5 best vlogging cameras in 2022 | Articles | Photo, video, optics

Fam­i­ly trips to dis­tant lands and wild tourism do not lose their appeal. Cam­eras for vlog­ging help cap­ture the main sto­ries and events — with a front dis­play, 4K video and sta­bi­liza­tion. We’ve round­ed up five of the best vlog­ging styles, rang­ing from pock­et-sized and water­proof to sophis­ti­cat­ed and pro­fes­sion­al.

Porta­bil­i­ty and sim­plic­i­ty are impor­tant fea­tures of a vlog­ging cam­era. Pho­to: canon-europe.com

Pana­son­ic Lumix GH6 — per­haps the ref­er­ence cam­era for vlog­ging
Olym­pus OM‑D E‑M5 Mark III — a cam­era with­out weak­ness­es
Fuji­film X‑S10 — light­weight and tech­no­log­i­cal mod­el
GoPro Hero10 Black — cam­era for extreme vlog­ging
DJI Pock­et 2 — pock­et steadicam for “camp­ing” vlog­ging
Results

Panasonic Lumix GH6 — perhaps the reference camera for vlogging

Pana­son­ic’s flag­ship mir­ror­less cam­era is the bench­mark for pro­fes­sion­al vlog­ging. Pho­to: panasonic.com

Pana­son­ic Lumix GH6 is a pre­mi­um mul­ti­lay­er sen­sor cam­era with instant read­out speed. Behind com­plex terms hides the cre­ation of gor­geous videos in for­mats up to 5.8K 30 FPS or 5.7K 60 FPS. Detail­ing thanks to the Live MOS sen­sor is ultra-real­is­tic. Con­tin­u­ous shoot­ing at 75 FPS almost com­plete­ly min­i­mizes the effect of rolling shut­ter (dis­tor­tion that looks like a jel­ly-like pic­ture or over­ex­posed stripes). In ten-bit record­ing mode, the shoot­ing time is not lim­it­ed — you can shoot full-fledged videos in dif­fi­cult con­di­tions, if oper­at­ing tem­per­a­tures remain with­in the nor­mal range.

The Pana­son­ic Lumix GH6 is not pock­et-sized, but thanks to its well-thought-out geom­e­try, it retains the fea­tures of porta­bil­i­ty. The 3‑inch touch screen can be tilt­ed, rotat­ed and flipped. Ergonom­ics thought out: one of the video record­ing but­tons is placed on the front pan­el. There is no phase detec­tion aut­o­fo­cus, but sta­bi­liza­tion is at the high­est lev­el. Shoot­ing in motion will not spoil any­thing. The Pana­son­ic Lumix GH6 is one of the best cam­eras that smooths out shak­ing when the oper­a­tor walks. To record videos in con­di­tions of exces­sive shak­ing, the cam­era can be sup­ple­ment­ed with a three-axis elec­tron­ic steadicam. Smart modes with axes lock will help to make dynam­ic videos in motion cin­e­mat­ic, super-smooth, with the effect of flight.

The mod­el is not for every­one. A good alter­na­tive is the Pana­son­ic Lumix DC-GH5. The cam­era of the pre­vi­ous ver­sion is slight­ly infe­ri­or to the flag­ship in terms of sta­bi­liza­tion, ISO range, and does not shoot in 5.8K. But the GH5 has a larg­er pix­el area (less noise in low light) and a set of fea­tures that is suf­fi­cient for an extra-class non-pro­fes­sion­al at a price of only 125,000 rubles.

Main Fea­tures of Pana­son­ic Lumix GH6:

• type: mir­ror­less;
• sen­sor: Micro Four Thirds;
• 25.2 MP;
• dis­play: three-inch with a vari­able angle of incli­na­tion;
• viewfind­er: elec­tron­ic;
• con­tin­u­ous shoot­ing mode: 14 FPS (mechan­i­cal shut­ter), 75 FPS (elec­tron­ic shut­ter);
• video: 5.8K up to 30 FPS, 5.7K up to 60 FPS.

Rea­sons to buy:

• a gigan­tic set of video options;
• media qual­i­ty of videos;
• excep­tion­al lev­el of sta­bi­liza­tion;
• form fac­tor with a suf­fi­cient lev­el of porta­bil­i­ty.

What is impor­tant to know:

• the cam­era is tech­ni­cal­ly dif­fi­cult (not suit­able for begin­ners);
• price — from 400,000 rubles.

Olympus OM‑D E‑M5 Mark III — a camera without weaknesses

The Olym­pus OM‑D E‑M5 Mark III is a cam­era for shoot­ing any scene 365 days a year. Pho­to: amateurphotographer.co.uk

At 4K 60 FPS, the Olym­pus OM‑D E‑M5 Mark III does­n’t shoot, but out­per­forms the com­pe­ti­tion in phase-detec­tion aut­o­fo­cus. Aut­o­fo­cus on the sen­sor deliv­ers crisp, clear video with sol­id image sta­bi­liza­tion that won’t let you down in dif­fi­cult scenes. The 4K 30 FPS for­mat is suf­fi­cient for 90% of vlog­gers: there is no point in wor­ry­ing about the lack of 60 FPS. In Live Bulb and Live Com­pos­ite modes, night shoot­ing is beau­ti­ful: shots with shut­ter speeds with­out over­ex­po­sure are mag­a­zine-like and bright. Pho­to vlog­ging is no prob­lem, and the Olym­pus OM‑D E‑M5 Mark III can switch.

Reli­able hous­ing is made with dust and mois­ture pro­tec­tion. Bad weath­er will not inter­fere with shoot­ing cre­ative videos. The Olym­pus OM‑D E‑M5 Mark III firmware con­tains addi­tion­al func­tions for pho­tos and videos. “Flat” image mode will adjust the gra­da­tion of col­ors using Black­mag­ic DaVin­ci Resolve soft­ware. But­tons for start­ing video record­ing are eas­i­ly pro­grammed in the menu.

Key fea­tures of the Olym­pus OM‑D E‑M5 Mark III:

• type: mir­ror­less;
• sen­sor: Micro Four Thirds;
• 20.4 MP;
• dis­play: three-inch, rotary, touch;
• max­i­mum video res­o­lu­tion: 4K.

Rea­sons to buy:

• good sta­bi­liza­tion;
• excel­lent phase aut­o­fo­cus.

What is impor­tant to know:

• no head­phone jack;
• there is no option to shoot 4K at 60 FPS.

Fujifilm X‑S10 — lightweight and technological model

Fuji­film X‑S10 feels in the hands and is con­trolled with great com­fort. Pho­to: pocket-lint.com

The Fuji­film X‑S10 builds on the proven com­bi­na­tion of X‑Trans CMOS 4 sen­sor and X‑Processor 4 that was the basis of Fuji­film’s acclaimed X‑T4. In prac­tice, this paves the way for shoot­ing full-fledged 4K video with 30 FPS and good detail. Built-in IBIS image sta­bi­liza­tion con­fi­dent­ly com­pen­sates for shaky hand­held shoot­ing, and the swiv­el screen makes vlog­ging eas­i­er.

Fuji­film X‑S10 is equipped with Full HD record­ing with 10x slow motion effect (you can cre­ate non-triv­ial videos), F‑Log mode for 4:2:2 ten-bit video with gor­geous col­or repro­duc­tion.

Fuji­film’s trade­mark retro design remains a nice bonus, as does the easy-to-grip han­dle. With Fuji­film X‑S10, it’s easy to switch to pho­to mode and take a cou­ple of high-qual­i­ty shots. More infor­ma­tion about the mod­el — in the full review.

Fuji­film X‑S10 Key Fea­tures:

• type: mir­ror­less;
• sen­sor: APS‑C;
• 26.1 MP;
• dis­play: three-inch, rotary, touch;
• viewfind­er: elec­tron­ic;
• max­i­mum video res­o­lu­tion: 4K.

Rea­sons to buy:

• reli­able assem­bly and com­pact for­mat;
• touch screen with adjustable tilt angle;
• inter­nal image sta­bi­liza­tion (IBIS).

What is impor­tant to know:

• non-stan­dard Fuji­film mode dial;
• no weath­er pro­tec­tion.

GoPro Hero10 Black — camera for extreme vlogging

There are many com­pact action cam­eras, but the GoPro cam­era is the bench­mark. Pho­to: dailyhindnews.com

Active, extreme and sports vlog­ging with a clas­sic cam­era is a utopia. We need a com­pact and secure vlog device. The new GoPro 10 Black is an improved ver­sion of the GoPro 9. The sen­sor, screen and body have not changed, but tech­no­log­i­cal­ly the cam­era has made a break­through:

• touch inter­face — fast;
• menu — with excel­lent usabil­i­ty (sim­ple and under­stand­able);
• the new GP2 proces­sor eas­i­ly copes with shoot­ing heavy dynam­ic videos;
• 5K for­mat with 60 FPS brings the detail of the pic­ture to the media lev­el;
• in 4K/120 FPS mode, slow motion footage is crisp and cut scenes are breath­tak­ing.

There are no tech­ni­cal crutch­es in the updat­ed Hyper­Smoth 4.0 sta­bi­liza­tion tech­nol­o­gy — only excep­tion­al smooth­ness of the pic­ture (even when swing­ing and sharp turns). GoPro 10 Black shoots in the moun­tains, while cycling or paraglid­ing.

The cam­era is not afraid of immer­sion in water to a depth of 10 m or 60 m (with a pro­tec­tive aquabox). The most excit­ing episodes are easy to track on the large front dis­play. Under the GoPro 10 Black, a huge num­ber of acces­sories. With reli­able fix­a­tion of the cam­era on the body, hel­met, bicy­cle han­dle­bars, etc. there is no prob­lem.

Main fea­tures of GoPro Hero10 Black:

• type: action cam­era;
• sen­sor: 1/2.3;
• 23.6 MP;
• viewfind­er: no;
• dis­play: 2.27 inch­es, touch;
• con­nec­tion: Wi-Fi, Blue­tooth;
• Max­i­mum video res­o­lu­tion: 5.3K 60 FPS;
• weight: 153 g.

Rea­sons to buy:

• pro­duc­tive proces­sor;
• water resis­tance;
• uni­ver­sal mounts;
• large front screen;
• 4K 120 FPS cre­ative, 5K 60 FPS shoot­ing

What is impor­tant to know:

• the size of the mod­el is larg­er than pre­vi­ous ver­sions of GoPro;
• 5.3K videos take up a lot of space.

DJI Pocket 2 — pocket steadicam for “camping” vlogging

The weight­less DJI Pock­et 2 looks like a secret weapon from a Bond movie. Pho­to: dji.com

DJI Pock­et 2 is a minia­ture gad­get for quick video shoot­ing. The pock­et steadicam spe­cial­izes in record­ing clips in the style of “I walk, I look and I talk.” The device per­fect­ly tracks the face, so videos of this for­mat are cre­at­ed eas­i­ly and nat­u­ral­ly. DJI Pock­et 2 can be hand­held or placed on a tri­pod, any sur­face. There is no need to fol­low the lens: the gad­get will turn itself towards the oper­a­tor to cap­ture it.

The DJI Pock­et 2 has a good sen­sor, but it is not enough for film­ing in twi­light or dark­ness. The device dili­gent­ly fights noise, but is bet­ter suit­ed for work dur­ing day­light hours or with suf­fi­cient arti­fi­cial light­ing. A small draw­back is com­pen­sat­ed by the qual­i­ty of sta­bi­liza­tion. Steadicam pro­vides high smooth­ness of the pic­ture, which is not seen on many clas­sic cam­eras. Four built-in micro­phones gen­er­ate rich, deep sound.

With the option­al Cre­ator Com­bo Kit, DJI Pock­et 2 gets an ultra wide-angle lens, exter­nal audio, and turns into a pow­er­ful pock­et vlog stu­dio.

DJI Pock­et 2 Key Fea­tures:

• type: steadicam;
• sen­sor: 1/1.7;
• 64 MP;
• effec­tive focal length: 20 mm;
• viewfind­er: no;
• max­i­mum res­o­lu­tion: 4K 60 FPS.

Rea­sons to buy:

• excel­lent sta­bi­liza­tion;
• pock­et for­mat;
• high def­i­n­i­tion video;

What is impor­tant to know:

• not ide­al videos in low light con­di­tions;
• The case becomes warm when shoot­ing for a long time in 4K.

Results

There is no uni­ver­sal cam­era for all vlog­gers. The val­ue of a mod­el depends on the type and con­di­tions of shoot­ing, the ulti­mate goal (strat­e­gy of the vlog project), the capa­bil­i­ties and pref­er­ences of the oper­a­tor. Clas­sic cam­eras, action cam­eras or min­i­mal­is­tic steadicams — under­stand­ing comes only with expe­ri­ence.