The YouTube Gear Comes In

It has been a few weeks and I continue to prepare for my YouTube channel. I’m launching into the video blog world. Key to any effort for me is to have the right equipment. I have been careful choosing the stuff I need to easily put a YouTube video together. Some of it necessary and some just bonus.

First I purchased a whopping $129 Seree video recorder. This thing is so fancy it doesn’t even have a model name. It is one of the dozens of cameras coming out of the same Chinese factory and advertised on Amazon. And who has ever heard of Seree as anything let alone a camera brand?

This one shoots in 4k and so far I’m actually pretty happy with it. It even comes with a decent separate microphone for audio. The recorder is a nice addition when wanting to shoot with other than a smart phone.

The smart phone though is still ideal for some video activities. Some vloggers create effective content using nothing else. Yet using a gimble along with it provides smooth motion shots when walking around using the smart phone for selfies or capturing subjects in front of you.

The gimble I got is super small but works great. It is fancy enough that it is from a name brand complete with model name: Tracking Motion Time-Lapse 3-Axis gyro Zhiyun Smooth Q2 . With a name like that is has got to be great.

Finally, my brother told me proper studio lighting is a much easier route to capturing better looking YouTube videos. That is very true. I found not so good results on some poorly lit test runs.

Thankfully you don’t have to spend huge money for a workable kit. I got a $109 lighting set and am now in business. That was the best money on gear I have spent in terms of improving results.

Now that I have the lights and camera . . . it is time for the action! I’ve got my first two subjects to shoot. One of them is about some of the low cost (but effective) gear itself.

Remaining hurdle? I need to get past the first YouTube video creation anxiety that almost everyone describes in some way. In a few hours I’ll be rolling the cameras to break ground on some new fun. I’ll let you know when I have uploaded the first one. Maintaining low expectations will be key. : )