Are you a blogger, photographer and vlogger? The big camera question! Do you, or do you not carry two cameras around with you at all times? Are you struggling with choosing which camera you need? I love photography and want to take with me a decent dslr to shoot in raw with a choice of lenses and allow me to take creative photos for my personal enjoyment as well as for my blog. However, I also vlog most of my life for my YouTube channel, and need to carry a camera for that as well. Can we combine them both? What should we do?
I expect there are many bloggers and vloggers with a similar dilemma, so I thought I would share my thoughts as they might be of some help to you. For the last two or three years I’ve been on the lookout for a camera that can cover me for my passion for photography, but also have the convenience for quick and simple vlogging. It has not existed. At the moment my camera set up is this: I have a Panasonic Lumix GM1 for photography. It’s a tiny four thirds camera and I absolutely love it. For vlogging for my YouTube channel, I use the classic Canon G7X. It’s great in low light, limits camera shake brilliantly and has an ideal pop-up screen I can quickly focus with by tapping on my face. However, it’s a right faff carrying two cameras around all the time. It means I always have to carry a shoulder bag big enough to carry them both in, and when my shoulder starts to ache I look a bit of an idiot dangling each from both of my wrists, or they bang against each other from the same one. Not to mention the amount of times I’m out and about and hold up the wrong camera!
The Olympus Pen comes close. Whenever they bring out an updated version, they send it out to all the big content creators who oblige Olympus by making a video/blog post/ Instagram post about it. But do you ever see them use it ever again? No you don’t! I’ve never owned one, so I don’t know exactly why they don’t, but I’ve heard they aren’t good in low light and basically aren’t great for vlogging. Also, they made the massive stupid mistake of putting the pop out screen underneath the camera so it can’t be used at the same time as a tripod! Thus rendering it useless for a youtuber. I often set up my Canon G7X up on a tripod for filming, and even when I’m walking about with it, it’s often on a gorillapod. I find the screen essential to check whether the rubbish in the corner is in the shot and if you’re in focus or not; and I’m pretty good at remembering to look back at the lens when I’m talking to you.
So I gave up on the idea of amalgamating both cameras to one. However, my Canon is quite old now, and sometimes takes a long time to focus, particularly when it’s dark, so I looked into the camera issue again before Christmas. The perfect time of year to look for a new camera! The Fuji x-t100 came onto my radar. It seemed like a genuine possibility. It’s lightweight and small enough to carry around. It’s a reasonable photographic camera, but also good for vlogging with it’s pop-out screen to the side. To be honest, I didn’t really want to lose my beloved Panasonic Lumix GM1, so I really gave it some thought before I made the investment into a new camera system. And there is one vital thing that I can’t believe I didn’t think about before! (I could have saved myself a lot of pointless debating time if I had!) When I’m vlogging, I need my lens as wide as possible most of the time so that viewers can see the context of my video with my surroundings. Also I need to appear further away from the camera than I actually am – particularly as I have stupidly short arms! However, when I’m out and about photographing travelling or having days out, I usually take my Lumix 14-140mm zoom lens (equivalent to 28-280mm) which gives me so much versatility for wide landscape or close-up detail shots. There is just no way I could vlog with this lens. Even at its widest, my face would just be too close to the camera and would end up weirdly distorted. It would also be quite heavy to be holding at arm’s length to point it at myself for any length of time!
So in conclusion, I have decided the downsides to owning two cameras, are still better than the downsides of owning the one. It is a hell of a lot easier to switch cameras when you go from photography to vlogging than attempt to switch expensive lenses in a hurry! At the end of the day I am not willing to sacrifice the quality of my photography for a camera that’s better for video. And therefore, I have finally realised I already have the best solution, and will happily stick to two cameras!
Of course, your situation may be different to mine – perhaps you’re primarily a youtuber and only use photographs to conveniently illustrate your blog posts, in which case, you might be fine with just the Canon G7X, but please let me know in the comments. What is your camera situation, and are you happy with it or looking for something better?
My vlogging camera perfect for YouTube:
My small micro four-thirds camera perfect for blogging photography:
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