Finest Cameras For Videography As A Journey Content material Creator

As a journey content material creator and YouTuber, we’ve spent years refining our filming course of so we thought it was about time to share the secrets and techniques of what we predict are the perfect cameras for videographers.

Trying via every thing we usually use on a video undertaking, we break down the entire digicam gear that we use.

Selecting Your Digicam Gear

Earlier than we dive into the digicam gear within the journey house, it’s value speaking about how we arrived at these suggestions.

Each photographer and videographer goes via their very own journey and so we’d by no means say that these are issues that you simply MUST purchase. That’s why we attempt present as a lot context as potential.

Our specific journey has been 15+ years within the making and has continued to evolve however listed below are some high-level ideas on what’s gone into the decision-making course of.

• Realizing the look you need to obtain – That is undoubtedly one thing that takes time to determine however broadly talking, it’s the vary of your movies being cinematic vs. vlog-like.
• Working along with your finances – Digicam gear is dear so purchase what you possibly can afford and improve over time.
• Every digicam serves a particular goal – There’s at all times the dream of the one digicam that may do all of it however we will say from expertise that this doesn’t exist. In the long run, we’ve narrowed it all the way down to the under few cameras that may get the job carried out for us in particular situations.
• Going lighter, smaller, and consolidating – That is much more essential for travellers. Belief me, we used to shoot with Canon full-frame and I acquired to the purpose the place I didn’t need to carry it round anymore. To that finish, discover a technique to juggle much less digicam gear that works for you.
• Plan forward – You don’t at all times want each digicam for every journey/undertaking. Have a shot checklist in your head and solely carry the gear that you simply’ll must seize these.
• Evolving with know-how – 12 months after 12 months, there may be new gear that’s launched. You gained’t be capable of sustain with all of it (and we actually don’t recommend upgrading each time) however it’s at all times good to have a finger on the heartbeat of what’s new and what others are utilizing (i.e. Insta360 being an incredible alternative for the GoPro).

Mirrorless DSLR Digicam

For videography, the OM System OM-1 Mark 2, is what we depend on a majority of the time.

Not what you anticipated proper? We’ve at all times felt like outliers in an trade the place Sony, Canon, and Nikon dominate the sector however ever since we determined to make the switch from our heavy full-frame Canon gear to Micro Four Thirds, we haven’t seemed again.

Why OM System? There’s too many to call and sadly it’s an neglected platform however to us, we select OM System (beforehand Olympus) as a result of it’s the final traveler and adventurer’s platform.

• Small, mild, and compact physique and lenses on account of smaller sensor dimension.
• Finest-in-class picture stabilization, permitting you to movie video with out the usage of a gimbal or tripod.
• A wide variety of lenses together with a Professional lens line-up that stands as much as the very best high quality of construct and glass.
• Designed to be rugged and has Professional lenses that has IP53 weather-sealing, making it splash-proof, freeze-proof, and dust-proof.
• Appropriate with Panasonic Micro 4 Thirds lenses which nearly doubles your choices.
• Wonderful array computational options and topic detection. Many are for nonetheless pictures and personally brings out a whole lot of pleasure due to how simple they make it (i.e. built-in ND filter, gradient-filter, lengthy publicity, star-focus, Professional Seize, and fowl topic detection).

To make issues truthful, we now have to say a number of of the disadvantages of the system.

• Sensor dimension is a 4/3″ tacked BSI Stay MOS sensor that gives 23 Megapixels in decision which in at this time’s age feels outdated.
• Micro 4 thirds doesn’t fairly give that very same shallow depth of subject as a full body sensor does until you’re utilizing a lens that may cease all the way down to f/1.7 such because the Panasonic 9mm F1.7 or Panasonic 10-25mm F1.7 that are each glorious for video work.
• It’s much less “principal stream” so there are fewer third-party equipment and video enhancing grading software program designed for it (I’m pondering of FilmConvert’s CineMatch).

Oh and what’s that wrist strap? That’s the Peak Design Leash. Since we use Capture on a backpack or the 7L Outdoor Sling on most of my travels, we don’t want a neck strap as I don’t discover it comfy. We’ve additionally examined the Micro Clutch however we weren’t a fan both.

Aspect Word: It’s value packing the Slide Lite in your backpack since you by no means know when it’s necessary to put on one (i.e. Shibuya Sky or horseback driving experiences).

Motion Digicam

For us, we at all times be sure that we incorporate journey into our itineraries. This implies there’s at all times a possible for actions similar to treetop trekking, ziplining, scuba diving, mountain biking, rise up paddleboarding, canoeing, kayaking, ATV-ing, and extra.

Our course of has developed over time however presently, we primarily use one digicam now that may do all of it.

Insta360 X4

A monumental change prior to now 5 years has been within the motion digicam division.

We had the unique GoPro again within the day and continued to undergo periodic updates till the GoPro Hero 10. Nonetheless, we discovered ourselves grabbing this digicam loads much less once we found the Insta360 X-series of cameras.

We presently use the Insta360 X4, an 8K 360 diploma motion digicam and due to its magical capability to make the selfie stick disappear and capturing all angles, we’ve thrown our GoPro out. The invisible selfie stick offers you a complete new degree of freedom to create than ever earlier than.

Sure, we’re a bit outdated however hoping to improve to the Insta360 X5 quickly!

Inform me in the event you can relate. With the standard motion digicam, we’ve at all times had the issue of not realizing if it’s pointing the precise means. I don’t know what number of occasions I’ve gone again to edit footage, solely to appreciate that I pointed the digicam too far up or down. In motion sports activities, you solely have one shot once you journey and that’s it so that you need to make it rely.

The final benefit of the Insta360 X4 is that you may set it to document and reframe it in submit after-the-fact because of its 8K or 5.7K resolutions throughout. It’s additionally a rugged digicam with a complete set of equipment (we’ll get to these additional under) that can help you use it for a variety of actions. 360 cameras even have a definite benefit of having the ability to crop for vertical and horizontal video fairly simply.

There are after all a number of downsides and that basically comes from needing the extra step in video enhancing the place it is advisable to use Insta360 Studio to create the motion clip you need after which import it into your editor of alternative. The opposite situation I can consider is its efficiency in low mild however we’ve seen huge enhancements over time.

If 360 cameras aren’t your factor, one other digicam we’ve been testing has been the Insta360 Go Ultra which is one other useful motion digicam that you may stick in a bunch of locations to get nice POV footage.

Pocket Cameras

This isn’t an official identify or something however there are one other class of cameras that we classify as the sort which can be usually in your physique and able to movie at second’s discover.

The place the mirrorless digicam is used once you need larger high quality and a 360 digicam to document motion, the under 2 cameras are are extra involved about pace to document a video.

Smartphone

The say the perfect digicam is the one that you’ve in you. The one gadget you’re assured to have in your pocket wherever you go is your smartphone and in our case it’s our iPhone 17 Professional.

That is the actual workhorse in our assortment of digicam gear that we use for videography. Not solely is it a major digicam on the subject of social media content material, it’s additionally the emergency back-up.

If you happen to wished to, you may simply shoot every thing with the iPhone. The digicam know-how on this and different smartphones continues to climb to the purpose the place you nearly can’t inform in sure conditions. As one thing that matches in your pocket, it’s at all times out there and in at this time’s social media panorama, the power to flip between filming vertically and horizontally is vastly essential.

The draw back to the iPhone is the extra cinematic and depth-of-field look. Sure, there’s cinematic mode however it typically occasions seems to be too synthetic. Video out of the iPhone can also be over-saturated, contrasty, and over-sharpened.

We use the iPhone for 99% to movie for social media (i.e. IG Tales and Reels). For our YouTube movies, we nonetheless depend on our different cameras however on days once we don’t need to journey round with an excessive amount of gear or if there’s a fleeting second and that is the quickest factor we will whip out.

It is a complete different matter however our largest gripe with the telephone although is that we nonetheless must movie every thing twice – one for social, and one for horizontal video. We’re hoping that sooner or later, cameras will be capable of shoot open-gate (sq.) to get rid of that downside.

Lastly, why iPhone and never an Android gadget? We’ll admit that we’re completely biased however from seeing different associates and colleagues, the large benefit is: 1) Airdrop, 2) photographs with iCloud, and three) professional software apps (i.e. FinalCutCamera and Blackmagic Digicam), and 4) finest video high quality and optics (though I’m certain many will argue with me on that one).

DJI Osmo Pocket 3

One other nifty innovation from these previous few years is DJI’s Osmo Pocket 3. If you happen to watch our Hong Kong video, you’ll be stunned to listen to {that a} majority of it was shot with the Pocket.

Whereas not the identical because the iPhone in time period of being a do-everything-device, the Osmo Pocket 3 is sufficiently small to slot in your pocket and with it’s large field-of-view, built-in gimbal, and good high quality, it’s a type of gadgets that makes filming enjoyable once more.

In reality, the Pocket has began to interchange the OM-1 for lots of filming as a result of I’m prepared to sacrifice high quality for ease of setup and fast availability.

The benefit of the Pocket 3 is after all its portability, better-than-you-expect digicam high quality, gimbal stability, and most significantly, how simple it’s to movie movies of your self. That is 10x simpler than holding the mirrorless digicam. As an alternative, merely flip the display and you are able to do response commentary in a heartbeat. You additionally get the flamboyant face-tracking in the event you want that.

The sacrifice you’re making is in that smaller sensor and incapacity to make easy focus modifications.

Drone

The final major piece of digicam tools is the drone. We’ve been utilizing the DJI Mini 4 Pro for the previous few years after utilizing the bigger Mavic-series of drones. We’ll quickly be upgrading to the DJI Mini 5 Pro.

Drone videography and pictures provides a very new dimension to the content material particularly to determine a scene or present a special perspective that you may solely get from the sky.

What we love in regards to the Mini 4 Professional is actually its dimension however it’s additionally its capability to natively shoot vertically, vary, battery life, and high quality. DJI continues to be makes the perfect shopper drones, making it extremely protected, and straightforward to get the kind handbook or fast/grasp pictures you’re searching for.

By down-sizing to a smaller drone, the principal drawback is in its smaller sensor in its single lens. The Mini 4 Professional makes use of a 1/1.3-inch sensor versus the Mavic 4 Professional which has 3 lenses with the primary one being a 4/3 sensor. There’s a restrict to light-gathering and efficient pixels however for our kind journey videography, it’s not as essential.

One thing we’d love so as to add to is an FPV drone such because the DJI Avata 2 however we simply haven’t had the time to study and experiment with it but.

Videography Equipment

Thus far, we’ve targeted on the primary cameras for videography however what are the equipment we use to go alongside with them?

Equipment For Mirrorless Digicam

For our OM System OM-1 Mark 2, there fairly numerous equipment that we use.

Microphones

• RØDE VideoMic GO II – Having an on-camera shotgun mic is useful when you recognize you gained’t have time to mic your self or your topic up and also you need higher sound high quality than the recording on-camera.
• DJI Mic 3 – We additionally used this with our iPhone and Pocket 3 as a fast wi-fi mic. Having two microphones can also be useful when you’ve got two topics.
• RØDE Lavalier II – We paired this with our earlier DJI Mic 2 if we’re searching for a cleaner arrange. Downside is, the Mic 3 doesn’t have a built-in 3.5mm jack so that is one thing we’re questioning if it’ll be a problem.

Digicam Equipment

• Lens Protection Filters – With ND filters constructed into the digicam, at most we use are these filters that shield the entrance aspect of the lens. The OM System ones are cheaper on B&H than shopping for immediately.
• Wireless Remote – Bluetooth distant that controls the shutter that’s tremendous useful when doing any pictures on the tripod the place you need to reduce vibrations.
• Mini Blower – As compact because it will get to assist blow away the mud earlier than you utilize the LensPen.
• LensPen – A must have for any videographer to be sure to get mud and smudge-marks off your lens.

Equipment For Insta360

We want a complete part for the Insta360 as a result of there are such a lot of equipment that you may get, relying on the kind of sport or exercise you’re doing. We’re going to spotlight a number of of the important thing ones to be sure to have in your assortment.

• Foldable 2-in-1 Selfie Stick – Good new innovation that mixes the 360 digicam with a selfie stick in a extra compact bundle.
• Magnetic Selfie Stick Holster – The Capture works completely for our OM-1 and that is what solves it for conditions once you need to have the ability to holster your Insta360 on a selfie stick whereas climbing.
• Electric Suction Cup Mount – Customary suction cup mounts are at all times nerve-wracking to make use of since you by no means know if it’ll fail after extended use which we skilled when going off roading. You’ll love having energetic monitoring of the suction particularly for very bumpy roads and chilly temperatures.
• 2-in-1 Card Reader + Case – High quality of life accent the place you possibly can switch recordsdata to your telephone or laptop through USB-C and shops 6 SD or microSD playing cards. The case itself can also be magnetic so it’s MagSafe appropriate. That imply’s it’s one other means you possibly can lengthen your telephone’s telephone storage and permit ProRes 4K60 recording.
• Action Invisible Selfie Stick – The stick that does all of it. They’ve completely different variations of this however you’ll be utilizing this 90% of the time when paired with the Insta360 X4.
• Extended Edition Selfie Stick – At full extension, this goes 9.8 ft (3m), permitting you to create drone-like pictures. That is tremendous useful in locations the place you drones will not be allowed.

In relation to scuba-diving and snorkeling videography, we use the Insta360 X4 completely for its lovely wide-angle perspective because of to the invisible selfie stick.

• Invisible Dive Case – By itself, the Insta360 X4 is able to going 33ft (10m) underwater however if you wish to go deeper, you’ll want this particular case which you’ll carry all the way down to 164ft (50m).
• Dive Buddy – It is a newer accent however what it permits you to do is alter the buoyancy in an effort to both have it drop to the sea-floor or be suspended within the water as you swim round it.

After we upgrade to the X5, we’ll you’ll want to attempt the Invisible Dive Case Pro which brings to the desk next-level readability.

Equipment For The iPhone

Whereas we do most of our filming with our telephone utilizing our barehands, there are a number of equipment we depend on to make our lives simpler.

• Everyday Case – We’ve been utilizing this iPhone case for a number of years and the primary purpose is as a result of it pairs with the Creator Equipment with that small SlimLink sq..
• Mobile Tripod – Extremely useful software for a table-top tripod and moments you don’t need to take a selfie video and may discover a ledge to put this once you’re touring.
• Creator Kit – That is meant to be paired with a tripod and the Everyday Case and permits you to arrange vertical or horizontal filming.
• Orico Magsafe Mini SSD – If you happen to ever need to movie in ProRes in your iPhone or simply want to increase your telephone’s space for storing, this videography accent is available in capacities as much as 2TB.

Equipment For Osmo Pocket

Our DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is a good for fast on-the-fly and off-the-cuff video at a better high quality than the iPhone.

Past the Creator Combo which already comes with a battery grip, mini tripod, wide-angle lens and mic the one factor we use are:

• Extension Kit – This attaches to the Pocket and offers a chilly shoe on one facet and motion digicam port which opens up the entire different equipment you most likely have already got.
• Filter Set – A 3-filter set and in addition comes with a display protector as effectively.

Lighting

Whereas we’re normally followers of filming in pure mild, if we all know that we’ll be doing a undertaking in difficult conditions, we’ll pack a one or a number of of those lights.

• Light Wand – It is a brief RGB LED mild that has magnets in-built and may connect to extra of the identical lights to make it longer. Tube lights give a particular kind of slender lighting and we like that it’s fairly simple to pack as effectively.
• Pocket LED Light – We are going to typically seize this mild as a result of it comes with a silicone diffuser that permits for softer mild. That is additionally able to full RGB.
• MagSafe Selfie Light – A brand new addition to our videography gear. With MagSafe, this attaches to the again of the telephone and it might probably flip to offer lighting when filming entrance or again. It comes with a mirror too for selfies.

Tripod

This one’s easy. Our go-to tripod that we’ve been utilizing for journey has been the Peak Design Travel Tripod in Carbon Fiber.

Whereas it’s actually taken a beating over time, it’s held up. We love how mild and compact it’s when collapsed. It’s been capable of deal with the entire loopy situations we’ve put it via.

The primary room for enchancment is the ballhead which doesn’t deal with vertical capturing that effectively and doesn’t have built-in panning which is essential for video. That’s the place the brand new Peak Design Pro Lite Tripod. It’s a tad heavier and taller however the ballhead is considerably improved with panning capabilities and offers you a bit of additional peak as effectively.

Reminiscence Playing cards

For videography, reminiscence playing cards an incredible deal as a result of video recordsdata are large recordsdata, particularly in the event you’re capturing in 4K and most gadgets require a minimal pace to function.

The 2 kinds of playing cards that we use are the usual SD card for the OM-1 Mark 2 and microSD for Insta360, Pocket 3, and drone.

Right here are some things that we be sure that we now have with reminiscence playing cards we use:

• Discover a stability of excessive capability but additionally ensuring not too excessive so it forces you to vary reminiscence playing cards. This forces you to make again ups and if a card does fail, you don’t lose as a lot footage.
• Get the very best pace potential. Some gadgets are very particular in regards to the pace of the cardboard. For MicroSD cards,  190MB/s is what you’re searching for. With SD cards, search for UHS-II with 300MB/s learn and write.

TIP: Whereas there could also be larger capability playing cards, some cameras aren’t appropriate with them so be sure to verify the documentation.

Backpack

We’ve been huge customers of Peak Design backpack for years however lately, we’ve fallen in love with the model Shimoda.

It began once we have been searching for a brand new climbing backpack to interchange the outdated F-Stop Loka backpack. From our analysis, we realized that one of many designers that labored there spun off to do his personal factor and that ended up being the Shimoda model.

For my journey to Chilean Patagonia and Torres del Paine which was a part of our 1 month in Chile itinerary, I used the Shimoda Action X50. Whereas having the ability to match the 150-400mm lens was the primary requirement, I used to be actually impressed with how comfy it was for climbing and it’s capability to retailer extra than simply my digicam gear.

A very powerful function? They’ve a digicam pocket on the left backpack strap which is extremely useful for quick-access.

The 2 principal backpacks within the line up are:

• Shimoda Urban Explore 25L – True to its identify, that is an superior incognito bag for roaming across the metropolis and journey. The 25L is a middle-ground in dimension once you don’t want to hold as a lot gear however nonetheless desire a digicam dice.
• Shimoda Action X50 – We began with the primary model and now the V2 provides new options similar to an Airtag pocket, improved waist belt, baggage pass-through, and rain-cover.

Each of our backpacks have a Peak Design Capture hooked up to it. The orange one you see within the photograph is a special edition collaboration with Carryology.

Software program

To shut issues off, readers at all times ask us what we use for video enhancing so I believed we’d add a bit on the essential instruments we use.

• Final Cut Pro – Whereas many will ask why we don’t use Adobe Premiere however it’s a type of issues the place I realized the right way to edit on FCP and so I’ve been comfy with it and it might probably do every thing I need to do.
• Insta360 Studio – Since we use our Insta360 fairly a bit now, their 360 footage enhancing software program is vital. Workflow clever, we create brief clips from this software after which we import them into Ultimate Minimize Professional.
• Epidemic Sound – That is the place we get all of our music. It’s good to pay as soon as and be capable of use something in the complete library together with for social media.
• Numerous FCP Plugins – We use an assortment of plugins in Ultimate Minimize Professional for issues like titles, decrease thirds, audio and results. The 2 principal ones we use are MotionVFX and Pixel Film Studios. For our voiceovers, we use Waves and the Tony Maserati Signature Series.

Steadily Requested Questions