Do you film your adventures? What equipment & software do you use?

[goldtooth]

editing 4k on a anything is tough without proxies! I admit my laptop is a couple years old now but it's the kind with an extra Nvidia GPU and I still start any project by making 720p proxies for everything and doing timeline playback at 1/4 resolution (from that) to make it all work faster.

Probably people who do this stuff for a living prioritize having legit fast workstations..

I just import and let FCPX create proxies while it loads the file into the event. Takes more time up front like you said but editing then goes much smoother. We may try shooting our next vid in 1080 just to see if there is a real difference on YouTube. I suspect most people won't notice.
nate

 

[Benzino]

Hey there,

I film pretty much everything with my GoPro. It's on an adventure the best camera for me. Small, durable and you can just take it anywhere without being annoyed or annoying others. Very easy to use and to turn around content (I use Premiere Pro for editing, but keep it simple).

You can look at my YouTube channel to see what's possible. For better audio, you can just put a mic on the GoPro or yourself:

 

[axlesandantennas]

I have a side question for those who film: What do you use for audio? Maybe it's my crappy hearing along with my lifelong ham radio sound sensitivity, but I'm having the devil of a time getting good audio. I have a Shure brand mic on the way, but while I'm waiting on that, I'd like to hear from you all.

As for filming, I've just started to. The biggest thing I've discovered is how much time it takes to set everything up. I'm currently using an iPhone 11 and a Canon 5dMk4 with a few lens. For software, I'm trying a few different editing programs and will choose one when I figure out which I like the best.

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

I have a side question for those who film: What do you use for audio? Maybe it's my crappy hearing along with my lifelong ham radio sound sensitivity, but I'm having the devil of a time getting good audio. I have a Shure brand mic on the way, but while I'm waiting on that, I'd like to hear from you all.

As for filming, I've just started to. The biggest thing I've discovered is how much time it takes to set everything up. I'm currently using an iPhone 11 and a Canon 5dMk4 with a few lens. For software, I'm trying a few different editing programs and will choose one when I figure out which I like the best.

Take a look at Tascam handheld recording devices. More so for their amplification and audio limiting abilities. They do accept external mics as well as their own built it mics. They will pass audio directly to the video device as well as recording audio. Nice thing about them if you start video first and then the Tascam device it automatically inserts a tone so that during editing you can sync video and audio.
The DR 05X, 07X and, DR40x are fairly inexpensive. Less than $200

Handheld and Field Recorders | TASCAM - United States

TASCAM has developed a recording equipment and tools for music production for musicians and creators.

tascam.com

 

[Shovel]

Apart from the camera-mounted shotgun mic that I don't use very often I don't have any great audio capture gear but the important part of filming for sound is to get the mic close to the action and mitigate wind if you can.

That means lapel mics for spoken presentations, record them separately and sync during your edit or use a wireless mic with a receiver plugged into your camera.

I've kicked myself a few times when I was too lazy to set up a lapel mic, ended up having to shout down the ambient sounds of a river or traffic, and then couldn't use the footage because "man tries to talk louder than river" is also "man yells at you for 5 minutes".. which nobody wants to watch and if you have to record multiple takes due to personal mistakes or outside factors (airplanes...) it's tough to shout all day long.

Something I learned the hard way is don't mess around with off-brand devices that require drivers, like the cheap USB desktop mic I was relying on. The last 2 videos I edited with in-home voiceovers sounded like the south end of a northbound pachyderm because my "usual" mic suddenly wouldn't play nice with Windows & I had to improvise. I don't think that would have happened with a Shure, Rode or Blue, etc. mic.

 

[axlesandantennas]

Take a look at Tascam handheld recording devices. More so for their amplification and audio limiting abilities. They do accept external mics as well as their own built it mics. They will pass audio directly to the video device as well as recording audio. Nice thing about them if you start video first and then the Tascam device it automatically inserts a tone so that during editing you can sync video and audio.
The DR 05X, 07X and, DR40x are fairly inexpensive. Less than $200

Handheld and Field Recorders | TASCAM - United States

TASCAM has developed a recording equipment and tools for music production for musicians and creators.

tascam.com

Man, I feel dumb. I saw those last week and as soon as I saw the picture, I expected $1000 minimum. I should have done more research. You know what they say about a book and its' cover...

 

[axlesandantennas]

Apart from the camera-mounted shotgun mic that I don't use very often I don't have any great audio capture gear but the important part of filming for sound is to get the mic close to the action and mitigate wind if you can.

That means lapel mics for spoken presentations, record them separately and sync during your edit or use a wireless mic with a receiver plugged into your camera.

I've kicked myself a few times when I was too lazy to set up a lapel mic, ended up having to shout down the ambient sounds of a river or traffic, and then couldn't use the footage because "man tries to talk louder than river" is also "man yells at you for 5 minutes".. which nobody wants to watch and if you have to record multiple takes due to personal mistakes or outside factors (airplanes...) it's tough to shout all day long.

Something I learned the hard way is don't mess around with off-brand devices that require drivers, like the cheap USB desktop mic I was relying on. The last 2 videos I edited with in-home voiceovers sounded like the south end of a northbound pachyderm because my "usual" mic suddenly wouldn't play nice with Windows & I had to improvise. I don't think that would have happened with a Shure, Rode or Blue, etc. mic.

That's good info. I've seen a lot of youtube videos that I had to stop watching because the audio was terrible. Like I said, maybe it's all the time with ham radio mixed with some of my tinnitus, but I cannot stand bad audio.

My iPhone actually records decent audio out to about 5 feet. Beyond that, it starts to sound "tinny" as we would say in ham radio.

I do have the Shure on the way, and I'll probably supplement it with a label mic soon. I'm also looking to soften my office for some of the "how to" videos I started to make. We have hard wood throughout the house and depending on which way I am talking, you can start to hear a little bit of echo or sharpness that takes away from information.