Hardware Mentioned
- WALI Extra Tall Desk Mount ($26) - A 31.5" pole to mount everything to
- WALI 3 Tier Monitor Arm ($30)
- NEEWER Adjustable Microphone Suspension Boom ($14)
Videos Mentioned
FAQs
You mentioned smartphones - Why aren't you talking about filming with them? It can be done, but here are the three primary headaches with using a smartphone for your main camera setup today:
- To get live video to your computer, you have to rely on a third-party app, and usually streaming the video over WiFi;
- Native camera apps don't provide a great deal of control over the shooting settings, so you often have to use a third-party app to get the level of control you'll want;
- Connecting an external microphone is difficult, and in some cases impossible.
Should I be worried about clamping a bunch of stuff to the edge of my desk? Definitely consider whether this is feasible for your desk. A variable here is the size of the clamp - If your desktop surface is thin particle board, take care to not put on too much weight, and you probably want a larger surface area to clamp to your desk.
You keep saying I need to make it easy to hit record. How easy? Like, change nothing? 5 seconds? 60 seconds? Right now it takes me about 20 seconds to set up, mainly because I have to run around the desk and turn the camera on, and... even that amount of friction has kept me from recording 😳 Like it or not we are lazy! I'd say 20 seconds ought to be the max.