My Filming Gear
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I have gotten the question “What do you use to film your videos?” a few times already, so it only makes sense to make a blog post so that it can easily be answered all in one place. I’ll update this post over time as the gear changes. Amazon links earn affiliate commission and help support Buck and my adventures, if you purchase anything from Amazon after clicking my links.
GoPro Hero 13 Black
The GoPro is probably my most used camera at the moment. It’s versatile, extremely easy to use, durable, water proof, has good audio and video quality. It really sucks in low-light situations, but the other 90% of the time it gets the job done. I want to add a DJI Osmo Action 6 at some point in the future to see how the GoPro and DJI action cameras compare, especially in low light environments like sitting around a campfire or hanging out in the camper at night.
Lenses for Sony:
The video, audio and picture quality on the Sony are unmatched to any of my other cameras currently. It’s easy and intuitive to use and I try to make this my main camera as much as possible, however I do not want to risk it too much, as you can tell it and the lenses are not cheap and it’s not as easy as grabbing the GoPro to point and shoot, especially when there is a risk of being dropped or getting wet. That just comes with the territory for the camping videos that I’m doing.
My cellphone... The video and audio is surprisingly good on these. They zoom well and 90% of the time it’s in my pocket so I can pull it out and get whatever shot I needed. I keep it well protected with an otter box plus a screen and camera protector, so it’s thankfully much more durable than the Sony camera. The best thing about it is that that I can get the shot even if I don’t grab the GoPro or Sony.
This is a really cool camera, it has some good applications and uses, but for me, it’s not a go to. Great for fishing or getting some cool drone like shots when i can’t get my drone up in the air. The downside is that the video quality is noticeably distorted and there is almost always a seam where the 360 images are stitched together. So, it’s best in action situations where it’s enough to get the action but you aren’t exactly sure where that action will pop up or if you aren’t able to adjust the cameras to make sure what you are wanting to shoot, is in frame. Another con is that the files are ginormous and require you to use the insta 360 editing software (I think it’s required) to edit the videos down into a format that a regular video editing program can handle, so it also adds some additional time to edit the 360 files before even beginning to edit the whole video. All in all it’s a good camera, is it necessary for 90% of content creators? Definitely not.
Drone: DJI Mavic Air 2
Gonna be honest, I haven’t used this near as much as I thought I would. I got my part 107 drone operators license with plans to be flying this thing all around, getting those epic drone shots but that’s not how it went. I’m finding that my style of videos don’t really require that type of shot, however I do think that it’s cool and fun to use and it makes some good shots. I will say that I am strongly considering trading the Mavic Air 2 in for a DJI Neo 2, or similar small, self flying, drone like the HoverAir x1
That pretty much covers all of the cameras that I use. Once I have a video shot, I use my MacBook Air and Final Cut Pro to edit my long form videos. I use a combination of Final cut pro, OpusClip, and CapCut to edit vertical shorts and reels.
There is other basic gear, like extra batteries, tripods, etc that I won’t cover here, but that covers all of the ‘big’ items as far as cameras, computers, and editing software. If you want to see this gear in action, make sure you are subscribed to Buck and I over on YouTube!