Our Camera Gear!
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We’ve been making videos on YouTube since 2019, and since then, our channel, video style and our gear has evolved in a big way! If you’re interested to see what sort of gear we use to make our videos, check out the rest of the article where we talk through each piece of equipment that we use to make our videos happen!
Don’t have time to read the full article? Here is all our gear👇🏼
—> Our Main Camera: Sony ZV E-10
—> Our Main Lens: Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8 Sony e-Mount
—> Our Second Lens: Sigma 16mm f/1.4 Sony e-Mount
—> Gimbal: Zhiyun Crane M3 Gimbal
—> Our Newest Camera: DJI Osmo Pocket 3
—> Drone: DJI Mini 2 Drone
—> Action & Water Shots: GoPro Hero 10
—> Microphone: Rode Microphone
—> Camera Clip: Peak Design Camera Clip
1) OUR MAIN CAMERA
—-> Sony ZV-E10
Our trusty vlog camera! We purchased the Sony ZV-E10 back in 2021 and haven’t looked back since. The ZV-E10 is a mirrorless and interchangeable lens camera. It is really light weight, and is designed to be a great vlog camera, with a flip out screen and can record up to 4K. We mainly pair it up with the Tamron 11-20mm (see below) and use this as our primary filming camera.
Some handy features include its Product Showcase setting (e.g. if you want to show something up to the camera it will focus on that object automatically and really quickly), and background defocus (can really add to your videos and makes your pictures look way more professional)!
Our only complaint about this camera is that if you choose to have the internal stabilisation on, it crops in A LOT. There are 2 ways to get around this though! First would be to stabilise in your edit via Catalyst Browse (a software Sony offers). With only a 10% crop in you can get extremely smooth footage. The other option is to pair the camera with a wide angle lens, which brings us to our next piece of equipment.
2) OUR MAIN LENS
—-> Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8 Sony e-Mount
There are a lot of great recommendations for lenses to pair with the Sony ZV-E10, and after a lot of research, we settled on the Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8. Now this isn’t the first lens we purchased to pair with the camera, that was the Sigma 16mm which we’ll get into next. However, after a few trips filming with this lens, we realised it was just too narrow for vlogging - at least as a primary vlog lens. This lead us to picking something a little wider, and the Tamron is perfect for that.
We would argue that this is the BEST wide angle lens for vlogging. Perfect for when we both want to be in the video or selfie photos, we have no complaints about this lens. Paired with the Sony ZV-E10 you can get some really good background blur in videos and photos, and if you have the internal stabilisation setting on in the Sony ZV-E10, the field of view is still relatively wide.
The one downside is that it’s not great in lowlight, however, that’s to be expected - it’s not designed for use in those sorts of settings. Otherwise, we love this lens!
3) OUR SECOND LENS
—-> Sigma 16mm f/1.4 Sony e-Mount
Well, we said that the Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8 lens is the best lens for vlogging, the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 is the BEST lens for talking head shots (on a tripod), as well as for non-selfie filming. This lens is our go-to for photos, especially if we want hardcore foreground or background defocusing. We don’t use it very much for vlogging ourselves, as the field of view isn’t wide enough, but for filming each other it’s great. When we re-watch some of our older videos from when this was our primary lens, we love how it looks. The background defocusing gives it a real professional look, which is part of the reason why this is known as an incredible studio lens.
We absolutely love using foreground defocus on the Sigma 16mm to capture some more unique style shots.
The Sigma 16mm has excellent background defocus which we love utilising both for photos and in our videos.
The only reason we don’t use it more is to avoid swapping lens everyday protect our camera sensor (some of our earlier videos are notorious for having dust on the sensor)!
Plus, if you combine it with our gimbal (see below), it’s like heaven on earth.
4) WHAT WE USE FOR STABILISATION
—-> Zhiyun Crane M3 Gimbal
My favourite piece of equipment, and Stace’s least. Could this break us up?! Hopefully not!
Don’t get us wrong, we think Catalyst Browse is an incredible program - it is a staple in our editing process. However, when you have a couple hours of footage, and it all requires stabilisation, this can talk A LONG time. That’s why we bit the bullet and bought a gimbal a few years back.
Some of the cool shots we’ve taken using our Zhiyun Crane M3 gimbal!
If you want smooth, cinematic footage, this gimbal gives it to you! It’s one of the smallest gimbals going around that can hold an interchangeable lens camera. We use it primarily with the ZV-E10 and Sigma 16mm combo, but its motors function with the Tamron 11-20mm too. We get it, even though it’s small for a gimbal, it’s still rather large in your backpack (this is why Stace hates it), but we (me) would argue that the smoothness it creates (without having to use any internal stabilisation or post-production stabilisation) is worth that little bit of extra weight.
This gimbal also comes with a mini tripod attachment, making it super handy as well for on the fly shots where you want to put the camera down.
5) OUR NEWEST ADDITION
—-> DJI Osmo Pocket 3
Our newest member to the camera kit crew! Welcome little guy! We’re not kidding, this guy is very little! They call it the Osmo Pocket for a reason! This camera is a rule breaker. Nothing this small should be this powerful, but it is. It shoots in 4K, films both in landscape and vertical, and the cherry on top is that the footage is SO SMOOTH, all thanks to the inbuilt gimbal.
The Osmo Pocket 3 is also known for having a feature called Face Tracking. This allows the gimbal to track your face as you move around a space, which is really handy if you’re wanting to film yourself but still have that smooth, tripod type footage.
We primarily bought this for use in more crowded settings, like restaurants, festivals and stores, as well as to have an alternative camera that could film steady b-roll, without taking up too much room in our kit bag. We’re also hoping to use it to get some more shots with both of us in, as we are travelling light at the moment without a regular tripod (the struggle is real). Plus, let’s be real, we gave in to all the hype! We haven’t used this one too much yet but we can’t wait to utilise it to its full potential and take our videos to the next level!
6) TO GET THOSE INCREDIBLE AERIAL SHOTS
—-> DJI Mini 2 Drone
This may be our favourite piece of equipment that we rarely get to use! Drone laws are no joke, and they seem to be getting stricter and stricter, and well, we definitely aren’t the rule breaking type!
We love taking aerial shots with the drone, it really brings a whole extra level to our videos and there is something so unique about capturing a landscape from above. Having a drone provides you with so much opportunity to take different style shots, and make your video more cinematic.
Some of the beautiful drone shots we’ve captured with our DJI Mini 2!
The positive about the DJI Mini 2 is that it is super small, weighing less than 250g, meaning in most places, you do not require a licence to fly. Despite it’s small size, it’s super powerful, shoots in 4K and is super convenient to pack away, especially when you’re travelling light!
We love the drone so much and hope to get more use of it in the future!
An aerial shot taken with our drone at Sarakiniko Beach in Milos, Greece
An aerial shot taken with our drone in Oahu, Hawaii
7) ACTION SHOTS, WATER SHOTS, TIME WARPS & MORE
—-> GoPro Hero 10
Every water-based, action-packed shot you see from us comes from our trusty GoPro Hero 10. Sturdy, waterproof, time lapse and time warp capability, super wide view, this camera can do A LOT. Having all the equipment we have, this guy can sometimes be forgotten about, but it certainly can be used it all kinds of situations, and we should definitely be using it more than we do.
We definitely would not be able to get shots like this without our trusty GoPro! (Oahu, Hawaii)
We purchased the GoPro Hero 10 primarily to have a decent camera to use in water situations, whether it be snorkelling, or just torrential rain, but the more we use it the more we learn about it’s full capabilities, and we now use it a lot for time warps, and action shots. The GoPro Hero 10 is great because it is waterproof in itself, not required an outer casing, making it really convenient. It also has both back and front-facing screens, to ensure you can frame the shot how you like no matter whether you are behind or in front of the camera.
8) CAPTURING OUR AUDIO
—-> Rode Microphone
We love our camera, and while it does have great built-in audio, using an external microphone really enhances the audio, and particularly comes in handy when it’s really windy. When things get windy we ALWAYS have our Rode microphone on with the dead cat attached too. No, no, it’s not actually a dead cat, but that is just the somewhat bizarre name for the fluffy attachment that goes on top of the microphone to stop the wind from interfering with your audio.
This is great entry level microphone, it’s not too expensive, not over the top fancy, and it’s small enough that you can pack it away really easily as well!
9) TO MAKE CARRYING OUR CAMERA A LITTLE EASIER
—-> Peak Design Camera Clip
This isn’t necessarily a piece of camera gear but, this is WITHOUT A DOUBT a MUST HAVE for any content creator out there. Prior to us purchasing this, the camera would always be either on a strap around one of our necks (ouch), or in our hands, but with this, we can finally go hands free! Yes obviously if you want to go hands free you can put your camera away in a backpack, but any content creator will understand how incredibly annoying it is to constantly be putting your camera away and taking it back out again. In reality, it usually means you end up not filming things you otherwise would film to save yourself the effort.
The Peak Design camera clip is awesome. It clips so easily onto your backpack strap and is super sturdy. You then have a small attachment that screws into the bottom of your camera, and then that attachment just slides into the clip. Our camera is lightweight, but it’s still a giant mirrorless camera, WITH a lens AND a microphone, and yet this clip holds it steady in its place. We generally always have a backpack on us to carry our other bits and pieces that we need (like the gimbal I insist on bringing out every day that Stace despises), so this is truly a perfect piece to add to your kit.
PLUS… OUR FAVOURITE EDITING TOOLS
Now all creators know that shooting is only part of the job, most of the work is done in post-production. We use Final Cut Pro as our editing software and really enjoy it, and while all our gear helps us shoot really great footage, in reality our videos would be SO DIFFERENT if not for the music, sound effects, motion graphics, plug-ins and stock footage that we use. For quite a few years now we have gotten ALL of our music from Artlist. I have a list of ‘editing lessons’ I have formed over the lifespan of our channel, one being ‘MUSIC IS MAGIC’. Want a bit of your video to be cheeky/playful? Artlist has a song for that. Need a heavy metal sound track for when *someone* (usually Stace) gets mad? Artlist has a song for that.
If you’re new to content creating, something really important to know is that you can’t just grab any song off the internet, throw it in your video and then upload it to YouTube. You’ll get hit pretty quickly with copyright warnings and strikes by doing that. While there is some copyright-free music on YouTube that’s great, when you’re creating videos regularly, it’s a really inconvenient use of your time to constantly be scouring YouTube for music, checking the rules from the music creator etc. In reality, if you’re creating content regularly you will almost definitely need to utilise a music subscription service, and Artlist is one that we love. It’s a subscription we are passionate about promoting because we truly love using it.
One of the more recent subscription services we have started using is Motion Array. Motion Array has tons of video assets like video templates, stock footage, photos, music and sound effects. Most of the time, if you see a drone shot in our video from a part of the world with strict drone laws, it’s stock footage we’ve gotten from Artlist or Motion Array. 9 times out of 10 we’re able to find the perfect timelapse or aerial view from the destination we’re at, meaning we don’t have to break any of those strict drone laws just to capture the perfect shot!
We hope that article was helpful! If you have any other questions about our gear you can hit us up on our socials which you can find at the top of this article, or in the footer down below! If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to us on YouTube so you don’t miss any of our adventures!
Our Favourite Travel Resources
Flights: We love using Skyscanner to search for the best flight deals!
Accommodation: We primarily book all our accommodation through Booking.com. We find they usually have the best prices, they have a great loyalty program, and have a bunch of places with free cancellation, allowing you to travel really flexibly!
Transport: Our go-to for booking transport in Asia is 12Go, while our Europe go-to was Omio! Both have a wide range of transport options you can book, from flights, to trains and buses, and offer really competitive prices!
Activities: Get Your Guide is our favourite place to search for things to do in each city we visit. They have a wide range of activities and tours, competitive pricing, and a lot of reviews, providing you with some comfort before you book!
Disney & Universal Deals: We love booking our theme park tickets through Attraction Tickets. They always have a bunch of promotional deals running that you can take advantage of, and have some amazing longer-stay ticket deals which provide great value.
