Medium Format Camera Reviews

Everything you need to vlog, all neatly packaged and ready to go from Canon, Nikon and Sony. Just add a topic, a narrator and a smile. Contrary to popular belief, YouTube does not require the inclusion of cats, dogs or people falling off bicycles.

About once every nanosecond or so, someone in the world is producing a narrated video for friends, relatives or YouTube. Many families are finding that sharing video is the most meaningful and powerful way to stay in touch during the current health crisis. Videos are a dab of permanence during this tumultuous, transient pandemic we are all experiencing, and they help us stay together while apart.

According to their website, more than two billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month.  Every day, people watch over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views.

So maybe it’s time to up your video production game. Here’s a look at turnkey kits from Canon, Nikon and Sony. Other brands, including Fujifilm, GoPro, Olympus and Panasonic, offer great vlog products but do not bundle them into a kit. You can put your own kit together, sure, but buying one that’s been preselected means everything is certain to work together as expected.

And don’t forget that Father’s Day is rapidly approaching (it’s 21-June this year). These cameras make outstanding gifts, and the vlogging accessories expand their usefulness to whole-family enjoyment.

Canon EOS M50
Canon offers a fairly wide selection of vlog kits, but the one that caught our eye is the popular mirrorless Canon EOS M50. It comes complete with a versatile and interchangeable Canon EF-M 15-45mm zoom lens, Rode VideoMic GO microphone and memory card. And the price is hard to beat.

The 24.1-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor and the DIGIC 8 image processor deliver 4K UHD video and great still images. The camera uses Dual Pixel CMOS AF for fast, accurate autofocus and has a vari-angle touchscreen LCD monitor with a flexible tilt range for high-angle and low-angle shooting.

Available at Amazon  $549

Nikon Z50
Nikon has a few different kits, too. We like the Nikon Z50 Creator’s kit which includes Nikon’s mirrorless Z50 camera, an interchangeable 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR image stabilized zoom lens, Rode VideoMicro microphone and a very useful Joby GorillaPod 3K. Capable of producing 4K Ultra HD content, time-lapses and 1080p slow-motion sequences, the 20.9-megapixel Nikon Z50 has a flip-down front-facing LCD and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for simple pairing to a compatible smartphone.

Bonus: included in the Amazon kit is a voucher for a Nikon School Online Class: Creator's Mindset: Creating Video Content with Z 50.

Available at Amazon  $1147

Sony RX100III
Here we have a camera that is truly a delight to own and use, the Sony RX100III is perfect for travel, family shots and—of course—vlogging. More compact than either the Canon or Nikon cameras, note that the 20.1-megapixel Sony RX100 does not have interchangeable lenses. Instead it’s built around a superb f/1.8-2. 8 Carl Zeiss 24-70mm Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens that’s quite useable even in very dim light.

The bundle includes a highly functional remote grip that doubles as a mini tripod, a 64GB memory card and an extra NP-BX1 rechargeable battery.

Available at Amazon  $698

GoPro Kit (without camera)
This kit gives you everything you need except the camera (because so many people already own GoPro Hero 5, 6 or 7 model cameras). It includes a high quality microphone (GoPro adapter required), a table top tripod, phone holder and very bright LED illumination panel.

Available at Amazon  $65

Wait a minute. Can’t I use the camera I already own?
Answer to that question is a solid “maybe.” Check the manufacturer’s website. Fujifilm, for example, just announced software that enables certain models to pull double duty as a webcam. According to Fujifilm’s announcement, “Users will be able to install the software on any PC running Windows 10, and using a USB cable, connect a supported camera, to create a web-conferencing environment with much higher image quality. The enhanced quality of our digital cameras compared to built-in webcams will improve your web conference with help from advanced functions such as the Film Simulation modes, which deliver Fujifilm’s unique color profiles.”

Compatible Fujifilm camera models: GFX100, GFX 50S, GFX 50R, X-H1, X-Pro2, X-Pro3, X-T2, X-T3, X-T4. Download page is linked here.

Conclusion
This assortment is by no means an exhaustive list of available vlogger products, but it does cover a variety of price points. All products are very high quality and suitable for just about any vlogging task.

Let your brand preference—and your checkbook—be your guide. But remember that the vlogs you are creating today may well become treasured family legacies that speak to several future generations of your progeny.

—Jon Sienkiewicz

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