So you put the box in your pocket and press record, run the wire under your shirt to clip the mic on your collar, and you’re ready to go!  One additional killer feature is that it records two tracks simultaneously at two different gain settings, so if you yell or laugh loudly, you never have audio peaking issues.  It’s really innovative.  Ricky and Jim use these little recorders in nearly every Youtube video they make.  Hear a sample of the audio in this video, for example. 

What they could do to improve: The audio signature is a little “tin-cannish”.  It doesn’t sound as full as some mics, but it’s not the worst.  Overall it sounds very professional, but if you have a golden ear, you’ll notice it.

Compared to the competition: We’ve tried wireless lav mics which have the benefit of inserting the audio straight into the video so it doesn’t have to be synced later, but we just found the connection issues to be a pain.  If we don’t use these lav mics, we use the Rode VideoMic Pro+ which is awesome but gathers too much room echo for use in our home offices.

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For us, the 16mm focal length on a crop sensor camera is perfect.  Plus, it’s crazy fast so we can slightly blur out the bookshelf behind our desk in our Youtube videos.  We use this lens in 90% of our Youtube videos now.

Compared to the competition: Before we started using this lens, we were using the Sony 18-105.  We still use that lens for some outside shots where we need a longer focal length, but it’s rare.  It wasn’t fast enough for what we wanted.  Sony also makes a 16, but it is way more expensive for arguably no better quality.

The post Our Top Pick for Vlogging Lens: Sigma 16mm F/1.4 appeared first on Tips About Travel.

The a6600 is small and light, has a flip-up LCD screen so you can see yourself when vlogging, excellent video quality, near-perfect autofocus, and it’s reasonably priced. The battery is much larger than the previous models and there is no 30 minute video record limit! There really isn’t much more I could even ask for in a vlogging camera.

What they could do to improve: The only thing I’d like to see is 4k 60fps.  That’d be nice for some cinematic slow motion stuff at 4k, but you can do it at 1080 and few people will notice.

Compared to the competition: Panasonic makes some cool cameras for vloggers with neat advanced video features, but their autofocus SUCKS.  Canon and Nikon have each released their mirrorless cameras now, but frankly they’ve disappointed.  The a6500 is nice but doesn’t have the front-facing LCD.  There are some excellent full-frame cameras but they are pretty pricey for making a vlog and the lenses are much larger and heavier.  Fuji’s cameras are fun to shoot with the aperture ring on the lens, but autofocus in video is still lagging.  In my opinion, if you’re using a camera strictly for vlogging, it’s tough to beat the a6600.  

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