Ed wonders if you need a computer to make YouTube videos, as he doesn’t own one

I’m a newbie. When people shoot YouTube videos, do they need a computer or laptop to do so? I don’t have either. Ed

People shoot videos with all kinds of equipment, from simple smartphones to professional movie cameras. Prices range from £50 to more than £40,000. As always, it depends on the job. Some people are taking selfies for Facebook while others are shooting blockbusters for cinemas.

Selfies are usually shot with handheld smartphones and uploaded directly with little or no editing. It takes seconds. Blockbuster movies are usually shot with teams operating specialised cameras on dollies. Shoots are followed by extensive editing that may require rooms full of computers to add CGI (computer-generated imagery). It can take months, if not years.

A lot of amateur YouTube videos are posted by vloggers (video bloggers) and consist mainly of “talking heads”. People can make vlogs with minimal equipment, and a decade or so ago, that was good enough. Since then, quality standards have risen dramatically, along with the potential returns. Today, YouTube channels can generate millions of dollars a year in revenues. People competing at that level are willing and able to spend the money needed to produce professional-looking results.

Quality matters

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Preparation is often the key to a good YouTube video, unless spontaneity is what is required. Photograph: sturti/Getty Images

We love to say that “content is king”, and quality content can transcend technical flaws. With unique footage of terrorist attacks, floods, major fires and other disasters, terrible technical quality implies authenticity. But few of the millions of YouTube posters have unique content, so quality matters.

You don’t have to be Stanley Kubrick. You just need a stable horizontal camera, good lighting, a sharp image and clear sound, in that order.

Vloggers’ attempts to make better quality movies is now driving a large market for add-ons and accessories. These include tripods, gimbals and specialised grips for smartphones; softboxes and LED lighting arrays; boom microphones, lapel mics and separate digital recorders.

Cheap webcams have largely been replaced by standalone digital cameras, especially the mirrorless and DSLR varieties that deliver high quality video.

Vloggers have also needed to develop their editing skills, and buy computers with enough power to do post-production work. Many vloggers used to post what were in effect live shows, unedited except for “topping and tailing”. In other words, they would add an introductory title sequence and some credits – or “calls to action” (subscribe to my channel, go to my blog, follow me on Twitter, sign up for my email list) – at the end. Today, they start with scripts and storyboards, and do retakes to replace sections where they misspoke or made bloopers.

A vlogger with something original to say and enough charisma to break the rules can still get away with waving a smartphone around, but only because it stands out against the new normal. Similarly, the Blair Witch Project worked partly because its technical quality was so different from standard Hollywood production values. But nobody would try to make Gone with the Wind, Gosford Park or Gravity using Blair Witch techniques.

Smartphones for video

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Putting your smartphone on a tripod for steady, level video is the first step towards better footage. Photograph: Hugo Marques/EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

Most smartphones can now shoot video. In fact, some can shoot good-quality 4K video, though 1080p is still good enough for YouTube. Smartphones are very portable and almost always handy, which makes them very useful for travel and “roving reporter” applications. This is why media corporations like the BBC are interested. However, they should still be used on a tripod, whenever possible, or with a gimbal to stabilise movement.

Buy a two-handed Zeadio Smartphone Video Rig, Grip Stabiliser Cellphone Tripod Holder – cheap at £10.99 – or similar and you can attach a microphone, lights etc and get much better results. Unfortunately, you’ve lost the popular idea of pocketable smartphone video and you might as well use a proper camera.

Smartphones also have some disadvantages for “talking heads” vlogging. The main ones are the lower quality of the front-facing selfie lens – which lets you see yourself on the screen – and limited sound quality. The mics built into smartphones are designed to produce good results when close to your mouth, not when you are 3m metres away. The best solution is usually a lapel mic with a long lead that plugs into a phone’s microphone socket or USB-C port. A lapel mic helps keep the audio level constant when subjects move around.

You will also need some sort of grip to hold the phone, or a tripod mount adapter so that you can use it on a tripod. As mentioned above, you might also need softbox lighting or an LED array, because window lighting is very variable. Smartphones become less convenient when you compensate for these problems.

You can use an app such as Filmic Pro to get manual control of your smartphone’s video settings, but Android users should check to see if their phone is supported.

It can be quite hard to edit videos on a smartphone because of their small screens and, in some cases, lack of processor power. Happily, the quality of smartphone video editing apps has been growing along with the increases in power and memory of high-end phones. It’s not ideal, but if you are committed enough, it’s doable.

Laptops for video

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Laptops are frequently used for video editing for portability, but their webcams can often leave something to be desired. Photograph: Louis Supple/The Guardian

Anyone who has used Skype knows that the vast majority of built-in webcams do not produce high quality video. They are also in the wrong place. For vlogging, the camera should be at eyebrow height or slightly higher. No one wants to look up your nose, and a slight downward angle is more flattering.

When I answered a similar question three years ago, I suggested that Logitech’s C920 HD Pro webcam was a good solution. At £54.99, it still is, though there is a new C920s at £84.99. Both devices make it very easy to produce good quality Full HD (1080p) “talking head” videos for YouTube, especially if you put the webcam on a tripod and add lights.

The laptop’s main advantage is that it’s a much better platform for video editing, though that does benefit enormously from having a powerful processor and 8GB or even more memory.

Its obvious drawback is that it’s pretty much limited to “talking head” videos and video conferencing. You’re not going to carry a laptop and webcam around to do selfies, interviews or on-street action videos.

Digital cameras

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Panasonic GH5 is the one you want, but it might be a bit rich for starting out. Photograph: Panasonic

Most YouTube vloggers use digital cameras to capture their videos. The most useful camera features are an articulated screen and a microphone port. The screen should flip around so that you can see that you’re in frame. The mic port lets you use an external microphone, which is important because camera microphones can be even worse than smartphone microphones.

Sadly, very few cameras – and no cheap compacts – have both features. However, many mirrorless cameras and DSLRs have microphone ports, if you can afford one.

The vloggerpro website has a list of the six best options, headed by the Canon EOS M50 (£594.98), which targets vloggers with kits. I agree that “the Panasonic G85 is probably the best choice for most vloggers”, but it’s sold as the DMC-G80MEB-K (£599) in the UK. Of course, the Panasonic GH5 (aka DC-GH5MEB-K) is the one you really want, but it’s £1,481.56 or more. The Canon EOS 700D / Rebel T5i is a good DSLR to look for second hand.

Canon’s G7 X compact camera has also been popular with vloggers, to the point where Canon has added a microphone jack to the latest Mark III version and done a vlogger kit for it.

Otherwise, users will need to record sound separately and add it at the editing stage. This is extra work and means remembering to extemporise a clapperboard for synchronisation purposes. You can pretend to be Cecil B DeMille, but it doesn’t increase spontaneity.

This is the most expensive way to make YouTube videos because you need both a camera (plus the usual tripods, microphones and lights) and a computer for editing. However, both the camera and computer have many other, more general uses, and they do produce the best results for the money.

Have you got a question? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com

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