vlogging on a budget

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Joel
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Hi all,

Something I've been thinking about for a while now is that I'd like to have a go at vlogging with my landscape photography. I'd rather buy budget gear to begin with to see if it's something that I like doing, so with that said, what would I need and what would you recommend?

I don't want to do this to make money, although like all us extra money is fine. When I go on photography trips, whether for the day, or a few days or a week it can feel a bit lonely sometimes, even though I quite enjoy being outdoors on my own, and so I thought it might be nice to have something to do to feel as though I am connecting with people who also love landscape photography. I can extend this to my Deep sky astrophotography hobby as well.

Camera - I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 but I think it would be better to have a camera with (better quality and) a flip out screen.

Microphone - sound quality must be decent and wind proof, so a camera with a microphone jack is necessary - which budget microphone with wind noise protection would you suggest?

Tripod - I've got a good tripod for landscape photography but for putting the vlogging camera on I'd need another one - I've owned one of the Manfrotto traveller tripods before which are around £100-150 so I'm thinking probably just get something like that again. Something light definitely so most probably carbon fibre.

Handheld Gimbal tripod ? Definitely need one of these.

If it's something that I take to then I could get a drone for different and more varied b-roll but for now it's really just to see if I like it, so a tripod, camera and microphone are the essential things I need. The camera is the one I am most unsure of as to what to get though. I don't fancy spending £500 on a vlog camera nor can I justify spending that much on one to begin with.

Lens/es - what lens/es would I need to begin with? I guess just one lens would suffice - a normal wide lens or something? To go with suggested camera.

Is there anything else I need? I don't need any help with the editing side of things at the moment and I think I'd be quite quick to pick that up anyway.

Thanks for any advice.

Joel
 
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If you use Instagram then maybe just start creating better stories? You don't need expensive kit to do that. vlogging properly and so people care to watch looks like a difficult area to get started in!
 
To be honest I think your phone is probably sufficient to see if you like it. You will get enough of an idea filming and editing footage from that to see if it's something you want to carry on doing. Then you can look to upgrade.

If you did want to spend the money now then I'd suggest something like the Panasonic G80 - it has good quality 1080p and can also record at 4k. They are pretty cheap now - the only downside being the auto focus isn't a good as the Canons.

Rode Video Micro is probably the cheapest external mic which people use alot.

Re: the travel tripod, the weight vs price difference between a carbon and non-carbon tripod that small means it probably isn't cost effective to go carbon...but that's up to you.
 
Gimbals for phones are a lot cheaper and lighter than ones for dslr, I'd do that first and see how it goes. Don't worry so much about the sound or editing right off, get used to actually vlogging to start, get comfortable with recording yourself
 
Thanks guys.

So what do you think to this ?... or are there better versions of each?... and stupid question, but how is a phone gimbal smoother than hand holding the gorillapod for instance?

vlog.jpg
 
Thanks guys.

So what do you think to this ?... or are there better versions of each?... and stupid question, but how is a phone gimbal smoother than hand holding the gorillapod for instance?

View attachment 255045
I tried that microphone, it was awful, not much of an upgrade on the built in mic and lots of buzzing.

The Joby's are very good.
 
I'm just wondering whether I need one of the jobys at all now. I actually have something very similar already actually. But I do think I need a normal tripod to set up showing my photography tripod and at a more eye level height. Also definitely need a gimbal for walking along with and smooth video.

Even the phone gimbals are around £100.
 
This looks like it could be quite good what I need? I could use it to attach my phone to a normal tripod as well. But I take it this wouldn't give smoothness like a phone gimbal ?

£15 though.

616IbO3n7ZL._SL1200_ (1).jpg
 
I received my DJI Osmo Mobile 3 today. £99 and a brilliant piece of kit. Phone should be fine with that
 
Plenty of choices but to start possibly just your phone and a gimbal, DJI Osmo 3 is perfect or something similar if you go DJI unlikely you’ll lose to much if you don’t like it.

Next up maybe something like the DJI Osmo pocket, small, versatile with gimbal, around the £280 mark plus mic or you could just get a dedicated sound recorder and lapel mic, does mean quite a bit more editing but it’s about the best way to get sound when you want to be moving around or focusing on demos, for this a lot use Zoom recorders ranging from £76 to £400+ (second hand)

Or maybe something like a go pro with attached mic, mic wise most use Rode.

I’ve thought about this a few times and watched a lot of vlogs/tutorials.

I would say sound is probably the most important, you can have the best material in the world but if the sounds poor not many will watch for more than a few seconds.

HTH
 
I received my DJI Osmo Mobile 3 today. £99 and a brilliant piece of kit. Phone should be fine with that
Keep us updated how you get on with it. I’ve been thinking of getting something like it, not for vlogging but for short videos to add to blogs. I was looking at something like that a few months ago. Using my phone would probably be good enough for what I’m thinking of.
 
Keep us updated how you get on with it. I’ve been thinking of getting something like it, not for vlogging but for short videos to add to blogs. I was looking at something like that a few months ago. Using my phone would probably be good enough for what I’m thinking of.

I got it to replace the Osmo Pocket. That was great but often didn't have that with me and i like the fact you can zoom on a phone (and the screen is bigger).
 
I'm really impressed by these phone gimbals. The tracking feature is amazing and the way you can flick front to back with a button press.

Do gimbals for dedicated cameras also have these kind of features?
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I've done a couple of vlogs now. I bought the rode video micro and vlogged with my Galaxy S9. The image quality of the S9 is actually ok I think, even the front facing camera is quite good.

I would like to buy the DJI Osmo 3 Gimbal as that looks really good but how would I be able to attach the microphone?

vlogs are here if anyone is interested

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa55uYcNTJQ&t=61s


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhTFf9c8Sw8&t=17s


I've found it quite fun to edit with Adobe Premiere Pro for the first time.
 
So I bought that Ulanzi bracket. The only problem is the length of the cable (SC7 from the bracket to my phone)... it stops the phone from rotating in the gimbal properly.
 
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