Conor’s Camera & Audio Kit for Vlogging

I’ve had a few people asking me for specific details on the kit I use to make videos for my YouTube Channel. The most basic videos, I make with my iPhone 7. Enter photo app, selfie mode, hit video and talk. My friend Seb Lora has over 220K youtube subscribers and does most of his non-studio videos with his iphone.

Update March 2020 Main Kit

As of 2018 I’ve been using a new setup. I still use the Canon G7X (listed below) when I don’t want to carry the heavier gear, but I make most videos now with a Sony Alpha 7RII mirrorless camera.

Camera: My main camera is the Sony Alpha 7R II with the 16-35mm lens and a Switchpod tripod to allow me to hold it in my hand while recording.

Main Vlog Camera – Sony Alpha 7RII

Tripod Mount for handheld vlogging – Switchpod

Audio: Rode VideoMic Pro Plus

In the world of YouTube videos, audio is more important than video. People are willing to watch poor video with excellent audio, but they are not willing to watch great video where the audio is poor. Invest in good microphones and learn to use on camera, lavalier and non-directional microphones depending on the location and conditions. I use this camera mounted microphone for 90% of my videos.

Lens #1 – Wide Angle 16-35mm

Lens #2 – 50mm Close Up

Lens #3 – 85mm Prime

Lens #4 – 75-200mm Zoom

Live Streaming extras

My Main Livestreaming/Zoom camera is the Logitech 4K Brio – it is an improvement on both picture and audio quality over the Macbook pro webcam.

In order to stream from the Sony Alpha 7RII – you need a capture card of some sort. I have an external capture device – El Gato Camlink 4K. Micro HDMI from camera to HDMI in and USB out into my Macbook.

Livestreaming software

I used to use OBS, but have recently moved to Streamlabs as it is a slightly simpler interface (on top of original OBS, open source).

Camera Backpacks

I have two – one for carrying everything, and one for when I just want to bring the minimum (camera, 1 lens, microphone, batteries).

Lowepro BP 250 Fastpack

Camera Sling Bag

I didn’t find my model currently available, will replace this with a similar bag in the near future.

Previous Kit, and my Recommended first decent Vlogging setup

Camera: My main camera is the Canon G7X Mark II. There is a big vlogging decision to make between DSLR or “Mirrorless” camera. DSLR are bigger, heavier but get a better image (especially depth of field – those crisp foreground images with blurrer background). “Mirrorless” such as the G7X are lighter and easier to carry around with you. My decision was to go with the camera that is easier to carry.

Audio: For YouTube vlogging, I was surprised to discover early on that poor sound is more damaging to your video content than poor image quality. People can cope with low quality video, but they really hate low quality sound.

Video Editing Software: I use Final Cut Pro on the Mac to do my video editing. I used iMovie before, but found myself quite restricted in terms of what I could do with multiple cameras and audio tracks.