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Importance of lighting and audio (all close up view)
:12 - :35yyt
The steps of camera quality (all close up view)
:43 - 1:04
Benefits of DSLR quality video (all close up view)
1:38-1:59
Why Lenses matter so much in video (all close up view)
2:24-2:54
What is the fastest way to upload video from camera to computer (all close up view)
3:27-3:59
Why OBS studio is a great option for recording (close up view)
5:04-5:30
GET DSLR VIDEO QUALITY
Hey everybody, it’s Craig with Clipscribe today. I want to talk to you about getting better quality video and what I do to get better quality video specifically on the input or the camera level. Now, lighting is really, really important and I can’t overstate that because it is one thing that is probably ignored the most. Audio is also really, really important.
I would tend to say that those two are more important than the camera that you use. You can usually get a lot more out of your camera by just having good quality lighting and audio. But if you’re already doing that and you want to take it to the next level, then this is what the next level is in my opinion. You start with a webcam, then maybe you move up to a higher quality webcam, then maybe you move up to something like a small digital camera.
THE MIGHTY DSLR
The DSLR is going to be like a really high-grade video camera, this is going to be your next step. And then in a lot of cases, this is really where it’s going to end because you’re really not going to need to go any farther than this. The reason why these cameras are really great, especially for these types of videos, is because you don’t need zooms.
A traditional professional or prosumer video camera, they’re made for run and gun type of video where you’re zooming in, you’re zooming out, you’re having to get shots and all kinds of sorts, of different environments and places, unlike a photo camera where you’re stopping, you’re shooting, you’re stopping your shooting.
So this is the reason why it would traditionally be a photo camera. Now, a video camera as well is great for this because you’re not doing all that. It’s generally just going to be one fixed shot, which means you can use fixed lenses, lenses that don’t require zooming on them, or automatic zooming.
Most of these now come with autofocus on them. So what if you don’t have the auto-zoom? You do the autofocus, which is not intended for video specifically, but it works. It will automatically focus.
So this is probably your final step on the way to getting a really good quality video. Now, what makes video really good quality? It’s clear you have some depth of field as you can see the items behind me are set apart from me and they are a little bit blurrier. That really depends on the lens.
LENSES – THEY MAKE OR BREAK YOUR QUALITY
The lens is really going to be important. So that’s one of the main reasons these bring such a better look to them is because of the lenses. The camera is one thing, but the lens really takes it to the next level. To give you the ability to pick the lens that works great for your situation, your area, you can pick a wide-angle lens if you don’t have a lot of room. You can pick a longer angle lens if you do have some space.
The lens I’m using I think is a 24-millimeter, pretty wide lens. This one is a 40-millimeter lens. And so if I use that, I’d probably be cropped.
That is the benefit. The question is, how do you get that video into your computer? So you have a few options, you can record straight into your camera on a memory card and then you need to take that out and put it into your computer. That’s one way to do it. I’ve done it that way. It’s not my favorite way because it’s not the quickest.
ELGATO – NEXT GEN MEMORY CARD
So what I want to talk about today is this little Elgato cam link and items like it. I used two of these. Actually, I use one for my camera and one for my laptop.
Now, these have to go into a USB 3 port. It might be a USB-C port. I’m not 100% sure about that but it is something that you’re going to need to check out and you have to have a reasonably powerful computer to use these so if you have an older model, pc or mac, you might have trouble with it because it can't handle 4k video.
So what I do with this is connect your computer using an HDMI cable. I personally have a really long HDMI cable that goes from my camera to there. It was all around my little studio here and up under my computer and into this and then this goes into my computer and then from my laptop I have a shorter HDMI cable and then adapter.
I set my laptop right here when I’m using it. You can’t see it. It’s usually right here and I use this cam link that goes into my computer now for recording. I’ve talked about OBS software before. It’s free software. It’s typically used for streaming but also can be used for recording.
The great thing about that is I can switch views on the fly now but I don’t actually have my laptop installed right now. But if I did, I could switch, I have some foot pedals that I could switch back and forth from my laptop to my face. So makes it very very very easy and really takes off some of that after video editing that you would normally need to do in post-processing.
I don’t need to do a lot of that because I can just switch from my laptop to my face on the fly, using OBS, using those two items, my camera, and my laptop, coming into my computer using this Elgato cam link, which I highly recommend. I think these $70-$200 or something like that.
They’re very affordable. Elgato has other versions as well. Elgato has a lot of other cool stuff. They have some switches so you can easily switch back and forth between screens that would work great with something like OBS. They have a lot of really cool stuff, some lighting and everything.
They also have some microphones. So I would check out Elgato because they really have kind of built their business around streaming and around creating video content like this. I just wanted to mention that this is one of the products that I use and I endorse it and you know this isn’t like a paid endorsement or anything, but I’ve really really liked it.
CONCLUSION
It’s been really helpful for me to get really what I think is a really good quality video, maybe it’s not the best ever, but I’m super happy with it and hopefully, it can help you do the same as well. Let me know what questions you have in the comments. If you need help creating video content and putting it out there for multiple platforms, or you want to add automated subtitles and in headlines and all that stuff check out clipscribe.com. Clipscribe can definitely help you with that. Once again this is Craig and I look forward to seeing you on another blog.