A Notable YouTuber

[jonpais]

I used to eagerly anticipate watching Caleb Pike’s videos for his useful tips on inexpensive lighting, microphones, external monitors, cameras and just about everything under the sun. It may seem churlish to complain, but lately, the number of uploads and frequency of notifications just became overwhelming, and I was beginning to lose interest. After all, can’t there be too much of a good thing? And then, like so many others are doing now, he started live streaming, which I personally find is a less efficient use of my time than a scripted 20-minute video. Most livestreams I’ve seen are long and rambling. Be that as it may, Caleb’s most recent video is beautifully produced and benefits from nice lighting and good audio. And his setup looks pretty rad. 

 

[IronFilm]

1 hour ago, jonpais said:

Most livestreams I’ve seen are long and rambling.

Maybe because of the way YouTube pays now, longer it is, the more adverts that get squeezed in!

[PannySVHS]

 

I feel you Jon. What I did, was starting to listen to Scorcese, Linklater and the likes, Edward Murch, Tony Zhous essays and so on. DSLRGuide is a super cool kid, who is one of the current Youtube kids providing really awesome content on a regular basis. I think he is one of the best and fantastic in his own right.

https://www.youtube.com/user/DSLRguide/videos

[Dave Maze]

I love it! Great setup! 

The struggle I am having is the constant battle of production value and execution. I have found that when it comes to camera and tech reviews, you sorta have to have good production quality because the people watching it expect it. But the vloggers and YouTubers who are literally making millions of dollars a month have crap production quality because the vast majority of their viewers couldn't care less. 

 

[jonpais]

2 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Maybe because of the way YouTube pays now, longer it is, the more adverts that get squeezed in!

At least he uses a pop filter. ?

[maxotics]

He did an unsolicited episode on my vlogging mirror for Sony cameras.   Like me, he felt that a feature holding Sony cameras back from the vlogging mainstream is the non fully-articulating LCD screen.  I've sold around 5 vlogging mirrors which I sell below cost.  I believe there are two reasons for the lack of interest.  1.) Many people have fantasies about becoming a successful filmmaker and the latest/shiny/expensive equipment is what gets them dreamy-eyed, not some gadget made in some guy's garage (or hackspace).   2.) The Panasonic cameras have benefits beyond articulating screens; seemingly endless battery life and crisp 4K.   3.) The desire to vlog does NOT EQUAL a desire for camera equipment (quite the opposite probably).  Anyway, I enjoy Caleb's scripted pieces but also find the streaming episodes too slow.

On his studio setup I'd quibble about a couple of things.  First, his mixer combines all the inputs into a 2-channel USB stream.  Perfect for live-streaming, but of limited use for studio stuff because you're not recording separate non-processed feeds for each device.  Also, the setup is fine for a talking head, but isn't as flexible for other things.  He did a review of the Odyssey, where he switched between different cameras--great video!  The device cost $3,000 though.  

There just isn't enough time in the day to do an equipments shows AND go out and shoot short films.  It must be very frustrating for him.  There are only so many pieces you can do about lights, cameras, lenses and doodads before wondering what the heck it has to do with story-telling.      

Here's my current vlogging setup.  Now that I have it working well, technically, there is just the problem of my stiff presentation   Anyway, if you have USB3.0 on your laptop/computer, that Cam Link is nice device.