Enhancing Your YouTube Content with Right Camera Gear

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

OBS and Youtube: A Beginner’s Live Stream Blueprint

Live stream to youtube with OBS step by step guide for beginners

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

• Part1. Stream Now set up
• Part2. Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder
• Part3. Youtube Events set up
• Part4. Video tutorial

1. Stream Now set up

Follow these steps to live stream your impressive videos to YouTube using Stream Now tool:

Step 1: First of all you need to login with your account and then move to Creator Studio option directly.

Step 2: Choose the Video Manager option from top most toolbar.

Step 3: From the drop down menu, simply select Live Streaming option to begin with.

Step 4: Now hot the steam now option on your screen.

Step 5: Change or Upload your thumbnail as per need.

Step 6: It is time to provide an eye catching title to your video, add description and finally choose category from the drop down menu.

Step 7: While using stream option, never forget to click on ‘make archive unlisted when complete’ option so that you can save as well as watch your content on YouTube at later stage.

Step 8: You can monetize your ads as per need.

Step 9: It also provides options to add cards.

Step 10: Now move to encoder setup and then simply copy and paste these details to your streaming software.

Step 11: Now you can set your live chat option as per your requirement.

Step 12: The analysis window will help you to know about how many viewers are connected to your video as well as the message updates will be reflected.

Step 13: Stream health can be monitored directly.

Step 14: One can also use the social media button for live shares.

2.Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder

As soon as you have completed the above set up then next task is to adjust settings of your streaming encoder. It is possible to make easy selection out of wide range of live streaming encoders. The details below are provided with reference to OBS too that is open source type free to access software.

Step 1: First of all you need to visit official website of OBS and get your software tool installed on your system.

Step 2: Now launch OBS on your device and directly go to settings option.

Step 3: It is time to copy the stream key from YouTube and then paste it directly in the specified field of OBS.

Step 4: Users can now add their sources and scenes.

Step 5: Once all these settings are done then you can simply hit the option for start streaming and it will bring your content to YouTube directly.

3. Youtube Events set up

Live stream is little different from Stream Now platform as it allows users to schedule the streams as well as a connectivity to Google Hangouts is provided. These easy to follow steps will assist you to handle all settings for your events using Live Stream tool:

Step 1: Simply click on the schedule event option on screen.

Step 2: It is much easier to make settings for basic information as well as audience type. Make some desired changes to SNS platform. If you select the Quick type then it will directly select your webcam and you need not to make additional complicated settings whereas the custom type option provides easy set up options with OBS.

Step 3: The advance settings option works same as that of stream now features and users can adjust most of these settings as per their streaming needs.

Step 4: Users can turn monetization On or Off as per their preferences.

Step 5: As soon as you finish all above settings then simply click on the create event option.

Step 6: One more window will appear on your screen and here you can make adjustment for preferred bit rate. Also put your dedicated stream key with encoder.

Step 7: When all above steps are completed then you need to hit the option for save changes so that your tool can act accordingly.

Step 8: Now click on events and here you will be able to find your event. Move to live control room if you want to access complete details about this event and you can easily delete it.

Step 9: Users can set privacy terms or simple delete the event that is currently in action.

Video tutorial

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

• Part1. Stream Now set up
• Part2. Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder
• Part3. Youtube Events set up
• Part4. Video tutorial

1. Stream Now set up

Follow these steps to live stream your impressive videos to YouTube using Stream Now tool:

Step 1: First of all you need to login with your account and then move to Creator Studio option directly.

Step 2: Choose the Video Manager option from top most toolbar.

Step 3: From the drop down menu, simply select Live Streaming option to begin with.

Step 4: Now hot the steam now option on your screen.

Step 5: Change or Upload your thumbnail as per need.

Step 6: It is time to provide an eye catching title to your video, add description and finally choose category from the drop down menu.

Step 7: While using stream option, never forget to click on ‘make archive unlisted when complete’ option so that you can save as well as watch your content on YouTube at later stage.

Step 8: You can monetize your ads as per need.

Step 9: It also provides options to add cards.

Step 10: Now move to encoder setup and then simply copy and paste these details to your streaming software.

Step 11: Now you can set your live chat option as per your requirement.

Step 12: The analysis window will help you to know about how many viewers are connected to your video as well as the message updates will be reflected.

Step 13: Stream health can be monitored directly.

Step 14: One can also use the social media button for live shares.

2.Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder

As soon as you have completed the above set up then next task is to adjust settings of your streaming encoder. It is possible to make easy selection out of wide range of live streaming encoders. The details below are provided with reference to OBS too that is open source type free to access software.

Step 1: First of all you need to visit official website of OBS and get your software tool installed on your system.

Step 2: Now launch OBS on your device and directly go to settings option.

Step 3: It is time to copy the stream key from YouTube and then paste it directly in the specified field of OBS.

Step 4: Users can now add their sources and scenes.

Step 5: Once all these settings are done then you can simply hit the option for start streaming and it will bring your content to YouTube directly.

3. Youtube Events set up

Live stream is little different from Stream Now platform as it allows users to schedule the streams as well as a connectivity to Google Hangouts is provided. These easy to follow steps will assist you to handle all settings for your events using Live Stream tool:

Step 1: Simply click on the schedule event option on screen.

Step 2: It is much easier to make settings for basic information as well as audience type. Make some desired changes to SNS platform. If you select the Quick type then it will directly select your webcam and you need not to make additional complicated settings whereas the custom type option provides easy set up options with OBS.

Step 3: The advance settings option works same as that of stream now features and users can adjust most of these settings as per their streaming needs.

Step 4: Users can turn monetization On or Off as per their preferences.

Step 5: As soon as you finish all above settings then simply click on the create event option.

Step 6: One more window will appear on your screen and here you can make adjustment for preferred bit rate. Also put your dedicated stream key with encoder.

Step 7: When all above steps are completed then you need to hit the option for save changes so that your tool can act accordingly.

Step 8: Now click on events and here you will be able to find your event. Move to live control room if you want to access complete details about this event and you can easily delete it.

Step 9: Users can set privacy terms or simple delete the event that is currently in action.

Video tutorial

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

• Part1. Stream Now set up
• Part2. Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder
• Part3. Youtube Events set up
• Part4. Video tutorial

1. Stream Now set up

Follow these steps to live stream your impressive videos to YouTube using Stream Now tool:

Step 1: First of all you need to login with your account and then move to Creator Studio option directly.

Step 2: Choose the Video Manager option from top most toolbar.

Step 3: From the drop down menu, simply select Live Streaming option to begin with.

Step 4: Now hot the steam now option on your screen.

Step 5: Change or Upload your thumbnail as per need.

Step 6: It is time to provide an eye catching title to your video, add description and finally choose category from the drop down menu.

Step 7: While using stream option, never forget to click on ‘make archive unlisted when complete’ option so that you can save as well as watch your content on YouTube at later stage.

Step 8: You can monetize your ads as per need.

Step 9: It also provides options to add cards.

Step 10: Now move to encoder setup and then simply copy and paste these details to your streaming software.

Step 11: Now you can set your live chat option as per your requirement.

Step 12: The analysis window will help you to know about how many viewers are connected to your video as well as the message updates will be reflected.

Step 13: Stream health can be monitored directly.

Step 14: One can also use the social media button for live shares.

2.Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder

As soon as you have completed the above set up then next task is to adjust settings of your streaming encoder. It is possible to make easy selection out of wide range of live streaming encoders. The details below are provided with reference to OBS too that is open source type free to access software.

Step 1: First of all you need to visit official website of OBS and get your software tool installed on your system.

Step 2: Now launch OBS on your device and directly go to settings option.

Step 3: It is time to copy the stream key from YouTube and then paste it directly in the specified field of OBS.

Step 4: Users can now add their sources and scenes.

Step 5: Once all these settings are done then you can simply hit the option for start streaming and it will bring your content to YouTube directly.

3. Youtube Events set up

Live stream is little different from Stream Now platform as it allows users to schedule the streams as well as a connectivity to Google Hangouts is provided. These easy to follow steps will assist you to handle all settings for your events using Live Stream tool:

Step 1: Simply click on the schedule event option on screen.

Step 2: It is much easier to make settings for basic information as well as audience type. Make some desired changes to SNS platform. If you select the Quick type then it will directly select your webcam and you need not to make additional complicated settings whereas the custom type option provides easy set up options with OBS.

Step 3: The advance settings option works same as that of stream now features and users can adjust most of these settings as per their streaming needs.

Step 4: Users can turn monetization On or Off as per their preferences.

Step 5: As soon as you finish all above settings then simply click on the create event option.

Step 6: One more window will appear on your screen and here you can make adjustment for preferred bit rate. Also put your dedicated stream key with encoder.

Step 7: When all above steps are completed then you need to hit the option for save changes so that your tool can act accordingly.

Step 8: Now click on events and here you will be able to find your event. Move to live control room if you want to access complete details about this event and you can easily delete it.

Step 9: Users can set privacy terms or simple delete the event that is currently in action.

Video tutorial

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

• Part1. Stream Now set up
• Part2. Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder
• Part3. Youtube Events set up
• Part4. Video tutorial

1. Stream Now set up

Follow these steps to live stream your impressive videos to YouTube using Stream Now tool:

Step 1: First of all you need to login with your account and then move to Creator Studio option directly.

Step 2: Choose the Video Manager option from top most toolbar.

Step 3: From the drop down menu, simply select Live Streaming option to begin with.

Step 4: Now hot the steam now option on your screen.

Step 5: Change or Upload your thumbnail as per need.

Step 6: It is time to provide an eye catching title to your video, add description and finally choose category from the drop down menu.

Step 7: While using stream option, never forget to click on ‘make archive unlisted when complete’ option so that you can save as well as watch your content on YouTube at later stage.

Step 8: You can monetize your ads as per need.

Step 9: It also provides options to add cards.

Step 10: Now move to encoder setup and then simply copy and paste these details to your streaming software.

Step 11: Now you can set your live chat option as per your requirement.

Step 12: The analysis window will help you to know about how many viewers are connected to your video as well as the message updates will be reflected.

Step 13: Stream health can be monitored directly.

Step 14: One can also use the social media button for live shares.

2.Set up Your Live Streaming Encoder

As soon as you have completed the above set up then next task is to adjust settings of your streaming encoder. It is possible to make easy selection out of wide range of live streaming encoders. The details below are provided with reference to OBS too that is open source type free to access software.

Step 1: First of all you need to visit official website of OBS and get your software tool installed on your system.

Step 2: Now launch OBS on your device and directly go to settings option.

Step 3: It is time to copy the stream key from YouTube and then paste it directly in the specified field of OBS.

Step 4: Users can now add their sources and scenes.

Step 5: Once all these settings are done then you can simply hit the option for start streaming and it will bring your content to YouTube directly.

3. Youtube Events set up

Live stream is little different from Stream Now platform as it allows users to schedule the streams as well as a connectivity to Google Hangouts is provided. These easy to follow steps will assist you to handle all settings for your events using Live Stream tool:

Step 1: Simply click on the schedule event option on screen.

Step 2: It is much easier to make settings for basic information as well as audience type. Make some desired changes to SNS platform. If you select the Quick type then it will directly select your webcam and you need not to make additional complicated settings whereas the custom type option provides easy set up options with OBS.

Step 3: The advance settings option works same as that of stream now features and users can adjust most of these settings as per their streaming needs.

Step 4: Users can turn monetization On or Off as per their preferences.

Step 5: As soon as you finish all above settings then simply click on the create event option.

Step 6: One more window will appear on your screen and here you can make adjustment for preferred bit rate. Also put your dedicated stream key with encoder.

Step 7: When all above steps are completed then you need to hit the option for save changes so that your tool can act accordingly.

Step 8: Now click on events and here you will be able to find your event. Move to live control room if you want to access complete details about this event and you can easily delete it.

Step 9: Users can set privacy terms or simple delete the event that is currently in action.

Video tutorial

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

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