and specifically, the GoPro Hero 7, because this camera

is so good and the stabilization is so amazing.

(upbeat music)

Now, the GoPro is the perfect camera for vlogging

just because the lens is so wide, the camera's small,

and it's just easy to use.

But, there is the limiting factor of the audio,

and there is a solution, GoPro has a solution

where you can tie your audio into the camera,

but you have to this funky box thing,

but I found that there's actually an easy way

to set this up so it's clean,

and everything's tied up nice and neat.

So I'm gonna go through all the gear that you need

to make this setup work.

It's basically the microphone on top,

which gives you good audio,

the camera itself gives you good video,

and then you have to have the stick that holds it

so you can keep it stable and hold it out

and set it down and do all that good stuff,

and then after we go through the gear that you need

for the setup, I am gonna talk about the settings

I use to get the most out of my camera.

I'm down here on El Matador Beach, this place is amazing,

we've just shot all day testing out

some different gimbals, shooting a dancer

and doing some really cool stuff,

and I've been using this little GoPro setup

to get some B roll, to talk to camera once in a while,

and it's much easier to grab and go

rather than just my GH5 with the bigger microphone,

the bigger setup. Sometimes you just want a small camera

to grab, get some cool shots,

I mean that's what vlogging's all about,

is making easy, making it fast

so you can get the shots that you need to tell your story.

All right, so let's talk about the gear

to make this setup work.

First, you just need your GoPro,

that's obviously the most important thing.

I'm using the GoPro Hero 7 because of its stability.

This camera is amazing, and it definitely is changing

the game for this action cameras.

They definitely did something right with this GoPro.

So beyond the GoPro, you need a few key essentials,

and guys, I'll put links to all these

in the description below so you can checkout the products

that I have here, just so you guys can get a sense

of what everything is.

One is your stick.

That's gonna be what you're holding out,

what you set down for a tripod,

right now, mine's on the stick.

So the mini tripod's only about 15 dollars, it's cheap,

it works, it's great, you can set the camera down anywhere.

The next thing that you need is the cage

that goes around the GoPro.

Now mine says GoPro Hero 5 on it, which is kind of weird

but it just is what it is, it must be an older model,

they haven't made one for the 7,

but it's the same exact body frame

so it doesn't really matter.

But the cage is key, because the cage gives you the ability

to attach everything else to the GoPro.

So your GoPro goes in this cage and then on top,

you have a cold shoe mount which allows you

to put on your microphone, and on the bottom,

it has a mount that allows you to put the mini tripod

or your typical GoPro mount on the bottom.

So your cage kind of ties the whole thing together,

and the one specifically that I have here

has a lens cap on it so you can protect your lens

when you're transporting around,

because when you're vlogging, you just kind of throw

your cameras around, I mean, it just happens.

Now, the next thing is the audio attachment,

and it's super important when you're using an external mic.

You have to get the special little attachment

from GoPro, it's got this box on it,

but it allows you to plug in microphones.

The issue with this is now you have this dongle

hanging off your GoPro so I've tied it up

using just some Velcro,

and it's nice and neat on the side of my whole setup.

Now moving up higher, you have your microphone.

The microphone is obviously the key to get good audio.

You need good audio for your vlog.

If you're vlogging just on the GoPro itself,

it ends up falling short.

Okay, so now we're just switched to the audio

that is directly coming from the GoPro itself.

This is an issue because the microphone's just on the camera

so anything that you hear with the tripod

or just touching things, you're gonna hear the sounds,

and it's just not that good of a sound.

I did this for a while, I vlogged just with the GoPro Hero 5

when it first came out, and I didn't use

an external microphone, and the audio's just so bad.

Every time you hit the camera or hit somewhere around

the camera, it's jut awful, it's just a really flat sound,

just not very good, so an external mic is key,

and the one I'm using is the vidmicro.

This one is kind of essential for this setup

because it's so short.

You can still get good audio,

but it's so short that it doesn't hang into the frame,

so it's up here, and it stays out of the way,

it's got a windscreen on it,

so you can cut out all the wind sounds.

It's super windy here on the beach,

and it's still getting decent audio,

but that's kind of essential.

Now the issue is the GoPro is so wide

so that when you put the microphone

just on the cold shoe mount that comes with the cage,

it actually is in the frame of the GoPro,

so I got these little pieces that go into a cold shoe mount,

and essentially, they extend the microphone up higher,

it's just these little camera attachments

to kind of mount things to other things,

but it works well to get the microphone up higher

away from the GoPro, and that's kind of essential,

you need some way to lift your cold shoe mount

up higher because otherwise, your microphone's in the shot.

And this setup is really inexpensive.

Obviously your GoPro is the cost of a GoPro,

it's 400 dollars, I got mine for 300 'cause I did

the camera trade-in, I traded in my 4,

which I never use anymore, so I got 100 dollars off.

The mini tripod is 15 dollars,

the cage for the GoPro is 20 dollars,

the attachment is 50, and the microphone is 55,

and these little metal parts, they're 5 to 10 dollars,

depending on what you get.

So as a whole, your GoPro is, if you trade in your GoPro,

that's 300 dollars, if you put everything else on there,

it's about 150, so you're lookin' at 450 to 550

depending if you do a trade-in or not.

It's not that bad for an awesome vlog setup

that works great.

I mean this camera is perfect for vlogging

because of how smooth it is.

If you haven't seen my video on the smoothness

about the GoPro Hero 7, I'll put a link

in the description, but essentially you don't need

a gimbal anymore, it's insane.

So this is the perfect setup for now doing

these kind of vlogs because you can get

some really awesome footage and it's always super smooth.

Now when it comes to settings,

I'm shooting all mine on 4K.

When you're in 4K, it does the wide,

so it has a little bit of the GoPro bubble to it,

however, if you want to shoot linear mode,

which will look more flat, then you need to shoot

in 2.7K or 1080P, it's just up to you.

Obviously because this camera has the hyper smooth,

I'm using the hyper smooth, which allows you to get

that awesome smooth footage, and then there's one setting

that you have to turn on to make this whole thing work.

In the microphone settings, it's in the audio input,

you go down into your preferences, you can find this,

there's a bunch of settings for audio input,

and you need to use your standard mic+,

which basically boosts the volume by +20 DB,

and that's a huge thing.

Otherwise, your audio's gonna be super low,

and it doesn't sound good, so you boost it,

and that's how you get awesome audio out of the GoPro.

(waves crashing)

I think that the GoPro is an awesome choice

if you're looking for a solid camera for your vlogs.

Now there are a few limitations

that you have to think about.

One is that it's a GoPro, it's wide lens,

you basically have just a wide lens,

you don't have a whole lot of capabilities,

zoom, you can't add other lenses to it,

and that's just the nature of shooting with a GoPro.

Another thing is that you can't see yourself,

there's no screen that flips towards you,

however, I find that's not a big issue.

When you're using a GoPro, you learn to put it

in the correct spot, and you can always get a good shot

always when you're shooting.

So the way that I vlog with a GoPro is basically this

is my vlog setup, and then I have my second camera,

my GH5 which I use with a longer lens and primes

and all that to get my cinematic awesome footage.

So I kind of do a mix.

This is a perfect camera to talk to,

to get some B roll of just what's going on,

but when you need to get those shots that are tighter,

when you need to get more of that cinematic footage,

then definitely having a second camera,

having something with some longer lenses does help out,

but it's also not necessary.

You don't have to have that kind of a camera

to make awesome vlogs, because at the end of the day,

vlogs are mostly about storytelling, it's about you,

it's about what you're doing, it's about creating something

that's entertaining and fun to watch.

So guys, hopefully this was helpful,

in showing you how to use a GoPro to make awesome vlogs.

If you wanna know more about how to vlog

in terms of telling the story and crafting your video

and editing and all that, I'll put a link down below

in the description, it's my full video on how to vlog

which is more of the theory behind it

versus the actual gear.

So guys, I highly suggest checking that out

if you're gonna start a vlog.

Also, I'll put another video in the description

that's all about how you can make money vlogging

'cause I know a lot of you want to find a way

to make an income out of doing the thing that you love

which is creating awesome content,

but guys, that's it.

If you're new here to this channel,

make sure you hit that subscribe button,

there's a lot of awesome filmmaking tutorials,

camera reviews, all that good stuff.

I highly suggest you check out the videos

I put down in the description, all about how to vlog,

and guys, if you have any questions,

make sure you throw them down in the comments section,

I will be checking that very soon,

and guys, I'll see ya on the next one.