If you are getting started with video editing or maybe you’ve been editing for awhile, you may be wondering what is the best camera to use to capture footage. Unless you are a professional – and if you are — you probably aren’t reading this post — you really don’t need to spend a lot of money for an expensive camera for high quality videos! The most powerful camera you probably have is in your pocket or purse — your cellphone.
Many cellphone cameras have options for HD and even 4K recording. Find out about your cellphone and ensure your settings in your camera app are set to what you want. A side note is many cellphones have slow motion options and similar features. BE CAREFUL. Sometimes your cellphone will downgrade the video quality to use these features. If you are recording clips to edit separately into a larger video project, I would recommend not using such features as you record on your phone to ensure maximum quality and apply those effects when editing in your video editing program. You also may need to ensure you have enough storage on your phone for the length of clips you want, but cellphone cameras are awesome and handy so you don’t need to worry about a lot of equipment or carrying around a separate camera.
Another tip for cellphone videos – Recording in the horizontal view versus the vertical is better unless your final footage is intended to be in the vertical view. So, for example, videos on YouTube are horizontal. Capturing and using video footage in the vertical view will mean gaps on either side of the footage or the need to crop and zoom to fit. It is also easier to edit horizontal footage into a vertical look than editing vertical footage to a horizontal look. Bottomline – know the preferred format of your final product and ensure you are capturing video in a way that will maximize your editing options.
You may wonder about your laptop or computer camera. Your cellphone probably captures much better quality footage. If you want to use your laptop or computer to record, I would recommend purchasing a higher quality webcam. There are many inexpensive video cameras on the market that can record up to 4K resolution that are also designed to double as a webcam.
Do some research, but do not feel as though you need to spend a lot of money to create high quality videos.
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