Best Gear to Make Professional Videos (2022): Mics, Lights, Tripods, Tips

For transportable shoots (and even simply comfort) you may finally need to contemplate a cage on your digital camera, like the Smallrig VersaFrame, which WIRED reviewer Eric Ravenscraft has examined and likes. This permits you to mount every part you want, like lights, microphones, batteries, and storage units, proper to the digital camera itself. It takes some work to get every part arrange proper, however it’s loads simpler than attempting to wrangle fifteen devices whereas operating round a park. Depending in your digital camera, you might also have the option to discover cages that suit your mannequin particularly.

The Microphone

Aside out of your digital camera, the microphone is arguably the second most vital software in your arsenal. Good-quality audio makes a lackluster video watchable, and poor audio can spoil even essentially the most superbly shot clip. 

Top Pick

What’s nice about Rode’s SmartLav+ is its plug-and-play nature. I’ve plugged this microphone into my mirrorless digital camera and into my iPhone, and it labored like a attraction (for skilled cameras, you may need to add this adapter). It’s a lavalier mic, the sort that clips to your shirt collar to seize the sound of your voice. The high quality is not superb, however it’s a giant step up over the built-in microphone in your telephone. Just know that connecting it to an Android telephone is hard—it would not at all times work. And in case your telephone would not have a headphone jack, you may need a dongle.

Upgrade Pick

If you are prepared to spend extra, this wi-fi system is incredible. I’ve been utilizing it for all my WIRED videos. Plug the receiver into your digital camera’s mic enter or your telephone’s headphone jack (you’ll in all probability want a dongle), and clip the transmitter someplace close to your collarbone. Turn each on, and they need to routinely pair. That’s it! You can begin recording with no pesky cable operating between you and your recording gadget.

The microphone high quality is superb, however having a tiny field in your shirt can look just a little awkward. I connected Rode’s Lavalier Go ($57) to the transmitter, which I put in my pocket for a extra pure look. Rode has a more moderen model, the Wireless Go II ($247), which incorporates an additional transmitter when you’re making movies with a buddy. 

Other Great Mics:

• Deity V-Mic D3 Pro Shotgun Mic ($139): Standing immediately in entrance of your digital camera? Consider a shotgun mic. I like this one from Deity. You can pop it onto the shoe mount on the highest of a digital camera, plug it in, and also you’re prepared to go. (Yes, it plugs into telephones too.) It picks up audio really well and recharges through USB-C.
• Rode VideoMicro ($47): Trying to spend as little as potential? This shotgun mic will fulfill. It’ll beat any telephone’s built-in mic, and it is tremendous light-weight and compact.

Consider a Recorder

If you are utilizing extra superior audio gear—and there are a lot of good reasons you should—you then’ll want an interface to join any XLR microphones you could have. But when you shoot away from house (or simply want a versatile setup), one handy possibility is to get an interface that is additionally a conveyable recorder. WIRED reviewer Eric Ravenscraft likes and makes use of the Zoom H6, which might join up to 4 XLR inputs, in addition to two extra inputs by connected mic modules. 

The included X/Y module is nice for recording on-the-spot interviews. It can even file audio immediately to the gadget itself, whereas it sends audio again out to your digital camera. This is the sort of life-saving backup possibility that you simply will not remorse having round. Plus, it frees you to separate your mic and digital camera and sync them up later, if the scenario requires it.

The Tripod

Don’t spend a whole lot of {dollars} on a stable camera-and-mic rig after which stability the entire thing on a stack of books. A steady tripod is a great funding. This is one space the place you may want to spend extra as a result of an excellent tripod will maintain your tools from crashing to the bottom. 

Top Pick

I examined a barely completely different model of this monopod, which was discontinued and changed by this newer mannequin. This new one can lengthen up to 59 inches tall, a full foot greater than the final model, but it weighs the identical quantity. I like how compact it’s, and you’ll even convert it right into a mini tripod at a second’s discover when you do not want the additional top. It has three little toes that stretch out on the backside so you should utilize it hands-free, and the design is nice for tight areas. It normally takes me mere seconds to set it up and begin taking pictures. Since it is manufactured from carbon fiber, it is a light-weight journey possibility too. (It weighs lower than 3 kilos.) 

I like to recommend pairing it with the corporate’s Komodo K5 Fluid Head ($119) when you plan on panning, tilting, and capturing a variety of B-roll (extra on the Komodo beneath).

Phone Tripod

The Cobra 2 above is likely to be a bit a lot when you’re utilizing a telephone, so snag Lume’s cellular tripod as an alternative. It’s very steady, however the perfect half is that the ends of the clamp double as chilly shoe mounts, so you possibly can hook up a microphone (just like the Rode VideoMicro or Deity above) and a compact video gentle for a full on-the-go studio. My solely gripe? You cannot regulate the peak. But there is a answer to this: the Mobile Creator Stand XL. It can rise up to 60 inches excessive, making it an ideal and compact tripod for stand-ups. Both these tripods are pretty comfy to grip and carry if you’re shifting round as you movie. 

Upgrade Pick

If your movies aren’t restricted to your house, this is likely one of the most compact tripods in the marketplace that may ship the peak and stability most individuals want, but can match within the bottle pouch of your backpack. It’s comparatively light-weight (the pricier carbon fiber version sheds much more weight), and there is a built-in telephone mount. If you need to connect a fluid head for easy pans, you may want this universal head adapter. 

Other Great Tripods:

• Joby GorillaPod 1K ($27): You could make do with a tripod like this one from Joby when you’re attempting to spend as little as potential. It would not get very tall, however you possibly can contort the flexible legs to maintain the entire thing connected to varied surfaces. If you could have an iPhone with MagSafe assist, then you possibly can pair it with this Joby tripod for a hassle-free setup.
• Benro TMA27A Series 2 Mach3 ($165): This is a conventional tripod I’ve examined that is weighty, sturdy, steady, and all-around dependable from a well-established model. I’ve had no points with it after greater than two years.
• SwitchPod Tripod ($99): I like utilizing the SwitchPod when I’m shifting round and speaking to the digital camera. You can maintain it selfie-stick fashion, and its curvy design retains the digital camera away from you and pointed at your face. You can open the magnetic legs in a single swoop to make it get up on a desk. Each leg has threads you can use to connect equipment like a video gentle or a mic. I additionally suggest grabbing the ball head mount to simply transfer the digital camera round.

The Light

Light is an important ingredient for making your movies look skilled. Pro tip: If you suppose your present ambient lighting is sufficient, there is a good likelihood it is not. Unless you are filming in your yard in the midst of the day, your cameras will want a supplemental gentle supply. For extra suggestions, learn our Best Studio Lighting Gear for Photos and Videos information. We even have recommendation on how to light your photos and videos like a professional here.

Top Pick

I movie most of my WIRED movies in a tiny, darkish room. This 60-watt Godox LED has been a godsend. There’s a knob on the again to tweak how shiny it will get. You can even use the included distant to change the sunshine’s colour temperature, making it seem extra orange (heat) or blue (chilly). I paired it with this light stand ($55), which labored effectively for me.

You’ll additionally need to use it with a softbox to diffuse and direct the sunshine. You can get one thing as inexpensive as this one from Godox ($40), however it takes without end to arrange and put away. I a lot favor utilizing this 48-incher from Angler ($124), which intuitively collapses like an umbrella. It takes solely a minute to hook it up to the sunshine, and when I’m accomplished I take it off in seconds and stow it within the included bag.

A More Compact Light

The Godox lighting system above might be difficult to transfer across the house and is extra suited to a set taking pictures location. If you are extra usually filming on the go, you possibly can do that video gentle from Boling. It will get remarkably shiny regardless of the compact measurement, has a number of colour choices and results (like a enjoyable impact that mimics a lightning strike), and you’ll match the colour temperature to your lighting circumstances. It comes with a chilly shoe mount so you possibly can connect it to the highest of your digital camera or different suitable gear. 

It’s been my go-to cellular gentle for a number of years and has held up effectively. Even higher, it recharges through USB-C. Just know that battery life on a cellular gentle like this (or the others beneath) is not going to final for a number of hours at a time. 

A Collection of Lights

Aputure makes a variety of incredible lights, however the MC is a flexible baby. It places out round 400 lux at 0.5 meters, which is not loads, however with a variety of them, you are able to do some inventive stuff. That’s why we suggest this journey package with 4 lights. On prime of coming with 4 MCs, the case itself incorporates 4 areas to wirelessly cost the lights, in addition to two USB shops that may cost different units as effectively.

Each MC has adjustable white gentle colour temperatures from 3,200K to 6,500K, in addition to an RGB mode. There are additionally just a few built-in results for lightning, hearth, and different primary lighting staples, or you possibly can join the lights to a cell phone app for much more management. Best of all, every gentle has a pair of magnets on the again, making them straightforward to mount with out stands. They is probably not essentially the most highly effective lights round, however it’s exhausting to overstate how useful they’re on a shoot once you want an additional fill or some further colour on a scene.

Other Great Lights: 

• Lume Cube Panel Pro ($160): This is a solid light that is comparable to the Boling P1, however there’s an app you possibly can pair it with through Bluetooth to management it remotely.
• 12-Inch Ring Light With Tripod Stand ($31): Several members of WIRED’s Gear group use these ring lights to illuminate themselves on movies. You can connect your telephone in the midst of the sunshine, which makes for an ideal all-in-one and inexpensive answer.
• Viltrox RGB Portable LED Panel ($49): These aren’t the perfect or brightest lights round, however they’re low-cost, whereas nonetheless offering full RGB and colour temperature management, so you should purchase fairly just a few for a similar value as one in all a few of the different lights we have featured. It additionally makes use of standard NP-F550 batteries and chargers that many different digital camera equipment share.

Other Helpful Gear

There are so many different instruments I exploit when making movies, from exterior displays to fluid heads. Here are extra gadgets you may want to take a look at. And when you want a manner to tote your tools round city, learn our Best Camera Bags guide.

An External Monitor

I movie with my Nikon Z 6, which does not have a show that tilts out towards the entrance. That makes it tougher to movie when I’m in entrance of the lens, as I continually have to go behind the digital camera to see if the framing is right. If you could have a completely articulating display then you possibly can skip this choose, but when not, get an exterior monitor like this one. (You’ll want to seize batteries.) I mounted it to the highest of my digital camera and linked it through HDMI, which permits me to see my framing and whether or not the main focus is correct.

A Variable Filter

When filming with knowledgeable digital camera, you may need your digital camera’s shutter pace to keep at double the body charge for the most natural-looking clips. So at 30 frames per second, your shutter pace needs to be 1/60. But what occurs when you’re taking pictures outdoors and the digital camera is receiving a number of gentle? Get a neutral-density filter! It screws over your lens so you possibly can higher management the quantity of sunshine your digital camera takes in with out forcing you to change settings. I like these variable ones from Moment; rotating the filter in numerous instructions adjusts how a lot gentle is let in.  

Tip: Make certain you test the thread measurement on your lens when shopping for a filter. You can discover this info on the entrance of a lens or on the lens cap. (If you possibly can’t discover it, simply lookup the lens mannequin on the internet.)

A Fluid Head

I make movies about merchandise, so I would like to take a variety of supplementary footage of the merchandise themselves. But simply taking pictures an object head-on with none motion may be very boring. You could as effectively simply present a nonetheless picture! Fluid heads allow you to easily pan and tilt your digital camera so you possibly can add some movement to your B-roll footage. The Komodo K5 fluid head does this very well. 

If it is too expensive, the Magnus VPH-10P Pan and Tilt Head ($45) is a good cheaper different. Your footage will not look as easy, however it’s higher than going hands-free or utilizing the ball head mount on a tripod.

A Camera Slider

Once you nail down panning and tilting, you may need to department out. Enter the slider. It basically strikes your digital camera from one finish of a stationary observe to the opposite, however high quality sliders make certain this occurs very, very easily. This one from Axler has spruced up the clips in my movies, and it is easy to use.

A Teleprompter

If making up phrases as you sit in entrance of the digital camera is not working for you, then attempt writing a script. You can use your telephone or pill and a teleprompter app (I like this one for iPhones and iPads) to learn it whereas your digital camera’s rolling. WIRED reviewer Eric Ravenscraft has good issues to say about PromptSmart Pro too, which works on a number of platforms, and might import scripts from companies like Google Docs. Its distinctive VoiceTrack function can scroll as you communicate and pause once you cease. You can management it with a remote control app (though this solely works if each the app and prompter are on the identical platform.)

Reading from a prompter seems to be apparent when you’re not trying immediately on the display although, so it is price getting a tool just like the Glide Gear TMP100. It mirrors the textual content from a pill or smartphone and shows it on a chunk of glass that sits in entrance of your lens. This permits you to learn and stare on the lens on the similar time, all whereas preserving the scrolling textual content from showing within the picture. The Glide Gear TMP75 ($149) can be a useful possibility that we like; it could connect to a laptop computer so you should utilize your laptop’s webcam. although this smaller one solely matches telephones.

A Gimbal

No matter how regular you suppose you might be, your puny human arms are shaky and unstable. Tripods are nice for stabilizing locked-off photographs, however when you nonetheless need to maintain some digital camera motion, a gimbal is what you want. These units use motors to counter the minor actions in your physique to maintain photographs regular whilst you progress round or observe topics.

WIRED reviewer Eric Ravenscraft examined the Zhiyun Weebill 3 gimbal and says it was simpler to use than his outdated Crane 2. The wrist relaxation and sling grip make it straightforward to management the entire rig. Its inside battery can run for greater than 20 hours, so your digital camera is extra possible to die lengthy earlier than the gimbal does. If you are taking pictures in your telephone, see our Zhiyun choose beneath, which additionally works nice with smaller cameras. You can even discover cheap gimbals like this model from Hohem ($99), which Ravenscraft has used to shoot movies for WIRED.

WIRED senior author Scott Gilbertson says he had a tough time believing that one thing as small and light-weight because the Crane M3 gimbal could be able to replicating 95 % of what large, professional-level gimbals do, however it labored surprisingly effectively in his assessments. The caveat? This is finest with smaller cameras or perhaps a smartphone. It will assist a full-frame digital camera—it labored along with his Sony A7R II—however solely with shorter, lighter lenses. 

For vloggers who need to step up their recreation, and anybody who desires the power to shoot regular movement video with out (fully) breaking the financial institution, the M3 will do the job. The contact show provides entry to regularly used settings. Zhiyun claims eight hours of battery life and says it recharges in two hours. In our testing, the recharge time is correct, however the heavier the gadget, the more severe your battery life can be. With the full-frame Sony, Gilbertson says he obtained about 5.5 hours out of it.

A Quick-Release Mounting System

I regularly am attaching a slider, teleprompter, and fluid head to my tripod, which suggests I’m continually screwing issues on and off—all of this takes up invaluable time and is simply plain annoying. That’s once I found the Manfrotto Move quick-release mounting system. I connected the bottom to my tripod and the plate to my fluid head, teleprompter, and slider, and it now mainly takes me two seconds to mount these gadgets to my tripod. They nonetheless keep safe, thoughts you, however to launch them, simply rotate the highest of the bottom and the plate will pop up. It’s an ingenious system that I now cannot reside with out. 

You possible simply want a single Move system, which features a base and plate, after which you possibly can purchase additional plates for all the opposite gadgets you want to rapidly mount.

Handy Tips

I realized how to make movies by trial and error, by amassing suggestions, and (principally) by taking a look at YouTube movies at nighttime. Seriously, there is a wealth of free tutorials and suggestions you’ll find on YouTube for nearly any query you could have about enhancing your video output. Search away. That mentioned, listed here are just a few parting suggestions I attempt to adhere to (and generally wrestle with) as I movie.

• Position your key gentle correctly: You normally don’t need your key gentle (the primary gentle supply) to face your topic immediately. Put it off-center, which suggests part of your topic can be in shadow. You can use different lights to “fill” in these shadows when you like. We have more guidance here.
• Keep an eye fixed on reflections: I put on glasses, and it is easy for the important thing gentle to replicate off of them, which creates a distracting impact within the completed video. The manner to deal with that is by heeding the recommendation above, and by tweaking your gentle’s top and angle. Run just a few assessments to see what place nails the fewest glares.
• Monitor your focus: The last item you need to do is movie an entire video and understand your focus was fully off. External displays or cameras with flip-out screens have options like focus peaking, which helps you to simply see the place your lens is focusing. If you are utilizing autofocus, you need to run just a few assessments to see how effectively it really works earlier than you employ it for the primary time. Your digital camera might need face detection or eye detection to assist with autofocus too.
• Listen to your audio ranges: I normally maintain a pair of earbuds plugged into my digital camera whereas filming so I can hear again to my clips immediately and ensure the microphone is operating and I do not sound too loud or too smooth.
• Get the suitable framing: Reviewing your footage and realizing half your head is chopped from the body is a horrible feeling. Don’t fear, it occurs to the perfect of us! Just make certain to have a look at your framing earlier than you hit file.
• Shoot extra pixels than you want. If your digital camera and enhancing gear can deal with it, taking pictures in the next decision than you want provides you flexibility within the edit. You can reframe photographs and even zoom in, with out dropping image high quality. This is a useful manner to alternate between medium and close-up photographs with out having to reposition the digital camera between takes.
• Make the minimize: If you are enhancing your video on a desktop PC, make certain your laptop has sufficient brawn for the job. We have some steering on how to upgrade your PC for video editing, even when you’re on a price range.