Welcome back to our Beginner Videography series! This week, we’re talking about equipment. When it comes to choosing beginner videography equipment, the choices can be a little overwhelming. That’s why we’re here to help you out! Professional videographers have tons of equipment but as a beginner, you can simply start out with some basic tools. These include your camera, tripod and basic lighting and audio essentials. Then, as you become more experienced, you can create a wish list of tools to treat yourself and your projects with. Let’s get started with the basics you’ll need!
How To Choose A Camera
This is the most important piece of equipment for beginner videography, as it’s literally what you will use to shoot your video. For absolute beginners or those wanting to work on a couple of small personal projects, smartphone cameras can be a great start. If you’re looking to do more work and experiment more, then you will want to look at DSLRs. They can be expensive but are extremely high quality and a great long-term investment.
What Is A DSLR?
DSLR stands for digital single-lens reflex. With a DSLR, you can change lenses to create various effects, and control elements such as shutter speed or aperture.
They have a mirror and prism inside, and a viewfinder which shows you exactly what the lens sees. The mirror and prism use light to bounce the image from your lens to your viewfinder. The digital sensor and processor then turn what you see into an image or video and save it onto a memory card.
Tripods
Tripods exist to ensure that your footage is stable and not shaky. These accessories can help you with shot composition and make your footage look stable and professional. We would definitely recommend getting one! They are simple to use and can transform your footage.
Audio Equipment
Having great video footage is one thing – but you need to be able to hear it just as well! Built-in microphones only go so far, so you may want to invest in some microphones and audio equipment. Here are the main microphones and what their uses are:
- Lavalier mics clip onto your clothing and are great for interviews.
- Shotgun mics pick up various types of sound
- Smartphone-friendly microphones are great for practice / phone-filmed projects
Different types of microphones record in different polar patterns, so make sure to do some research before purchasing. We would also recommend checking out our guide to cleaning audio at the editing stage!
Lighting Equipment
Sometimes, natural lighting doesn’t help to capture exactly what you need. That’s where artificial lighting can come in handy. We would recommend a five-in-one reflector for beginners, or a trio of basic lights to boost your shots. Don’t forget to use a clamp to hold your reflector in place if you’re filming solo. Check out our full guide to lighting videos for creators, also!
Other Beginner Videography Equipment
When you’re starting out, you only really need the essentials. Here is our list of equipment that we think will be most helpful for beginner videographers:
- A camera bag
- SD memory cards
- Spare, charged camera batteries
- External hard drive for your videos
Beginner Videography Equipment: Final Thoughts
There are tons of filmmaker sites out there that you can take a look at. A lot of these feature equipment recommendations, resources and advice for beginner videographers.
If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, you can get everything you need at budget-friendly prices from sites such as Amazon Basics.