Vlogging is HARD!

This year I’ve started vlogging on Youtube. I’ve only produced four vlogs so far (as of April 2019), so I’m hardly an expert (and probably never will be). But I do have a few thoughts on the initial experience, some on gear, and some on the technicalities of editing etc.

Firstly the gear. Because I’m just beginning, and don’t intend on becoming a ‘serious’ daily vlogger, I want to make use of the gear I’ve already got. I’m still not sure whether I’m going continue vlogging either, so really don’t want to pour a whole lot of money (that I don’t have) into expensive gear that I’m never going to use.

So, for my first vlog (which can be viewed here), I used a Canon 650D that I borrowed from work for the weekend. The 650D has a handy flip-out screen (almost essential) and Canon’s excellent Dual Pixel autofocusing. This allows the video to track focus on the subject in the viewfinder automatically, and also silently with an STM (Stepping Motor) lens attached. The 18-135mm lens that came with the 650D isn’t really wide enough for vlogging purposes when you are pointing the camera at yourself at arms-length, so I attached a Canon 10-22mm ultar-wide so I could fit everything in. Unfortunately, the 10-22mm isn’t an STM lens, and the constant focusing noise captured on the audio was an issue. To get around this I simply manual focused the 10-22mm and used an f8 aperture so that everything was going to be in focus.

And speaking of audio – anyone will tell you that good video with poor audio is a sure fire way to ruin your vlog. Fortunately, I purchased a Rhode Video Micro external microphone about a year ago for another project. I attached this to the hotshoe of the Canon 650D – which has an external microphone import – for superior audio.

I was pleased with the first vlog, but the 650D with Canon 10-22mm, Canon 18-135mm STM, tripod and Gorillapod added a whole new additional kit I had to carry around with me all afternoon. Quality was great, but weight really was an issue.

For my second vlog (posted here), I decided to lighten the load somewhat (and I no longer had the use of the Canon 650D) by using my Olympus Pen E-P3’s video mode. It shoots 1080i HD at 30fps, and I simply set it in movie mode and let the camera take care of everything. The E-P3 doesn’t have an external microphone input, so I had to use the internal microphone on the camera. Not ideal, but I built a DIY wind-shield for the E-P3 to reduce the wind-noise problem that internal microphones produce. It works surprisingly well, although it looks a bit like a Frankenstein’s monster!

For lenses, I actually used the Olympus 9mm Fisheye bodycap lens – a manual focus fixed aperture f8 lens that works surprisingly well for vlogging. The E-P3 doesn’t have a flippy-out screen so you can see yourself filming, but with the fisheye lens attached you just need the lens element pointing at you and you’re going to be in shot – guaranteed.

This lightened the load considerably, and although the clarity of the video is not in the same league as the Canon, I reckon it’s good enough for vlogging with.

With my third vlog (here) I decided to do it on shooting with my Nikon D70 DLSR, which meant my main digital camera – the Olympus OM-D E-M1 was free to shoot some video. The E-M1 has more video options than the Pen E-P3, as well as an external mic output which meant I could use the Rhode Video Micro again. I took the vertical grip off the camera to lighten the load, and once again attached the 9mm Fisheye bodycap lens for the majority of the filming. I was very happy with this combination; not as light as the E-P3, but with better video quality – and not as heavy as the Canon 650D, with similar video quality. Almost perfect.

I say ‘almost’ because there’s no doubt that the autofocusing is superior with Canon’s dual pixel technology, and if I’m using the E-M1 as my vlogging camera, I can’t use it to shoot with! So there’s my main digital camera out of action!

On my last vlog (here), I shot entirely with the E-P3 again, since the subject of the video – my Nikon F4 – is already a heavy beast of a camera. Once again I wanted to go as light as possible, and once again I was reasonably happy with the compromises I made to capture the footage with the least amount of equipment and weight.

So I guess I’ve got a fairly decent handle on the equipment side of things and am happy with the video I’m capturing. So what about the other technical aspects of creating a vlog? What about the editing?

To be honest, most recently the editing has been an absolute nightmare – and a complete disaster! For my very first vlog I took it easy and used Microsoft Movie Maker. It worked fine, but I did feel limited and wanted to learn a more fully featured editing package. So I moved on to Da-Vinci Resolve 15 for my next two vlogs and really enjoyed the experience. But then came Vlog #4…

For whatever reason, when editing my fourth vlog, Da Vinci Resolve decided not to play nicely. I kept coming up with ‘video offline’ errors all through my edit, even though the video files were linked correctly and where they should be. I looked the problem up on-line, and saw numerous other people with the same issue. There were lots of ‘fixes’ for the problem mentioned, but I tried them all and none of them worked. After a week of this, I got so frustrated I gave up on Da-Vinci Resolve and downloaded Lightworks instead.

I then proceeded to edit the entire video again in Lightworks – only to discover that this time there was a problem with the audio not syncing properly. Again I looked this up on-line, and again I discovered it was a fairly common problem. Aaarrrgghhh.

So I uninstalled Lightworks, and tried again – this time with the old standby, Window’s Movie Maker. But there was one problem with Movie Maker right off the bat – it wouldn’t read the video files from the E-P3! Slightly undeterred, I eventually found a file conveter and converted the E-P3’s video files to something that Movie maker could read (apparently). Spent another night editing the vlog (again), got half-way through, and called it a night. A few days later I opened Movie maker again to continue editing the vlog, but Movie Maker wasn’t reading the converted files this time either! What the heck is going on!?

Was almost – not quite, but almost – ready to give in, having edited the vlog from scratch at least four times over a period of about two weeks! What changed my mind (about giving up) was seeing an advert for Adobe’s Premier Rush video editing trial. I have recently signed back up with Adobe’s photography plan on the Creative Cloud, and I discovered I could download Adobe’s Premier Rush video editing software and use it to upload 3 vlogs to Youtube. After you’ve used 3 uploads you have to then start paying monthly for it 😟

Ok, long story short (too late), I enjoyed using Premier Rush, and it worked perfectly. No ‘media offline, audio synching or video format issues whatsoever. Yahoo! Was a fairly simple programme to edit in to, after I got the hang of how it works. So I’m saved – for now. Just have to figure out what I’ll use after I’ve used my 3 uploads.

So – vlogging. Why bother? Well I’m not sure I have a definitive answer to that question yet. Depending on what you use to capture the video with, it can be a pain having to carry around a lot of extra kit. And even if you go light, it takes twice as long to shoot anything, and a whole heap of creative energy coming up with the video – B-roll, and pieces to-camera. And then there’s the extra files involved, the storage issues, and the video editing. Bit of a headache for someone who has never considered himself a video guy.

But, having said all that, I look back on the final edited video with a great sense of achievement and pride. I really enjoy being able to teach others through video – it’s a powerful medium that has, in many ways, surpassed the written word, especially on-line. Is it a pain in the ass to create all this content? Yes, it is. But, when it’s all created, uploaded and ‘live’ on Youtube, was it all worth it? Yes, I think it was.

Would love to hear your comments and feedback about your own vlogging experiences – and about my vlogs. Follow the links in this post to view them on Youtube and, as they say, please ‘Like’ and Subscribe to follow me and see more content as I produce it 😊