My Top Three Camera Setups for Video Content Marketing

New year, new plans to attack your content marketing? Are you planning on taking on the wild world of Video this year and have no idea where to start? Good news, in part one of four of my video tech blog series I have put together my top three Camera setups that will get you started!

Below you will find three setups at three different price ranges. Each setup will help you achieve your desired content in different ways but I also break down the pros and cons, hopefully cutting through some of the noise surrounding camera tech especially as I have owned and used each one. Just a heads up though, these are my thoughts on each set of equipment. An expensive camera does not necessarily mean an expensive 'looking' video, it's all about how you set it up and what you do with the footage afterwards. So with that in mind here we go! (Click on each title to see it in an online shop)

1. Canon G7X - £499

The most compact of the selection, the G7X is a great starting place for any business. This camera is great for quick set up and and offers ease of use for beginners and more experienced users alike. The camera has many of the intricacies of a larger scale DSLR in terms of settings and quality of image whilst maintaining the accessibility of more budget range cameras. The G7X also comes equipped with a flip up screen to monitor yourself should you be a one man band and provides fairly good native audio capabilities (I do recommend a small, stick on windshield though - link here) making it a great first camera for any business.

2. Canon 750D with 18-55mm Kit Lens - £590

For the mid-range budget this setup has full DSLR capability with regards to image manipulation, many of which can be found on the G7X, the big difference with this one is the interchangeable lens. Should you wish to spend more on different lenses for different situations you can; such as wide angle or macro lenses - there are plenty out there to choose from. One thing to bear in mind is you won't be able to use Canon's higher quality lenses such as the L-Glass range, but there are plenty of other brands such as Sigma which make great lenses at affordable prices. Like the G7X this has a flip out touch screen for multiple monitoring angles and focusing along with 1080p full HD video at 30 frames per second. Depending on your required style 30 FPS will not be a high enough frame rate to film smooth slow motion which is another element to consider when purchasing a camera body. With plenty of good to outweigh the bad with this camera, the choice for your business comes down to what style of videos you intend to make. While the next setup is the extreme, with regards to price and capabilities there are other cheaper options to get the smooth slow motion footage.

3. Sony A7S Mark 2 with Sony Zeiss 24-70mm Lens - Total Price £3,378

My current setup and in my opinion the creme-de-la-creme of modern DSLR technology the A7Sii has a huge amount of potential. It truly is a video beast; compact, lightweight and with the option of 4K video recording. The A7Sii has the capability to record 120 frames per second at full hd to capture those incredibly smooth super slow motion shots - the possibilities are truly endless. Coupled with the Zeiss 24-70mm lens, the auto focus is brilliantly sharp with a truly professional looking bokeh (blur behind your subject). The images look beautiful and crisp and the range of colour is vast. Now obviously the only downside to the set up is the price. At £3,378 it's a fair chunk of any business's income, but if video is going to be a massive part of of your strategy it's a great camera with huge potential. If not, one of the other two would more than cover your needs.

There we have it that's my three video set up picks for 2018! If you have any questions about them or if the investment in the time and camera is too much produce your own content please get in touch with me at [email protected] or 01793 823000 and I'll be happy to see how I can help!

Keep an eye out for next week's post, we are going to take it a bit deeper and talk about picking the best audio capture equipment!