channel has taught me so much about Vlogging! As with most vloggers like us, just starting out on a new venture we seek good but value for money equipment to help us.

When I first started out, not knowing if I possess the skill, or talent to pursue this – I borrowed all my equipment from generous friends. My neighbor Carly kindly let me use her Canon SLR camera. Another galboss Maggie loaned me her clip-on microphone and lightweight Tripod. I shot about 3 episodes with these equipment, frequently re-shooting some scenes again with my kind collaborators when I found some blurry footages. It was 3 steps back to get 1 step forward. Finally, it all came together and after a couple of frustrating edits and re-shooting, I was finally persuaded to purchase my own equipment.

Now what do I have?

My camera checklist:

• A microphone output for clearer recording of sound.
• A flip over screen as most of my filming is done on a tripod.
• Light enough to take for travels.
• Auto filming focus on the video capacity
• Below SGD1000.00

I found all of the above in the Panasonic Lumix FZ1000, and loving it so far because it is idiot proof and easy to use 🙂

A latch on microphone. There’s not many options for one below $100, so I got the Audio Technica 3350. On hindsight, because I was in a hurry and there were no other options in the store, I would have bought one with 2 heads. Going to look up Amazon for that next.

A tripod. I used an old one I had before but this is quite common product and inexpensive. So you can use almost any.

TIPS:

1. Frequently check back videos after shooting a scene to make sure clarity and voice is ok.
2. Always buy an extra battery for back up. An extra memory card helps too.

If you have other equipment or brands to recommend, I would definitely like to hear about it. So drop me a line 🙂