Dear Vlog Camera Review Channels, STOP 🌲
Dear camera review channels. Please stop doing the "vlog test" from the forest.
Stop going into the forest for the "vlog test" after you spend 80% of your review video talking about the camera you're reviewing into your $5000 Sony A7S setup with some big expensive lens.
Also, just stop going into the forest.
Who TF vlogs from a forest? No one.
People who vlog do stuff. As such, we want to see how a potential vlog camera performs in real-life situations:
How does it sound with ambient noise around? You know, like other human beings. Cars, wind noise.
Is the audio good natively on the camera?
Is the camera lightweight, reliable, durable and easy to use?
Does it have a wide angle as people who vlog don't care about having a "cinematic" blurry background. We're vlogging, not making a movie. We need a wide lens to make interesting and engaging videos.
Is the color science good right out of the camera? What does the 4k look like?
How about battery life?
Is the stabilization acceptable? No we're not going to mount a vlog camera on some complicated gimbal or oversized tripod. That defeats the point of having a small light camera.
It's just annoying to have camera review bros who don't vlog, give vlogging advice. It would be like having me, a guy who vlogs with a Sony X3000 review the Sony A7S.
Matti Haapoja
Matti has gotten better at reviewing, but he still has this annoying tendency to talk too much about the camera he is reviewing into his expensive full frame setup instead of showing what the camera he is reviewing is like.
When he does show the camera, it's always a short clip of him skateboarding or something pointless while doing a voice over.
For once, can he make the whole entire video using the camera he's talking about?
Put down the A7S Matti and step away slowly...
If you're reviewing the GoPro, use the GoPro to make the video.
Air Photography
A forest vlogger.
I appreciate him using the camera he's talking about and he does an excellent job at showing what the camera is like, but still, he's in a forest.
No one vlogs from a forest.
Not you.
Not me.
His channel is excellent and quite helpful. Just come out of the forest.
Everyday Dad
Again, the forest.
Come out of the forest and go to a place that has people.
The Everyday Dad is one of my favorite review channels, particularly for laptops, but for vlogging cameras, Gary does not get it.
His vlog camera review videos are all him reading offs of specs and then the "vlogging test" is him wandering around the woods alone for a hot minute.
51 Drones
Finally, stupid and overly complicated.
🚨 Forest vlogger alert 🚨
A drone channel making a review of a vlogging camera.
The point of a vlogging camera is to use something that is small, light, and easy to get the shot. No one who vlogs wants to use a complicated, bulky setup unless you're using using a professional camera and are making a high level video.
Attaching the Osmo Pocket to an iPhone and then using a wireless mic to top it all off makes no sense.
The iPhone is a great camera all by itself, the Osmo Pocket is a great camera all by itself too.
Just use them by themselves.
Not this jumbled mess where you attach a wireless mic and the Osmo Pocket to your iPhone.
Justin Reves
Yet another forest vlogger.
Great, next time I'm wandering around an empty park in Canada by myself in the middle of winter, I know what camera to get.
Justin says the SL2 (Canon 200D) is an excellent vlogging camera.
Except for one thing, the SL2 has NO stabilization.
As someone who had the SL2 and used it to try and make vlogs with, I can say it was one of the worst choices for vlogging.
Justin would know that if he actually vlogged.
But since he doesn't, he just assumes a big camera with a large fluffy microphone, flip out screen and a tripod is the ideal choice for on-the-go vloggers.
Below is my original comment from a few hears ago. Props to Justin for not deleting it.
I'm pretty opinionated on vlogging because as a then newbie I wasted a lot of money buying gear that I ultimately found unhelpful for actually vlogging:
Sidenote - I do regret, saying horrible. I should have said this is bad advice for anyone looking to vlog because that's who the SL2 appeals to, total beginners.
Not film makers and people who already know what they are doing.
The 50mm on a crop sensor lens is equivalent to an 80mm on a full frame. I still stand by this comment, total waste of money.
Vloggers want wide Justin.
80mm is great if I'm trying to take a picture of an airplane in the sky, not really helpful if I'm trying to record myself though.
50mm on a full frame by the way is great for pictures, but were not taking pictures, nor are we using a full frame camera. We are vlogging.
80mm lens equivalent for capturing b-roll is just dumb.
Only YOU can prevent forest vlogging
In short, please stop doing "vlogging tests" from the forest.
A little bit of forest action is fine if that's where you live.
But vloggers, actual vloggers who do stuff; want an easy to use camera with a wide lens, high frame rate, great audio, and can get the shot quickly, all in an easy to use form factor.
That's why the Osmo Action, GoPro and Sony X3000 are such popular choices.
So when making a vlogging test for a camera, do it somewhere other than alone in the woods please.
Edge of David