Let’s face it. We’ve all thought about being famous on YouTube before. We’ve thought about it, and longed for a viral channel that has lots of subscribers and maybe even makes us money! When you really get down to it and decide you’re going to be a YouTuber, the first thing you should think about is what you’re going to need beyond your imagination and a few video ideas.
YouTubers use a wide variety of equipment. Mainly mics, cameras, lighting gear, editing software, and a computer setup that supports the type of content a YouTuber puts out. Vloggers will be more mobile and have cameras with mics on them, YouTubers who stream have sound-treated setups with webcams.
To get an idea of what a YouTuber would use, there are several different lists of equipment and what would most likely be the best for a YouTuber’s toolbox.
Content Based Equipment
A lot of the time, a YouTuber’s arsenal of equipment will be greatly based on what type of content they create. There are dozens of different forms of content and each will have a variety of equipment that they’ll use the most. Such as when a gaming YouTuber is more stationary and sharing both their screen and a video of their face for reactions they would have to have a good web camera and a great mic to pick up their comments. Needless to say, their gasps of horror, surprise, and delight will not go unnoticed, and nor would they want it to.
In contrast, a vlogging or more movement-oriented YouTuber will have a different camera and mic setup and don’t focus quite as much on the lighting since their journey is on the go and the lighting changes with them.
Cameras
The cameras YouTubers use range from their cellphone camera to an expensive motion capturing camera for epic shots. While phone cameras are pretty good for a starting YouTuber, they usually discover what kind of camera that they’ll use for recording and invest in that to help their channel and content grow in quality and views.
Cameras will often come with additional things, such as different types of lenses, tripod stands for scenes where they don’t want moving action, microphones for the camera. There are even specific vlogging cameras!
The best cameras for YouTubers usually come from the brands Sony or Canon. They’re good well rounded cameras that are well worth the investment of spending the money on. With the lenses and tripods, the lenses should be compatible with the brand of recording camera the YouTuber uses in their process. Tripods on the other hand, so long as it connects, it can make a cooking YouTuber’s job a lot easier, rather than having someone film or hold a phone, they can set it up and call it good for filming.
Lighting Setups
Lighting setups are incredibly versatile and are usually also dependent on what kind of content a YouTuber is making. They’ll mostly go for things such as umbrellas or even ring lights. A lot of beauty YouTubers have a ring light as part of their tool kit and have a signature move to help the camera focus on the item they’re sharing about.
You’ve also got natural lighting and a lot of it will be messed with later on during the editing process of creating a video.
A ring light is pretty popular and has its own TikTok challenge for thirst traps, and this isn’t usually a YouTuber thing, but it is best known about from those challenges. It’s quite literally a ring bulb that emits light and may or may not have a few different settings.
Mics
Mics are another thing that are content-based for YouTubers. They are either going to be stationary and connected to a computer or they are going to be on the end of a camera or even clipped on to the people the camera is following.
There are many different mics that are used in a YouTubers equipment. Gamers often use their headsets or have a set-aside table mic that picks up their voice as they’re recording or live streaming. They also have their computers built-in mic to consider and use. All of this for one type of YouTuber can feel like overkill, but that’s not even half of it.
There is a lot to know about mics, including which ones work best for the sound a YouTuber creates. Ones that minimize background noise, while others actually capture as much sound as possible. ASMR YouTubers usually have a high-end mic for their channels.
Editing Software
Editing software is crucial for a YouTuber. This gives them chance to go through all the footage that they gather and edit out the bits that viewers won’t find engaging.
But a lot of the best editing softwares out there require a subscription, and some YouTubers skip the editing software. They substitute it by editing their videos with whatever video editing software their computers come with. One that is most widely used and most recommended is Adobe’s Premiere Pro. It’s built to give users access to each part of the video and the ability to change and modify it as needed.
Computers
The computer they choose has to be able to support the quality editing software that they need to produce good content. A lot of the time, Apple laptops have a nice user interface, but it will be some good money put into finding one that can do well with a quality editing software with the gigabytes and RAM data.
Gamer YouTubers will usually have a gaming PC that supports the games they use, as well as the screen recording devices they have, and so on.
When getting a computer to do YouTubing and YouTuber softwares, they usually make sure they have an alternative way to store their video and audio files so as to not flood the computer. Most of the time, the laptop won’t be used solely for a YouTube channel and its subsequent maintenance, so finding one with a good memory, RAM, and storage space is essential for a YouTuber.
