My Video Making Equipment & Essentials

As a video creator, I’m always keen to know what other YouTubers are using to produce their videos. What camera do they use, what editing software, have they purchased any filter packs or graphics? Knowing what someone whose video style you admire uses to get that look can be very helpful in boosting your own production value and the quality of your videos. However, that information is incredibly hard to come by, as I feel like most creators (at least in my niche) don’t share their behind-the-scenes. As I know how valuable a little nudge in the right direction can be to a beginning YouTuber, today I thought I’d let you know exactly what it is that I use to create my videos. I’ve split everything up into two categories: hardware and software.

Hardware

Canon EOS 700D
Let’s start with my most important piece of equipment: the DSLR camera I use to film the majority of my videos. I’ve had the Canon EOS 700D (Rebel t5i in the USA) for quite a few years now, but it still serves me well. It’s in the mid/lower price range when it comes to DSLR cameras, but offers some wonderful features for that price. It has a flip screen that you can use to see yourself when standing in front of the camera, it has silent autofocus, and all the basic functions you can expect from a DSLR camera. A great one to start with, if you ask me.

Lenses
With the Canon EOS 700D, I currently use two lenses. The first one is the kit lens that came with the body, which is a 18-55mm lens. It’s a zoom lens that provides you with lots of options for filming, and it autofocuses silently which is a huge plus.
The other lens I use is a 50mm f1.8 lens, which is what I currently use for most of my videos. This lens has that beautiful, sought-after shallow focus that makes the background blurry and gives you an instant professional look. When focussed correctly, this lens provides super crisp imagery, and it really helps make my rather dark apartment look nice and bright. The one downside to this one is that autofocus really doesn’t work when filming. The auto focus is noisy and moves around a lot, so you’ll have to manually focus before and/or during filming. It does work well with photography, though.

Camera Remote Control
A definite must-have: a little camera remote. This will allow you to press the shutter from a distance so that you don’t have to walk up to the camera every time you want to start or stop recording, or shoot a picture. I use the standard Canon RC-6 remote. It’s inexpensive and definitely worth getting if you’re planning to film alone or make autoportraits (aka selfies).

Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II
The other camera I use is the Canon Powershot G7X Mark II. This is my vlog camera! It’s a pretty typical point-and-shoot camera but of really great quality, and it has the flip screen you need for handheld self-filming. Run it on auto and you’re pretty much guaranteed a good outcome every time. The sound quality is good, which is necessary as you can’t connect an external microphone to it. It takes really nice photos as well, and has WiFi so you can send any recordings or pictures to your phone straight away. A great option for a first camera if you’re not ready to invest in a DSLR camera, or if you’re planning to film on the go.

RODE Videomic GO
I use an external microphone with my DSLR for better sound quality. My current camera-mounted microphone is the RODE Videomic GO, which is fantastic as it’s super easy to use. You just slide it into the jack, plug it into the camera and you’re good to go. No external batteries, no sound syncing in post… Very simple and really nice quality for the price. I have a deadcat to go along with mine, which helps make the sound a bit smoother and filter out any wind noises. A must for outside recording.

RODE smartLav+
The other microphone I use is one of those little ones that you clip onto your clothing. The RODE smartLav+ plugs into my cellphone, where I use an app to record the sound which I then later use in my edit. It’s amazing quality for the affordable price, and it allows you to film further away from the camera while still getting good sound quality.

Tripod
At the moment I use the HAMA Star 62 as a camera stand. It’s nice and sturdy, easy to use and lightweight. It reaches up to 1.60m which allows you to shoot at (almost) eye-level while standing up. It swivels in all directions and has a hook in the center that you can use to add extra weight when shooting outside.

Lights
For my lighting, I have two 85W 5500K 230V photographic lamps, mounted on tripods with reflecting umbrellas. They provide really nice soft lighting that mimics daylight as it bounces off the umbrella. I’m not entirely sure what the brand is as these were a gift. Actually, I really only have one at the moment as one of them broke and I’m currently using its tripod to hold my…

Ring Light
One of my more recent additions is a Falcon Eyes ring light, the FLC-65. This is a very beautiful ring light that’s perfect for shooting close-up beauty videos. Really its only downside is that it’s not dimmable, but that’s usually not a problem. Definitely a good thing to have if you plan to do mostly sit-down videos or focus on beauty content!

Gorillapod
With my vlogging camera I like to use a little tripod that can be used to both stabilize the camera when I’m holding it, and to place it somewhere safely while filming. This particular one has bendy legs which can be wrapped around objects. I like to use that function to mount the camera to the pipes in my kitchen when filming cooking videos, for example. It provides a lot of options for different angles.

Software

VEGAS Pro 14.0
My editing software is definitely the most important thing in this category. I’ve recently switched to using VEGAS Pro 14.0, after my brother was able to purchase it through an amazing deal online. I wouldn’t be able to afford it at full price, so I really got lucky with that one. Before this I was using the stripped down version of VEGAS Pro: Movie Studio Platinum 13.0. It’s much more affordable but still gives you lots of professional options, and it’s really user friendly.
Editing is something I still have a lot to learn about. I don’t have any purchased filter packs, transitions or text animations, but every once in a while I’ll ask for some help from my brother. I’ll send him a video that uses an effect I like and ask if he can figure out how it’s done and make a preset of it for me. Hey, whatever you need to do to get there, right?

Canon EOS Utility
This is the software that came with my Canon EOS 700D, and I currently use it to tether the camera to my laptop. This makes me able to get a preview of what I’m shooting on my laptop screen, as well as control things such as brightness, autofocus and remote shooting from the laptop. Essentially I use it as a large viewfinder, so that I can see whether everything’s well lit and in focus more clearly and even from a bigger distance during filming.

RecForge II
This is the Android app I use to record sound with my RODE smartLav+. It’s a very basic sound recording app, but it works well and you can customise the volume of your recording.

Epidemic Sound
I’m not entirely sure this counts as software, but I’m going to include it anyway as it’s incredibly helpful. Epidemic Sound is the database I use for my royalty free music, so pretty much any song that’s in my YouTube videos. It has countless songs in endless styles and categories, and I can always find the perfect song here for any video. I’ve been using Epidemic Sound for years, and I recently partnered up with them so that now I can offer you a 30 day free trial of the YouTube subscription through my affiliate link. Click here to sign up and take a look at all the great quality songs they have to offer. You can use any of their songs safely on YouTube without running the risk of getting Content-ID’ed.

Canva
Another very useful website I love is Canva, which I use to design my thumbnails. Canva is a platform that makes graphic design easy, providing customisable templates for common social media formats. I use the free version right now, which has lots of great options. It has a range of really professional looking YouTube thumbnail templates that you can customise to create something of your own within minutes. It takes the stress out of thumbnail creation for me, knowing I’ll end up with something good no matter what.