We all work in eLearning, and unless you work for a largecorporation … or an enlightened one … video productionis not important to many managers. But videoitself is ubiquitous and a factof life in eLearning. And that means your budget for equipment andproduction is important. What can you get within your video budget?

But what if you just hit the jackpot? Your manager wants youto put a little video rig together to make eLearning video! You’ve been given abudget to buy equipment. It’s probably between $1,000 and $2,000.

Is $1,000 enough? Is a smart phone enough?

Most times I hear a number closer to $1,000. I used to believegood video equipment for eLearning could be had for $1,000. While you canpurchase and make a darn good studio for $1,000, and it can be more thanmarginally adequate, is it what you need? Does equipment at the $1,000 levelhave the capability to make beautiful video? Unequivocally Yes!

Smart phones are getting smarter and more capable all thetime, and they are now at a level we could only imagine a few short years ago,even at $1,000. If your budget is $1,000 or less, I’m going to make a verystrong suggestion that you consider using your smart phone as your camera. However,that’s not where I’m going with this article. That’s a topic in and of itself,for another time. For now, the key word is “flexibility.”

Flexibility is the key to match equipment tobudget

Good as they have become, smart phones may not give you alot of flexibility and room to grow as a video creator. If you’re going to makereal video, flexibility isn’t just a good thing, it’s a necessary thing. Flexibilitymeans the ability to record great video under different conditions, to havemore than one microphone, or enough lights for four or five people or for alarger space. Great eLearning video is like any other kind of video. If youwant to make great video, you’d better have equipment with enough flexibilityto let your creativity soar. So, equipment type by equipment type, what kind offlexibility can you get for a budget of $2,000 or less?

Cameras and lenses

The obvious place to start investing your budget is thecamera. It’s the most expensive part of your video set-up … about 60 percent ofyour budget. If your camera costs $1,200, that would leave $800 for the rest ofyour gear. Where do you start?

Dedicated video camera or still/video camera?

First, you need decide if you want a dedicated video cameraor a still camera that doubles as a video camera. A still/video camera wouldlook like a point-and-shoot or a mirrorless camera or a DSLR (digital singlelens reflex). If you get one of the last two, remember they will require aseparate lens. It can be confusing.

4K recording?

I highly doubt it you’ll need a camera with 4K recording.It’s the latest tech in consumer video recording. Do you need it for eLearningvideo? No! Your IT department will probably put their foot down, especially ifyou try to stream 4K to your learners. 4K video is not only bandwidth intensivewhen playing back, it’s a resource hog when you’re editing. And, when you takea 4K video file and place it into Storyline or Captivate, it gets scruncheddown to 640 X 480 and all those beautiful pixels you’ve worked so hard to make perfectwill be lost.

Sensor size

Sensor size is another factor when selecting your camera. ExpensiveDSLRs have full-frame sensors. Full frame is about the same size as an old 35mmframe. There are also lots of less expensive DSLR cameras that have what’scalled an FX sensor, about the same size as an old Kodak Instamatic image (rememberthem?). Do you need a large sensor that has 30-40 megabytes or more pixels?Consider this; HD video is 1920 X 1080 pixels. That equals 2,073,000 pixels …just over two megapixels. 4K video is four times the size of HD, so about 8.1megapixels. When you’re using a sensor with 20 megapixels, all the left-overpixels from 8MP to 20MP (or more) are lost! A larger sensor allows someselective focus and a few other nice things but that’s just icing on the cake forvideo production.

Still capabilities still count: The Micro Four-Thirds (MFT orM4/3) system

That said, if you shoot a lot of stills for your training,and some organizations do, you need to look at the still capabilities of thecamera as well as the video. It can get complex. There are also mirrorlesscameras that are functionally close to what a DSLR can do. Some of thesecameras use specialized lens mounts, but most of them use a “micro four-thirds”(MFT) mount, which is a universal mount for M4/3 systems.

In the dedicated video camera realm, there’s a ton to choosefrom, but there are only a couple of video cameras that use MFT lenses. Myfavorite is the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera. It costs ~$1,200 andyou need a lens. The images from this camera can be amazing. Most dedicatedvideo cameras under $1,200 come with one lens that you can’t change. It will bea zoom lens and may or may not have good optical quality. Expensive lenses areusually single focal length. That’s not a bad thing, but if you’re notexperienced, you’ll need to learn what different focal lengths do. If you’vealready got an investment in lenses and you’re a Canon or Nikon user, you mayas well stay where you are.

The Micro 4/3 (MFT) lens mounts are mostly universal in mirrorlesscameras. Mirrorless cameras look like point and shoot cameras but have muchmore capability. Mirrorless cameras can be affordable. More importantly, thereare a vast number of lenses that can work on these cameras. You can also get anadapter that mates your Nikon, Canon, or whatever lenses to Micro 4/3 lensmounts. If you’re only going to shoot talking heads, you don’t need a telephotolens. If you’re going to have to shoot from long distances, you need atelephoto lens. Many lenses today are also macro, which means you can get very closeto the subject. Think before you buy and buy what you can afford and what willwork in your situation.

Support

Support is the tripod and pan (panorama) head (the part thattilts and swivels) that you need to shoot good video. I can shoot a good hand-heldshot that is steady, but I’ve been holding cameras for over 40 years. When Ishot news, it was almost always handheld unless it was an interview and eventhen it might be handheld.

What does good camera support look like? It depends on yourcamera. A big camera, because of its weight, needs heftier support than myBlackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera. The Blackmagic camera is small enoughthat I can use my regular DSLR tripod. Make sure your tripod has enoughcapacity (in pounds or kilograms) to hold about twice the weight of your cameraand lens combination. I’m kind of keen these days on carbon fiber tripods onlybecause they are very solid.

The part you attach your camera to is called the pan head.It is frequently sold separately from the tripod itself, but not always. Youwant a fluid head. Fluid heads can be very expensive. You can get a good fluidhead and tripod for less than $200 if you shop. Look at Benro, Slik, or Manfrotto;many others make good tripods and video pan heads too.

Lights

The lighting landscape is getting complex. There are fourmajor types of lights. Incandescent, tungsten-halogen, florescent, and LED.Which is best? If any one of the kinds of bulbs was best, you’d see all theother types of bulbs quickly disappear. All the different types of lights haveplusses and minuses. For keeping costs and complications low, I’d find some LEDarrays (each of these is just a bunch of little LEDs in a housing). They have amajor advantage. You can power them with batteries which means no power cordssnaking around your area. You can find some good arrays for around $100, so threeof them would keep you in your budget. You could also look for a kit withstands included.

Sound

No camera records good audio, and that includes your smartphone. Audio is a big part of what you do. You’ll need some sort of recordingdevice or microphone you can plug into your camera. My choice for our kind ofwork is to use a recorder like a Zoom or a decent microphone, or both, torecord. These little recorders are capable of recording excellent sound. Thereis the second step of syncing the sound, but that’s easily done with a clap ofthe hands when you start recording. Yes, you do have two files (the video fromthe camera, the audio from the recorder) to import into your editing program,but that’s truly not a big deal or a time-consuming thing to do.

Miscellaneous stuff

Your video set-up won’t be complete until you round it out withreflectors, clamps, and batteries. Lots of batteries. You can’t have enough batteries.You also can’t have enough tape. Gaffers tape. Duct tape. Masking tape. Youneed tape to hold things down (or together) and you’ll use it. And you’ll behappy you have it. You might use tape to cover those cables snaking on the floor,so nobody trips over them. Personally, I’m an expert at tripping over cables.

Great video is more about the story than about anything else

Remember, there is no “best” in video. The thought processthat goes into creating great eLearning video, no matter what the length, isthe same as the thought process that goes into creating great Hollywood movies.You can take great video with your phone. It can be as good as video recordedwith a $25,000 camera. We’re not making big video and, in all probability,you’re a department of one. Video is an essential part of eLearning. Littlemicro-learning videos sprinkled throughout our lessons can make a difference,especially if they’re good.

As you learn how to shoot better video, you’ll find it’sabout thestory and the quality of thought thatgoes into making it up. The point is less about the equipment you can get with this year’s video budget,than about the video you actually go out and make with that equipment.