Is the iPhone the best webcam for you to record a podcast? | The UnNoticed Entrepreneur

On this session, I'm going to look at video. Now I'm using my MacBook Pro, and you can see the kind of setup we've got here. This is quite often what I see when I have guests come on my show. They're looking down at me, and they maybe got something going up through their head there, and the sound may not even be that good. So I'm going to do a couple of things to change this up and show you how just with the laptop setup, we can have a couple of different camera options. Now I've already shared about getting the mic set up, so I'm going to change my mic. And I had shared before about this Samsung Q2U. So I'm going to plug this in and connect this and speak through this now, um, so that you can hear the difference. And then we're going to change the cameras so that you can see the difference in the camera quality. And then we're going to look at the height of the laptop as well, because at the moment I'm looking down on you, and socially that's really not acceptable, and it makes for a kind of an uncomfortable relationship. So let's take you through those different parts of the conversation. I have plugged in my Samsung. I'm just going to show you here You can see in the sound settings here, the place where you can see the input. And you can see here, this is my Samson that is now being used for the audio. I had done an earlier module to show you how to set this up. So I'm not going to go into that again, but you can see here that I've now selected my USB mic. Okay, so let's then move on to me showing you how the video is going to look differently when I plug in this. This is my Logitech HD Cam. Okay, now you can see the difference. Maybe this is the Logitech plugged into my camera. Settings. I just have it plugged into the USB-C port. The camera comes with USB cables, um, so you don't need to worry about buying any adapters. And one of the things that you'll find when you get an external device like a Logitech or an Elgato or any of the other cameras is that they will have their own software. And this is really useful because when we have just, uh, an internal camera we don't have any options to change the settings. And you see here that one is I can frame myself, which is kind of handy. But this is also really nice, that actually you can choose the, the field of view. So 90, 78— this is a little bit tight, of course, but what it means is that then you can also zoom in if you want to, and you can zoom out. Really, really useful, this. I find sort of a setting somewhere around 78 degrees really, really appropriate for being fully in the shot but not leaving too much of the room on the screen. The other aspect here is that if you need to change, for example, low light. If you're struggling in a room, maybe the sun's going down and your room isn't as well lit, then this enables you to control in more detail. You can see here the settings on the camera. You can also, if you want to, change some of these if you wanted to do something a little bit more exciting. Maybe you're doing some kind of a video, but on the whole, I just tend to leave that all on the default, and then that's perfect. So you'll see the difference in the quality to the inbuilt camera, and these cameras just sit on top of your screen. They have a little mount that just clips on the top, so it also means eye height, we're a bit better as well. Just adds an extra inch or so. So getting an external camera is a really good option for the quality and also for the control. The more expensive cameras do higher resolution, and that's what you want to be looking for because the camera is going to produce a quality of video that the better it is, the closer to 4K, the higher the output when you're going to show, for example, on YouTube, but also if you want to use it in a real-life setting for sales conferences and so on. So the higher the price of the camera, the better the lens and the resolution of the film. So worth just thinking through if you're going to be buying a camera, the caliber of the camera that you want to buy. But This is the Brio HD, which I've put a link to in the Amazon list. I'm going to disconnect the Brio now and show you just using a mobile phone as your continuity camera. Just to keep things simple, I'm just going to use one of these simple stands. It's by a company called Omoton. I'll put that in the Amazon list as well. And I use these for my camera and also for my phone and also for my iPad around the desk to keep things off the desk. So I'm going to have this just on a stand. You can also buy ones that attach to the back of your laptop as well. But if I use a stand, then I can have the laptop nice and low and have the camera nice and high. Okay, so let me just show you that next. Now I'm using the iPhone just on a simple stand behind my laptop, and you can see it's a bit higher up, and I'm just looking into the camera. Now, this is actually an automatic setting if you're using a Mac and you've got a phone like the iPhone 11 or 12 or later, then you have what they call this continuity camera. The laptop will actually automatically sense the phone and I have it plugged in through a cable into the laptop. It actually would also work on Bluetooth. You can see here there are a couple of different options which are kind of fun as well, and this is something that makes it even more sort of powerful. Can you see here when I unclick Center Stage, it zoomed out? But when I move in, it puts me center stage. Now the other thing I can do very simply here is click here and it does the blur of background, and that's really, really useful as well. The, the third thing that it does is it does a studio light setting, so it just drops the back into the shadows a little bit and keeps me at the front. Actually, the iPhone continuity camera is, in a way, the ultimate because it doesn't cost you any more money and it already operates within the operating system and it's extremely simple to use. So you have to have the phone lying landscape, not portrait, but this is a really great option. It's only available in the last year or so, but it is available on all phones So you can try that. Now, another neat feature here, if you are going to want to do reactions, some of these will work like that. For example, that's reactions. You may or may not want that. I think this one does some rain. There you go, that does rain. This one does victory. There you go. But bubbles. So that's kind of fun. You might not want that in a business call, but this is very, very useful. And it's really making life a lot better because you don't have to have the external camera set up, especially if you're traveling and you don't want to carry that extra camera. Now, Android phones, I believe, do this as well. But if you've got an iPhone paired to a regular Windows Shows how often I use those. A Windows laptop, then you'd need to find the app to plug in. But that's why I suggested the, uh, EPOC Cam, which would enable you to still use your iPhone and your laptop. So I have put a link to the EPOC Cam, which is just an app that you download, very cheap, and that would just replace the Apple software that connects the Apple iOS and the macOS. So Epocam is the other option if you are blending the iPhone with the Windows machine. And if you're using an Android with a Windows machine, then Epocam is still your best bet. I really hope this is all helping. And just to wrap it all up, what I've done is set up the laptop and the microphone and the camera on my kitchen table to show you. So the first one is just the microphone with the HD cam sitting on top and the headset and the iPad just arranged. It's a very simple setup, would work very nicely for you. The next picture here I've got for you using the Continuity Camera, using the Apple phone. And you'll notice that in this case I have it on a stand. This is just from IKEA. You can use some books, anything that you can do to raise the level up to your eye height. I've included at the end a QR code which you can scan and takes you to the Amazon list, and there you can see the items that are in the pictures, and most of them will still be available when you're looking at this. But if they're not, at least it will share with you a comparable product so that you can find what you need there. So this module really wraps up by showing you how important it is to have a good camera and also just how easy it is To set that up. All right. Wishing you the very best as you move to your next element and getting on with your podcast appearances.