Essential Gear for Video Blogging: Top-Rated Camera Lenses Revealed

A Vlogger’s Guide To Camera Lenses

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Skyrocket Traffic: Key Strategies for YouTube Videos

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For the past several years, video has been the best-performing content across social media channels. In particular, YouTube has become the second most-visited website in the world. New and experienced business owners should consider utilizing YouTube as part of their search engine optimization strategy.

Whether you are an independent business owner or a boutique marketing agency, YouTube SEO tools can undoubtedly be helpful to grow your business.

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

The popularity of YT SEO tools is growing every day. They can help boost your videos in the following ways:

Help You Gain More Traffic

These tools can help you find the right keywords that your target audience is searching for on YouTube. Using these terms in your content will help you to boost the view count of your video.

Help You Analyze Your Channel

You can use the data provided by YouTube SEO tools to grow your channel. Because some tools allow you to view traffic sources and audience demographics, you can refine your content strategy and create videos that will boost the number of subscribers to your channel.

Show How Your Audiences is Responding to Your Content

These tools allow you to find out what your audience likes. Once you know what people want, you can create content on topics that will keep them engaged. That means it also helps you avoid the type of content that people don’t like.

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

YouTube SEO tools can streamline your path and ensure you have a growing and engaged following on YouTube. We have put together a list of the best YT SEO tools that you should try.

1. Google Trends

When it comes to producing well-performing YouTube content, it is all about timing. Utilizing Google Trends is a great way to figure out when to create and deploy content. Narrowing your search by category, time, and geographical region can also create a successful end product.

2. TubeBuddy

SEO experts and novices alike understand the importance of meta description. Metadata helps the search engine more quickly read and categorize the content. Unfortunately, YouTube can make writing metadata challenges. However, TubeBuddy can help you make the most of your videos. You can use this tool to write and publish descriptions, titles, annotations, cards, tags, and more.

3. Google Ads

If you know you’re creating a YouTube video with SEO best practices in mind, you’ll want to optimize both the video and the metadata for a specific keyword. Google Ads is the definitive tool for generating these terms. Plug in a topic to get a raw keyword spreadsheet full of possible terms to select.

4. Awario

YouTube engagement remains the most vital metric when it comes to video production. Awario is a social monitoring tool that can help you analyze how your channel is growing. You can also use the software to collect mentions and set up alerts.

5. YouTube Analytics

You can use YouTube’s analytics tool to get crucial details about your channel; you’ll know where it’s succeeding and where it is not. The tool allows you to find out more about your audience and what content they like. In turn, this will improve your views and keep your audience engaged.

What’s more? This tool allows you to view the watch time on your YouTube videos and the growth of your following.

6. YT SEO Tool Station

YT SEO Tool Station is the resource center for everything related to YouTube. You can find information on the most popular video tools that will help you grow your YouTube channel. These include tools for video descriptions, titles, tags, and keywords.

If you are looking for channel tools, YT SEO Tool Station also got you covered. Here, you’ll find details about tools for channel analytics, finding, counting live subscribers, and much more.

7. Rank Tracker

This freemium keyword research tool allows you to pick keywords from YouTube’s suggestions and check the search volume, expected visits, competition, and much more. Rank Tracker is ideal for finding keywords that can put your YouTube videos in the running for the coveted featured snippet position that will make you appear at the top of search results.

8. Tubics

As one of the popular YT SEO tools, Tubics provides analysis and recommendations to help your videos get more views and rank higher on search engines. This cloud-based tool offers analytics on video performance, channel analysis, keyword monitoring, tag generation, and more.

With this tool, you can find out how your videos and channel are performing. You also know how your audience is responding to the content.

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

Use descriptive Title Tags (Description)

Be sure to use descriptive title tags; this helps YouTube determine what your video is about, and it increases the likelihood of it appearing in search results for related searches.

Place Keywords in Your Video Tags, Description, and Titles

It is imperative to include keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. Essentially, this allows YouTube to know what the content of your videos is about so it can recommend them to an audience interested in similar topics or related searches.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Once you have created great content, you need to share the videos with family and friends to enjoy them! By sharing these videos on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can help to increase their visibility.

Optimize Your Channel

After setting up an account on YouTube, you must optimize the rest of your profile; this includes adding a custom avatar picture, bio description, relevant links to other social media sites like Instagram or Twitter, and links to relevant external sites.

Use Filmora to Make High-quality YouTube Videos

One of the most effective ways to keep people glued to your channel is by giving them high-quality videos. Filmora can help you edit YouTube videos before publishing them on your YouTube channel. The basic editing abilities like rotate, merge, split, trim, or crop are made easy with its simple user interface.

This software has created the ability to present a higher level of editing quality with features that can change or add an immersed effect to your video content. A Text and Titles library allows you to create illustrations for your content without having to find options.

There is also a music library giving you the ability to focus on the emotion or theme you’re attempting to create instead of spending time searching for royalty-free songs and different types of text to create the finished product you want.

You can give your videos an added effect with the inventory of handcrafted filters and overlays. To enhance these effects, you can also add transitions and motion elements.

Filmora is a one-stop shop with additional features like video stabilization and screen recording. Many other programs would require the use of separate software to make those types of adjustments. 3D Lut gives you access to different presets inspired by popular movies helping you reach your desired result.

YT SEO tools can help you optimize your videos to increase views and grow your following. Because people like to watch high-quality videos, you should use Filmora to make impressive videos to keep people coming to your channel.

Try It Free Try It Free

For the past several years, video has been the best-performing content across social media channels. In particular, YouTube has become the second most-visited website in the world. New and experienced business owners should consider utilizing YouTube as part of their search engine optimization strategy.

Whether you are an independent business owner or a boutique marketing agency, YouTube SEO tools can undoubtedly be helpful to grow your business.

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

The popularity of YT SEO tools is growing every day. They can help boost your videos in the following ways:

Help You Gain More Traffic

These tools can help you find the right keywords that your target audience is searching for on YouTube. Using these terms in your content will help you to boost the view count of your video.

Help You Analyze Your Channel

You can use the data provided by YouTube SEO tools to grow your channel. Because some tools allow you to view traffic sources and audience demographics, you can refine your content strategy and create videos that will boost the number of subscribers to your channel.

Show How Your Audiences is Responding to Your Content

These tools allow you to find out what your audience likes. Once you know what people want, you can create content on topics that will keep them engaged. That means it also helps you avoid the type of content that people don’t like.

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

YouTube SEO tools can streamline your path and ensure you have a growing and engaged following on YouTube. We have put together a list of the best YT SEO tools that you should try.

1. Google Trends

When it comes to producing well-performing YouTube content, it is all about timing. Utilizing Google Trends is a great way to figure out when to create and deploy content. Narrowing your search by category, time, and geographical region can also create a successful end product.

2. TubeBuddy

SEO experts and novices alike understand the importance of meta description. Metadata helps the search engine more quickly read and categorize the content. Unfortunately, YouTube can make writing metadata challenges. However, TubeBuddy can help you make the most of your videos. You can use this tool to write and publish descriptions, titles, annotations, cards, tags, and more.

3. Google Ads

If you know you’re creating a YouTube video with SEO best practices in mind, you’ll want to optimize both the video and the metadata for a specific keyword. Google Ads is the definitive tool for generating these terms. Plug in a topic to get a raw keyword spreadsheet full of possible terms to select.

4. Awario

YouTube engagement remains the most vital metric when it comes to video production. Awario is a social monitoring tool that can help you analyze how your channel is growing. You can also use the software to collect mentions and set up alerts.

5. YouTube Analytics

You can use YouTube’s analytics tool to get crucial details about your channel; you’ll know where it’s succeeding and where it is not. The tool allows you to find out more about your audience and what content they like. In turn, this will improve your views and keep your audience engaged.

What’s more? This tool allows you to view the watch time on your YouTube videos and the growth of your following.

6. YT SEO Tool Station

YT SEO Tool Station is the resource center for everything related to YouTube. You can find information on the most popular video tools that will help you grow your YouTube channel. These include tools for video descriptions, titles, tags, and keywords.

If you are looking for channel tools, YT SEO Tool Station also got you covered. Here, you’ll find details about tools for channel analytics, finding, counting live subscribers, and much more.

7. Rank Tracker

This freemium keyword research tool allows you to pick keywords from YouTube’s suggestions and check the search volume, expected visits, competition, and much more. Rank Tracker is ideal for finding keywords that can put your YouTube videos in the running for the coveted featured snippet position that will make you appear at the top of search results.

8. Tubics

As one of the popular YT SEO tools, Tubics provides analysis and recommendations to help your videos get more views and rank higher on search engines. This cloud-based tool offers analytics on video performance, channel analysis, keyword monitoring, tag generation, and more.

With this tool, you can find out how your videos and channel are performing. You also know how your audience is responding to the content.

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

Use descriptive Title Tags (Description)

Be sure to use descriptive title tags; this helps YouTube determine what your video is about, and it increases the likelihood of it appearing in search results for related searches.

Place Keywords in Your Video Tags, Description, and Titles

It is imperative to include keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. Essentially, this allows YouTube to know what the content of your videos is about so it can recommend them to an audience interested in similar topics or related searches.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Once you have created great content, you need to share the videos with family and friends to enjoy them! By sharing these videos on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can help to increase their visibility.

Optimize Your Channel

After setting up an account on YouTube, you must optimize the rest of your profile; this includes adding a custom avatar picture, bio description, relevant links to other social media sites like Instagram or Twitter, and links to relevant external sites.

Use Filmora to Make High-quality YouTube Videos

One of the most effective ways to keep people glued to your channel is by giving them high-quality videos. Filmora can help you edit YouTube videos before publishing them on your YouTube channel. The basic editing abilities like rotate, merge, split, trim, or crop are made easy with its simple user interface.

This software has created the ability to present a higher level of editing quality with features that can change or add an immersed effect to your video content. A Text and Titles library allows you to create illustrations for your content without having to find options.

There is also a music library giving you the ability to focus on the emotion or theme you’re attempting to create instead of spending time searching for royalty-free songs and different types of text to create the finished product you want.

You can give your videos an added effect with the inventory of handcrafted filters and overlays. To enhance these effects, you can also add transitions and motion elements.

Filmora is a one-stop shop with additional features like video stabilization and screen recording. Many other programs would require the use of separate software to make those types of adjustments. 3D Lut gives you access to different presets inspired by popular movies helping you reach your desired result.

YT SEO tools can help you optimize your videos to increase views and grow your following. Because people like to watch high-quality videos, you should use Filmora to make impressive videos to keep people coming to your channel.

Try It Free Try It Free

For the past several years, video has been the best-performing content across social media channels. In particular, YouTube has become the second most-visited website in the world. New and experienced business owners should consider utilizing YouTube as part of their search engine optimization strategy.

Whether you are an independent business owner or a boutique marketing agency, YouTube SEO tools can undoubtedly be helpful to grow your business.

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

The popularity of YT SEO tools is growing every day. They can help boost your videos in the following ways:

Help You Gain More Traffic

These tools can help you find the right keywords that your target audience is searching for on YouTube. Using these terms in your content will help you to boost the view count of your video.

Help You Analyze Your Channel

You can use the data provided by YouTube SEO tools to grow your channel. Because some tools allow you to view traffic sources and audience demographics, you can refine your content strategy and create videos that will boost the number of subscribers to your channel.

Show How Your Audiences is Responding to Your Content

These tools allow you to find out what your audience likes. Once you know what people want, you can create content on topics that will keep them engaged. That means it also helps you avoid the type of content that people don’t like.

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

YouTube SEO tools can streamline your path and ensure you have a growing and engaged following on YouTube. We have put together a list of the best YT SEO tools that you should try.

1. Google Trends

When it comes to producing well-performing YouTube content, it is all about timing. Utilizing Google Trends is a great way to figure out when to create and deploy content. Narrowing your search by category, time, and geographical region can also create a successful end product.

2. TubeBuddy

SEO experts and novices alike understand the importance of meta description. Metadata helps the search engine more quickly read and categorize the content. Unfortunately, YouTube can make writing metadata challenges. However, TubeBuddy can help you make the most of your videos. You can use this tool to write and publish descriptions, titles, annotations, cards, tags, and more.

3. Google Ads

If you know you’re creating a YouTube video with SEO best practices in mind, you’ll want to optimize both the video and the metadata for a specific keyword. Google Ads is the definitive tool for generating these terms. Plug in a topic to get a raw keyword spreadsheet full of possible terms to select.

4. Awario

YouTube engagement remains the most vital metric when it comes to video production. Awario is a social monitoring tool that can help you analyze how your channel is growing. You can also use the software to collect mentions and set up alerts.

5. YouTube Analytics

You can use YouTube’s analytics tool to get crucial details about your channel; you’ll know where it’s succeeding and where it is not. The tool allows you to find out more about your audience and what content they like. In turn, this will improve your views and keep your audience engaged.

What’s more? This tool allows you to view the watch time on your YouTube videos and the growth of your following.

6. YT SEO Tool Station

YT SEO Tool Station is the resource center for everything related to YouTube. You can find information on the most popular video tools that will help you grow your YouTube channel. These include tools for video descriptions, titles, tags, and keywords.

If you are looking for channel tools, YT SEO Tool Station also got you covered. Here, you’ll find details about tools for channel analytics, finding, counting live subscribers, and much more.

7. Rank Tracker

This freemium keyword research tool allows you to pick keywords from YouTube’s suggestions and check the search volume, expected visits, competition, and much more. Rank Tracker is ideal for finding keywords that can put your YouTube videos in the running for the coveted featured snippet position that will make you appear at the top of search results.

8. Tubics

As one of the popular YT SEO tools, Tubics provides analysis and recommendations to help your videos get more views and rank higher on search engines. This cloud-based tool offers analytics on video performance, channel analysis, keyword monitoring, tag generation, and more.

With this tool, you can find out how your videos and channel are performing. You also know how your audience is responding to the content.

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

Use descriptive Title Tags (Description)

Be sure to use descriptive title tags; this helps YouTube determine what your video is about, and it increases the likelihood of it appearing in search results for related searches.

Place Keywords in Your Video Tags, Description, and Titles

It is imperative to include keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. Essentially, this allows YouTube to know what the content of your videos is about so it can recommend them to an audience interested in similar topics or related searches.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Once you have created great content, you need to share the videos with family and friends to enjoy them! By sharing these videos on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can help to increase their visibility.

Optimize Your Channel

After setting up an account on YouTube, you must optimize the rest of your profile; this includes adding a custom avatar picture, bio description, relevant links to other social media sites like Instagram or Twitter, and links to relevant external sites.

Use Filmora to Make High-quality YouTube Videos

One of the most effective ways to keep people glued to your channel is by giving them high-quality videos. Filmora can help you edit YouTube videos before publishing them on your YouTube channel. The basic editing abilities like rotate, merge, split, trim, or crop are made easy with its simple user interface.

This software has created the ability to present a higher level of editing quality with features that can change or add an immersed effect to your video content. A Text and Titles library allows you to create illustrations for your content without having to find options.

There is also a music library giving you the ability to focus on the emotion or theme you’re attempting to create instead of spending time searching for royalty-free songs and different types of text to create the finished product you want.

You can give your videos an added effect with the inventory of handcrafted filters and overlays. To enhance these effects, you can also add transitions and motion elements.

Filmora is a one-stop shop with additional features like video stabilization and screen recording. Many other programs would require the use of separate software to make those types of adjustments. 3D Lut gives you access to different presets inspired by popular movies helping you reach your desired result.

YT SEO tools can help you optimize your videos to increase views and grow your following. Because people like to watch high-quality videos, you should use Filmora to make impressive videos to keep people coming to your channel.

Try It Free Try It Free

For the past several years, video has been the best-performing content across social media channels. In particular, YouTube has become the second most-visited website in the world. New and experienced business owners should consider utilizing YouTube as part of their search engine optimization strategy.

Whether you are an independent business owner or a boutique marketing agency, YouTube SEO tools can undoubtedly be helpful to grow your business.

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

How Will YouTube SEO Tools Help Boost Your Videos?

The popularity of YT SEO tools is growing every day. They can help boost your videos in the following ways:

Help You Gain More Traffic

These tools can help you find the right keywords that your target audience is searching for on YouTube. Using these terms in your content will help you to boost the view count of your video.

Help You Analyze Your Channel

You can use the data provided by YouTube SEO tools to grow your channel. Because some tools allow you to view traffic sources and audience demographics, you can refine your content strategy and create videos that will boost the number of subscribers to your channel.

Show How Your Audiences is Responding to Your Content

These tools allow you to find out what your audience likes. Once you know what people want, you can create content on topics that will keep them engaged. That means it also helps you avoid the type of content that people don’t like.

8 Handpicked YouTube SEO Tools For You

YouTube SEO tools can streamline your path and ensure you have a growing and engaged following on YouTube. We have put together a list of the best YT SEO tools that you should try.

1. Google Trends

When it comes to producing well-performing YouTube content, it is all about timing. Utilizing Google Trends is a great way to figure out when to create and deploy content. Narrowing your search by category, time, and geographical region can also create a successful end product.

2. TubeBuddy

SEO experts and novices alike understand the importance of meta description. Metadata helps the search engine more quickly read and categorize the content. Unfortunately, YouTube can make writing metadata challenges. However, TubeBuddy can help you make the most of your videos. You can use this tool to write and publish descriptions, titles, annotations, cards, tags, and more.

3. Google Ads

If you know you’re creating a YouTube video with SEO best practices in mind, you’ll want to optimize both the video and the metadata for a specific keyword. Google Ads is the definitive tool for generating these terms. Plug in a topic to get a raw keyword spreadsheet full of possible terms to select.

4. Awario

YouTube engagement remains the most vital metric when it comes to video production. Awario is a social monitoring tool that can help you analyze how your channel is growing. You can also use the software to collect mentions and set up alerts.

5. YouTube Analytics

You can use YouTube’s analytics tool to get crucial details about your channel; you’ll know where it’s succeeding and where it is not. The tool allows you to find out more about your audience and what content they like. In turn, this will improve your views and keep your audience engaged.

What’s more? This tool allows you to view the watch time on your YouTube videos and the growth of your following.

6. YT SEO Tool Station

YT SEO Tool Station is the resource center for everything related to YouTube. You can find information on the most popular video tools that will help you grow your YouTube channel. These include tools for video descriptions, titles, tags, and keywords.

If you are looking for channel tools, YT SEO Tool Station also got you covered. Here, you’ll find details about tools for channel analytics, finding, counting live subscribers, and much more.

7. Rank Tracker

This freemium keyword research tool allows you to pick keywords from YouTube’s suggestions and check the search volume, expected visits, competition, and much more. Rank Tracker is ideal for finding keywords that can put your YouTube videos in the running for the coveted featured snippet position that will make you appear at the top of search results.

8. Tubics

As one of the popular YT SEO tools, Tubics provides analysis and recommendations to help your videos get more views and rank higher on search engines. This cloud-based tool offers analytics on video performance, channel analysis, keyword monitoring, tag generation, and more.

With this tool, you can find out how your videos and channel are performing. You also know how your audience is responding to the content.

Bonus Tips: Factors to Consider for YouTube SEO

Use descriptive Title Tags (Description)

Be sure to use descriptive title tags; this helps YouTube determine what your video is about, and it increases the likelihood of it appearing in search results for related searches.

Place Keywords in Your Video Tags, Description, and Titles

It is imperative to include keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. Essentially, this allows YouTube to know what the content of your videos is about so it can recommend them to an audience interested in similar topics or related searches.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Once you have created great content, you need to share the videos with family and friends to enjoy them! By sharing these videos on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can help to increase their visibility.

Optimize Your Channel

After setting up an account on YouTube, you must optimize the rest of your profile; this includes adding a custom avatar picture, bio description, relevant links to other social media sites like Instagram or Twitter, and links to relevant external sites.

Use Filmora to Make High-quality YouTube Videos

One of the most effective ways to keep people glued to your channel is by giving them high-quality videos. Filmora can help you edit YouTube videos before publishing them on your YouTube channel. The basic editing abilities like rotate, merge, split, trim, or crop are made easy with its simple user interface.

This software has created the ability to present a higher level of editing quality with features that can change or add an immersed effect to your video content. A Text and Titles library allows you to create illustrations for your content without having to find options.

There is also a music library giving you the ability to focus on the emotion or theme you’re attempting to create instead of spending time searching for royalty-free songs and different types of text to create the finished product you want.

You can give your videos an added effect with the inventory of handcrafted filters and overlays. To enhance these effects, you can also add transitions and motion elements.

Filmora is a one-stop shop with additional features like video stabilization and screen recording. Many other programs would require the use of separate software to make those types of adjustments. 3D Lut gives you access to different presets inspired by popular movies helping you reach your desired result.

YT SEO tools can help you optimize your videos to increase views and grow your following. Because people like to watch high-quality videos, you should use Filmora to make impressive videos to keep people coming to your channel.

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