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Today, we are going to answer a question that a lot of you guys
ask, is-- Tim, what gear are you using?
What microphone, what camera, what equipment,
editing software?
I'm going to give you guys, today,
a lowdown of all that stuff.
That's coming up.
Hey, guys.
My name is Tim Schmoyer.
And it's Thursday, which means it's time for some YouTube Q&A.
Before we get into that real quick, letting you
guys know they I have a couple of these shirts left.
Just a few.
So if you want one, you go to videocreators.com and order
one.
Put a link in the description text below.
But let's get in today's question.
What kind of mike are you wearing?
Please share.
Thanks.
Adelle, you are not the only one who asks this.
In fact, I get this frequently.
Tim, what camera are you using?
What equipment?
All that stuff.
So let me switch to my iPhone.
And I will record from this angle
so you can see what I'm looking at here.
And show you everything I'm using.
To answer your question first, what I'm using, actually,
for a microphone is this thing right here.
It's Sennheiser EQ100G3.
And just so you guys know, I will put links
to all of these things I'm going to tell you guys
about in the description text below.
Either to Amazon or B&H Photo.
So you can go check them out.
So this is a little bit more of an expensive microphone.
The wireless receiver is up here on top of my camera.
And so it just goes from there to there.
So it's not going a very far distance.
But I have found, that when it comes to microphones,
you get what you pay for.
I've used the cheaper ones and they introduce static
pretty easily.
The range on them was really short.
The audio wasn't that good.
So that's the microphone I'm using.
As far as the camera is concerned,
I'm using the Canon 60D.
It's a little bit of an older camera.
So you guys could probably get it pretty cheap now.
But the reason I like it, is when I bought it originally,
this flip-out screen, that's what I need.
That's my monitor.
So I don't have to hook up another television to it.
I can actually frame myself and position myself
just by looking at it.
Because I'm also actually far away,
I need to set the focus on myself
because usually the background's a little bit more blurrier.
And so I actually have this wired remote.
And if I push this button halfway,
it's the same as holding the shutter button down halfway
here on the camera that's the set to focus.
So this way I can back up a little bit,
and then I put myself in the middle,
and then I hold down the bottom halfway and it focuses on me.
So that way I can get myself in focus.
Because right now I can't reach it to do it manually.
so that's that.
The lens is a Tamron 17 to 55 millimeter.
I'm not really sure where to show that to you.
Here's the word Tamron.
There we go.
But it's a 17 to 55 millimeter lens.
And 2.8 F stop or aperture.
So the lower the F stop, which is the bigger the hole gets.
The more light that the lens will let in.
Which means-- I have pretty dim lighting in here
right now because I have really cheap lighting, which I'll
actually show you those in a second.
You could get like the Canon branded lens equivalent
to that for about twice as much.
And I've found that you can save about half the money
and go with the Tamron lens.
And, for my purposes anyway-- I know its not
super professional-- but for my purposes it works just fine.
I don't know if any of you guys can even
notice that I'm not using an official camera lens.
The other things that I think is really important
is I have this thing.
And on this side, is for-- it's a color gray card.
This is to set proper exposure.
So that when I point this at my-- before I start recording--
at the lens, it'll tell me if I'm overexposed or underexposed
by using a little exposure meter on the camera.
And then the other side of it-- see
this is the exposure side-- this side is
for setting white balance.
Because it's really-- basically what that does,
if you don't know, is it tells the camera
what the color white looks like.
And that's important because it will actually
balance all the other colors based
on what it knows what white looks like.
And then, that's how you get accurate
color reproduction in your image.
As far as my lighting is concerned,
I have this umbrella lamp right here.
And then I have this soft box over here.
And those are actually the cheap--
I think these are from ePhoto.
But they're, basically, the Cowboy Studio brand,
and if you don't have anything else, they're fine.
I think you can probably get something just as good.
Get some canned lights on Target or Home Depot
or something like that.
And just use the same light bulbs for all your lights.
And then maybe diffuse it.
Maybe put some white sheets in front of it
or something like that so you don't get this harsh shadow
across your face.
So you want it to be soft.
At least for this type of video that I'm doing, anyway.
So those have diffusers built right into them.
This one does too.
So you don't need them, but that's what I have.
Then I have a couple more behind me that I use for other stuff.
But that's all I use for that.
And then the other thing, going back to the camera,
I forgot to mention, is that I'm actually
using Magic Lantern firmware, which is free.
And I love it.
I don't use the stock firmware that
comes with the Canon camera.
And the reason for that is because Magic Lantern actually
is built, the design that turn these-- these cameras that
are normally designed just for still photography
and gives them a lot of extra features
that are great for video.
The main one, is that it disables automatic gain
control, which can introduce a lot of noise into your audio.
Because it's not made for audio.
They don't have high quality microphones in that thing.
So I use this one.
And most of the time people record externally.
But I feel comfortable enough recording it directly
into the camera from the receiver
because I know that the automatic gain
control is disabled.
And I've set the levels right where I want.
It even gives me meters here, which
you don't get with the normal stock firmware.
It gives me a histogram here, also.
It gives me a couple different ways to display how much time.
I have it set to show me how much time I have remaining,
left, in this clip before it's going to shut off.
And a whole bunch of other stuff.
You can do rack focus settings on there.
Zebras.
You can set a whole bunch of things that are just
designed for-- usually for high-profile video cameras
to bring those features to DSLR.
So that's that.
As far as video editing software is concerned,
I use pretty much, primarily Adobe Premiere Pro.
I'm still using the old school CS 5.5
because I don't feel like paying the monthly fee to upgrade
to cloud.
So I'm cheap like that.
And then I use After Effects mostly
if I need to do anything with titles or text or anything
like that I'll use that.
If it's something a little bit more fancier than I
can do in Premiere.
And then, for a tripod, I'm using this little guy
right here because it just sits on my standing desk.
And it's a good height.
So I can just sit here.
This is called the Joby Gorilla tripod.
And it's really cool because it's super flexible.
It can wrap around anything, like around trees,
around polls.
And it's small enough that I can put it in my camera bag
and keep with me in case I'm not planning on needing a tripod
but if I run into a situation where I do need one,
I can quickly strap it on the top of a chair and use it.
It's just a really cool, multipurpose, easy to travel
with, tiny, little, flexible tripod.
And that's pretty much everything I use.
I do have some other equipment here
that I use for other situations.
Like a boom mic or a shotgun mic.
I can mount it also.
Or I have a boom poll back there,
which is really valuable.
I have learned that audio is one of the most important things.
But you need different microphones
for different types of situations.
And if you go out there and buy a general microphone,
it might not actually be what you actually need it for.
So I've found I usually use this camera for everything
and microphones are actually what
I used for a lot of different situations.
I've got that one.
And then I have this Rode Pro, which
goes on the top of this camera if I'm doing a run-and-gun
and want to capture everything that's in the area.
I also have handheld mics, which are great for interviews.
Especially in really loud situations
that are really noise cancellation and isolation
and things like that.
This little guy is great if you need to record audio externally
or if you need to record several different mics or tracks.
This guy can record several different microphones
and inputs, balance them, and does an awesome job.
This is called the Zoom H4N.
and i really, highly recommend this thing
if you need to record audio externally
from your camera for any reason.
I use that thing a lot.
Even just these.
The mics just there on it are really solid too.
You can use external microphones, obviously,
but even the ones that are on it work pretty good.
The x-grip is really good.
I usually put my camera right here,
then I can put a microphone or so up here.
And this is good.
It's really cheap actually.
It gives me a little bit of extra stabilization
if I'm trying to run, or follow, or get
a really low to the ground shot behind someone,
or even when I'm doing close-ups of my kids doing some
of their craft videos and things.
This is super handy.
And then, the big daddy.
I love this thing.
The Glidecam.
This is the HD2000.
And this thing is amazing for getting super stable shots.
If you watch any of Devin Super ***'s videos,
this is what he uses.
And a lot of other people.
I can chase my kids literally up and down through a playground
and it looks like the camera's just gliding.
This thing is amazing.
So I love this if I'm doing more wide outdoor shots,
and chasing, trying to get some action.
That I really don't want my hand to look shaky and stuff.
This thing.
Awesome.
So like I said, I do have some other gear too.
Depending on what I'm doing, I've got white screens ,
green screens, and stuff.
But that's the stuff I use most often.
And so I'd love to hear from you guys,
also, in the comments below about what
is some of your favorite gear.
Share it with us.
Because I'm not a pro of this.
I have collected some things over the years,
but this is stuff that works well for me.
So let me know what works well for you.
And the rest of you guys, if you're
looking for some ideas, some recommendations,
feel free to ask down there.
I know there's a lot of really smart people here
who are more versed in the gear side of online video than I am.
I'm just more love the audience development side of YouTube.
And I'm not really a videographer necessarily.
So definitely check out what the people down there are saying.
And if this is your first time here hanging out,
I'd love to have you subscribe every week.
I do what you just saw here.
Because I really do believe that some of you guys
have messages that can really change the world
and influence people's lives.
And I want to do everything I can to help you guys with that.
So every Thursday I do videos just like this.
Do some Q&A with you guys.
On Tuesdays, we take a look at some online video news
and talk about what the updates and changes that
are happening in this space mean for us as creators.
And then on Wednesday, I give you guys some YouTube tips,
and advice, suggestions, ideas, et cetera.
So subscribe and I will see you guys again next week.
Bye.