MBA2446 The Best Camera To Shoot Content for Your Brand

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Foreign. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA Show. Powerful business lessons you can count on. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. And in today's lesson you will learn what's the best camera to shoot content for your brand. In today's lesson I'm going to share with you the best the three cameras I recommend anybody to use to shoot incredible looking videos that will add value not only to your brand and your business, but get you leads and use that beautiful, beautiful content marketing strategy that brings in customers. Now a bit of background. My partner in business and partner in life, Nicole Baldino. She shot many documentary style films, shorts, commercials and I learned a ton from her about what makes a great video. I've shot over 500 videos in my career as an entrepreneur, for courses, for marketing, videos, for explainers, for a whole bunch of stuff to bring more customers into our business. I've also run a lot of live video as well over 500 webinars in my career. And I mention it because some of these cameras you can use as a live webcam as well. I'm also going to share with you some extra tips on how to make your videos amazing besides using a great camera. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. The reason why I decided to do this episode is because I see a lot of entrepreneurs dwell over what is the best gear to use. They watch endless videos, they read endless articles and in the meantime they haven't shot a video. Okay, this is the ultimate guide. Okay? Just listen to what I'm saying to you today. Make a choice. Grab that camera and get started. I want you to start using your camera to shoot amazing content for your business, for your brand so that you can attract your ideal customers. Now every Camera I'm going to share with you today can be used for any kind of purpose. If you want to shoot videos for Instagram Reels, for TikTok, for any kind of social media, or if you're shooting videos for clients, if you're doing courses, if you're shooting videos for a YouTube channel. And believe it or not, the cameras I'm going to recommend are really affordable and maybe you won't need to spend any money at all. All right, let's jump into the recommendations. My first camera recommendation is probably a camera you already have, and that's the camera that is on your phone. If you have a phone that's three or four years old, that camera on the phone is most likely much better than a DSLR camera that you would buy at a camera store for four or $5,000 back in 2012. How do I know? Because we dropped four to $5,000 on a DSLR camera when Nicole was starting her filming career. The quality of the camera that you have in your pocket is absolutely mind blowing and can do a lot of things. Now, I can't speak about all the different kinds of phones and all the different cameras. In fact, I've been an iPhone user since 2007, so I don't really know all the details about Android phones, but I know that Google Pixel phone is an incredible phone with a great camera as well as a lot of the Samsung phones and the other manufacturers. And I know for a fact the iPhone camera is incredible. Not only the camera itself, but the software that runs with the camera to make it amazing. So I know you don't want to hear this, but if you have a phone, you should be shooting videos already. That's all you need to shoot a great video. Well, maybe one little thing you're going to need with that, but I'll speak about that later. But in terms of a camera, it's brilliant. It shoots in HD. It shoots in 4K, 24 frames per second, 30 frames per second. If this means nothing to you, don't worry about it. It means it can shoot great video. Now the advantage of using your phone is that if you're shooting video for social media, you can easily just post it from your phone and you can shoot it for social media. Meaning if you're shooting vertical portrait mode, then you are ready to go to create a beautiful reel. For Instagram, TikTok or YouTube shorts, you can edit right on your phone. My editing software of choice for just some quick and easy edits that will do wonders along with captions Is Capcut. Capcut is absolutely free to get started. You can do most of what you need to do with Capcut's free version. I have the pro version. It's pretty inexpensive. It's like less than $100 a year or something, but it's incredible. But the camera on your phone is so powerful. Now you want to shoot using the most powerful cameras on the phone as much as possible. Meaning the back cameras, the, not the selfie camera because those lenses are high, high quality. Now you might be saying, if I'm shooting myself, how do I see myself? Well, if you're an iPhone user, there's a quick hack. If you have an Apple watch, you can actually see your monitor or see your screen in your watch when the camera is facing you and the screen is away from you. Pretty cool. A lot of people use mirrors as well. Just use a small mirror, like a mirror that you would have lying around in the house, or like a dresser mirror, just so you can see that you've set up the frame right. And the simplest way is just trial and error. Shoot a video, take a look at the framing. Looks good. No? Back it up. Try it again. Okay, that's perfect. Having said that, I have shot reels with my front facing camera and it's totally fine for some quick and dirty videos on social media, which I absolutely love because sometimes I'm like walking home from the gym and I think of something I want to share with my audience and I can just do it right then and there. I don't have to think about setting up at home or anything like that. And the front facing camera, brilliant enough. Now when you're talking about high res, really good quality video, if you want to shoot videos for YouTube or you're making some sort of sales video, use the back camera. But all in all, the camera on your phone is incredible. Just start using. They say the best camera is the one you have with you. And that's what I love about it. You're traveling, you're walking around, you're at home, you're in the office, it's always with you. And you have all the footage in your phone. Now I have a second recommendation, but this recommendation is if you don't want to use your phone, let's say for example, you want to have a setup like a room in your house or your office, like a studio. And you want to shoot videos separate from your phone. This recommendation will require an up to date laptop or computer. It has to be something that is powerful enough to render video for Long periods of time. So if you have a powerful computer that's been around for the last couple of years, you should be okay. If you have a MacBook Pro or the latest MacBook Air or a high end PC, you should be all right. And what is this recommendation? Well, it's a webcam. I recommend the Logitech Brio. This is a great webcam with a fantastic lens, with a great wide angle shot. This means you can see the background of your office or your studio setup while they see you. Now, this is typically used if you're at your desk in your office again and you're just shooting standard videos. Maybe there's some tutorials, maybe you're doing an online course, something like that. This also doubles up if you're doing some online coaching or doing some webinars, it's a great webcam. Now, you're not gonna be able to record right into the camera. Of course. You need to record into some software on your computer. There's a couple of pieces of software I recommend investing in. One of them is Camtasia. There's a PC and Mac version. This is a great software to record in, but also edit in. The other one is Ecamm Recorder, which is also used for live video and live video manipulation, but also has a, you know, a desktop recorder if you want to record, you know, a course or videos for YouTube, for example. This is a great tool. These are paid softwares and they're worth the money. Trust me. They're very, very good softwares. I've used them before. They're incredible. Now, if you're tight on budget and you have a MacBook or any kind of Mac product, QuickTime Records video for you. Now, I don't love QuickTime. It does the job. It will record your videos, but there's not a lot of functionality. And it saves your files in a very large format, loading up your computer with heavy files. But what I love about this camera, the Logitech Brio, which is a webcam, is that it looks incredible and it brings in so much light. And you could just set it up on your monitor or your computer and you could set it up and just forget it. It's in there always. When anyone want to shoot, you can go ahead and shoot. I do this all the time when I'm shooting videos for my team or I'm shooting videos for clients or for messages to people. It's brilliant. I love it. And the camera is about $200. It's well worth it. Plugs right into your computer and it's easy to use. It's also fantastic for travel. And of course it's great for live video, for coaching, for calls, for workshops. And just a quick side note, you can use your iPhone as a live cam using the latest iOS version as well as the latest Mac operating system. You just need to buy an accessory to hang your phone on your computer like a webcam. But my second choice is the Logitech Brio. It's a great camera, but if you want to invest in your videos, if you want to have a great quality camera that you can use over and over and over and grow with it and have one of the best quality experiences in terms of the, the quality of your videos, but also the quality of the experience of shooting videos. It's going to be easy to do and it's going to be easy to set up and won't take any kind of processing power from your computer. Then I recommend going down the digital camera route. And the cameras I recommend are the Sony ZV1, which is a beautiful digital camera with a great lens that's going to be able to capture incredible video for as long as you like. No time limit on how long the videos will be. They have some great AI features. I can go on and on. But this camera is incredible. It's under a thousand dollars. It's beautiful and it's gonna shoot very good video. You could just set up a tripod in your office, get your lighting set up and you're gonna just look great. It takes obviously a memory card, so you can just pop that memory card out and plug it into your computer and transfer the files. Your computer's not running the whole time while you're shooting videos. It's, it's just a professional, real looking camera. You're gonna absolutely love it. It has a flip out screen so you can see yourself while you're shooting, so you get the framing right. And Sony really built this camera for vloggers. It has a built in mic too, so that it will sync obviously the audio while you're shooting the video so you don't have to like sync audio later. We'll talk a little bit about that later. But the point here is, is that it's just the whole package. It's gonna do it for you. If you have the thousand dollars to invest in video. You're doing a YouTube channel, you're pumping out videos, you're doing sales videos, you're creating an online course that's going to be, you know, worth a lot of money. Go quality, go with the Sony ZV1. Now, if you want to go really pro and really buy something for the future, and I'm talking about something that you will never outgrow, then I would go with the Sony ZV E10. The ZV E10 is like the ZV1 I just mentioned, but it has a mirrorless setup, meaning that you can replace the lenses there, you can take the lens out and put a new lens or a different lens and change the whole game. Okay. If you don't know the differences between the lenses, don't worry, you don't need to know that it comes with a lens. If you buy the kit and you can just shoot with that and you'll be fine. But later on, as you get more sophisticated video, you're going to start to realize, hmm, maybe I want a more shallow depth of field. I want to use a different lens for that. Maybe I want more of a wide angle lens. I want gonna grab a lens for that. This is something that will grow with you over time if you're gonna go really, really pro. And many high level, high quality youtubers vloggers use this camera because of that. Now what else do you need? Anything else other than the camera? Well, here's a few tips that are gonna make your videos amazing. Number one, get a tripod. If you're shooting at your desk at all times, get a selfie stick that also is a tripod so you can just stand it right on your desk and, and then just mount your phone or your camera right there. Now obviously if you're getting the brio, you know, the logitech Brio that just mounts right on your monitor or computer. But you want to make sure that your camera is at eye level, like you're looking into the lens, like you're looking into somebody's eyes. That's the level it should be. So make sure it's propped up with something. And my recommendation is a tripod or a selfie stick that can turn into a tripod. I like the selfie stick idea because you can take that with you when you, when you're on the go. If you're shooting videos out and about, this is gonna keep your shot stable so your arm is not just sticking out there like you're taking a photo. You're gonna get tired and the framing's gonna get messed up eventually. Number two, I believe one of the most important things, if not the most important thing about video is audio. Make sure you have great audio. If you want to have headache free audio and you're using your phone, then you need to get the DJI Wireless mic setup. DJI is a great brand that has a wireless mic setup that plugs right into your phone. The model number is AST01. I have this mic. It's basically two lapel mics and a transmitter. You can put it right on your shirt and you can just record right off your phone. The quality of the audio is incredible good. You just plug the transmitter into your phone and then you clip one of the mics onto your shirt. And the quality of the audio is just so, so good. It's so crisp and it's way better than just using microphone your phone. If you're using the webcam setup in front of your computer, then I recommend using the Shure MV7 microphone with a boom arm that just clips on your desk and keeps the mic in front of your face. I love the Shure MV7. I use it all the time. I use it for live calls, I use it for videos, I use it for webinars. It's incredible, super clear audio. And in fact the technology inside of it is the same technology they use to record Grammy award winning songs in studios. And if you're gonna go with the Sony camera setup, yes, there's an onboard mic and it's good. But if you want great, great audio, I recommend using a RODE shotgun mic. It's called the videomic Pro. And it's a compact shotgun microphone that you just put on top of your camera. You plug it right into the camera so the audio syncs with the video and it's going to pick up your audio so, so well even when you're far away. RODE is one of the best camera mic accessory companies out there. We've used them for years with shooting video. And I highly recommend this mic, the videomic Pro. There are other elaborate setups you can have with your microphones, shotgun mics and lavalier mics and all kinds of stuff. But this is the easiest way to shoot videos quickly. Lastly, your lighting. You want to have great lighting, especially if you have a home studio. If you're shooting your videos on the go, you're out and about, you're not gonna really worry about that because you're gonna use the lighting you have. You're gonna use the daylight or whatever it might be. But if you're at home or you're in your studio or office studio and you want to just step into your studio and shoot perfect videos every single time, then lighting is great. To keep things simple, what I recommend is a three Point lighting situation. What does that mean? You want two key lights, which is two lights in front of you, one to your left and one to your right, so they're facing you and they're lighting your face evenly. And then you want a small light behind you, maybe shining at the wall. This shows a little bit of depth in your shot so that you don't blend into the wall. I know that sounds weird, but that's just how video works. You have to kind of manipulate the shot so that it looks good. Now, there's a lot of lighting kits out there. Get one that is suitable for you in your budget. You can find it on Amazon. Three point lighting kits are around 80 or $90. Pretty cheap. But get something that will allow you to soften the light, either dim it or has a soft box. It's kind of like a lampshade for photography, lighting or video lighting. And the reason why you want to do that is you don't want the harsh light on your face. You want to kind of soften it up. So it's even nowadays there's all these amazing kits with LED lights that you can change even the temperature of the lighting color and really have a lot of fun with it. So depending on your budget, you could find something at any level. But a three point lighting kit, two lights in front of you, one to the left, one to the right, and one behind you. That's going to be enough to get started and you'll be all set. There you have it, guys. Those are the best cameras to use to shoot your content for your business. Just get started, start shooting. Trust me, when I started shooting video Back in 2010, I believe it was, yeah, 2010, the equipment was far, far inferior and my skills were horrible. But I'm glad I got started. So I got used to shooting videos. I got better at it. I got more comfortable in front of the camera. So just get started. Most of you can get started with what you have with just your phone. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you got something out of today, you found it valuable, you found any of our episodes valuable, the best way to say thank you is to subscribe to the show. It takes two seconds to follow us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast player you're using right now. But it makes a huge difference for us. It allows us to grow so that we can continue to provide amazing lessons for you. Thank you in advance for doing that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I'm so glad I started shooting video back in 2010 because it helped me develop so many skills. My public speaking skills, my sales skills, my communication skills, my negotiation skills. All that because I decided to hit record and just get used to shooting video and communicating on video. Get started. You won't regret it. My only regret is not starting earlier. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in the next episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.