Best Camera for YouTube Vlogging

Camera Type

Phone Camera

You can shoot quality video with a smartphone camera, and even use apps to edit, mix audio, and add visual effects.

The biggest drawback to shooting video on a smartphone is memory and storage issues: video files are large, particularly when shot at higher resolutions, and most cameras have limited memory capacity, so files need to be uploaded to cloud storage or placed on a storage device.

WebCam

Webcams are incredibly convenient, and many popular YouTube channels are shot with webcams, particularly when streaming. Most webcams that come with computers, tablets, and laptops aren’t very high image quality, so it’s worth investing in an upgraded webcam for vlogging.

Pocket/Mirrorless Video Cameras

Conventional and professional video cameras and camcorders can be large and heavy. Pocket cameras are smaller and lighter in weight, because they use a digital display system, instead of internal mirrors that create optical reflections of the shot.

Because they don’t have mirrors, they can also be more rugged and weather-resistant. These types of cameras can be called pocket cameras, action cameras, DSLM, or EVIL cameras. Some of these have the ability to add and change lenses

DSLR Camera

DSLR cameras were originally designed for still photography, and have many advanced features and capabilities for creating beautiful images.

In recent years, DSLR cameras have been adding video capabilities, but they typically have low memory capacity for video, especially high resolution video. These cameras have the ability to change lenses, have a huge variety of accessories, and create very high quality images.

Field of View

Field of view is the measure of how much of the scene a camera lens can “see.” The field of view depends on the focal length of the lens, and the sensor size of the camera, to determine how much of a scene can be captured by the camera.

Resolution/Megapixels

Generally speaking, “resolution” is the measurement of how many pixels can be in a frame of video footage, while “megapixels” is the measure of how many pixels can be in a still image.

A 12 megapixel camera can capture 12 million pixels in an image. A typical 4K resolution camera can capture 3840 x 2160 pixels in every frame of video.

Sensor Size

A digital camera’s sensor is the equivalent of old-fashioned film. In other words, in an old camera, you would open the shutter, light would enter the lens and land on the film, and the film would react to the photons and create an image.

In a modern camera, a sensor is what reacts to the photons of light and creates an image. A large sensor is better able to capture more light, more detail, and more vivid color than a smaller sensor.

Camera sensor size is particularly important when shooting in low-light conditions, where a larger sensor has more photo sites to create low-light images with greater clarity and dynamic range.

Microphone Input

External microphones are an incredibly important aspect of capturing high-quality video. Video cameras, just like webcams and smartphones, have built-in audio recording ability that will capture sound as they capture video.

But this sound from the built-in microphone can be noisy with wind or background noise, or the desired audio can be muffled and distant, and it’s not the best way to capture sound.

Almost all video cameras also have a jack for attaching an external microphone, so you can upgrade your audio with a better microphone for your content and shooting conditions.

There are a huge range of microphones for every need in every price range. Video cameras have microphone inputs that are standard 3.5 mm jacks, so look for a microphone with that type of connector.

High end studio microphones often have larger, ¼ inch jacks designed for mixing boards and audio equipment, but as a rule it is better to use a microphone with the same type of connection as your jack (rather than use an adapter to convert it).