So, I decided to record daily videos and call it a video blog. After all, it’s so easy these days to shoot and upload videos. I want to be comfortable with video as much as I’m becoming comfortable with text over time. I guess the main reason why I’m going to document using both video and text is Gary Vee’s example of using as many channels as possible and creating pillar content that is then spread across different mediums. A video will work for Youtube, but as the habit and the skill build up, it could be used to create free courses for example.

Teething problems

I have shot two episodes using my 3-year old iPhone six and both me in the video, and overall sound and video quality are terrible. I don’t know why actually, because when I bought the phone, its camera output looked fantastic. Am I spoiled by 4K UHD everywhere or apple degrades camera quality to save battery resources too? The image is blurry, and there’s no visual depth at all. And then there’s me acting weird in front of the camera. There’s a lot of room for improvement. But I spent some time on youtube researching how some of the popular channels started, and it seems like it’s quite common to figure out the whole thing while doing.

The sound was terrible too. The voice is very flat, distant and rattling. That is very noticeable after listening to podcasts that are typically produced with the studio-quality sound setup. I’m glad that outside noise wasn’t captured, but even without that, there’s a feeling that I was shooting 10-years ago using an old Nokia phone. And there’s no way to fix it using YouTube’s build it filters and editing features.

I just uploaded it as is for everybody see. At least it will be a good ‘before and after’ example. I decided that starting to read about “how to edit a video” would be a straight road to weeks of procrastination so all videos will be just a recorded version of live sessions. No editing, no problems. Maybe sometime later I’ll hire someone to create intro and outro or even learn to do it myself. Adding music and cutting in screenshots or screencasts would also be nice, but I’m trying to do the most important thing at a time, and at this point, it’s building a daily habit of documenting.

Researching available options

First I wanted to know what should I use to shoot the video. I want to upgrade my phone eventually anyway, and I have a budget to invest in proper video setup so I thought I could do both. It turned out that iPhone X video and photo quality is, but DSLR easily beats it, so that’s what I’m going to get. But the iPhone is a winner for on-the-go shoots or for traveling so that you don’t have to carry a camera all around. It would be nice to get both, but since most of the shooting is going to happen in my house, I’d rather get as good quality as I can get.

I decided to go with Canon 77D DSLR camera. I had two Canon cameras before, and they were great. I’m also familiar with the brand and their interface so using them kind of lowers the barrier of entry. I’m going to get a Kit version with a standard lens and also a portrait lens because most of the episodes will be a talking head. I already have a camera stand that is compatible, so I can start shooting as soon as I get the camera.

As for sound, I was eager to get Electro Voice RE320 studio microphone with a rig to connect it to the table, but it were a bit too expensive and advanced to use in the very beginning. Another option was to get Zoom H1 recorder (I just like how professionally it looks) but turned out that this type of recorders is better suited for outdoors or connection to external microphones. I decided to go with Rode SmartLav+ for starts. It’s a lavalier microphone that is good enough for recording audio for a video blog or a podcast. It’s usually attached as close as possible to the speaker’s mouth and is barely visible on the video.

Connector and cable length of lavaliers

There was one crucial catch with lavalier mics. There are two types of the connector generally used in mics I researched — TRS and TRRS. Those are three- and four-contact versions of “mini” connector (3.5 mm or 0.14 in). TRRS is supported by most of the smartphones these days, providing stereo sound output and microphone input in a single connector. TRS is mostly used in recording equipment, for example, Canon 77D has TRS input for the external mic, so connecting lavalier mic with TRS connector won’t work. To fix that I purchased the Rode SC3 adapter. The good thing is that lavalier will work when I’d need to record sound when shooting a video on my phone.

Another problem is a relatively short cord for lavalier mics, mine will have about 4 feet, and it’s apparently not enough if I’m going to stand in front of the camera Rode SC1 extension cable solves this problem and gives additional 20 feet of length which is more than enough.

Canon remote shooting

My initial shoot was using the front camera of the smartphone so that I can see myself as the video is being recorded for better positioning in front of the camera. With DSLR there are no such options because the screen is on the back of the camera and it’s also so tiny. Five years ago when I was shooting videos for the e-commerce project I was running at the time, I remember connecting the camera to the laptop to monitor what’s being recorded. Nowadays you don’t even need physical connection — modern Canon cameras have both WiFi and Bluetooth, and there are remote shooting apps available both for smartphones and desktops. In my case, I’m going to place an iPad somewhere below the camera so that I would see what’s going on while shooting.

Lighting is still a problem.

I still need to figure out how to set up the light, because I’m shooting in a rather dark room in front of the yellow wall and light on the ceiling is far from perfect. I hope I won’t have to spend another day doing the research and looking for parts available.