The misconception of being a videographer is that you need to have the most expensive gears out there in order to shoot a good/professional-looking video. Well, my friend, you are wrong. Having expensive gear may help a videographer to a certain degree to get a professional-looking shot to have a high-quality video. However, if one’s videography skills are not up to standard, expensive videography gears won’t help as well.

So what gears can you use if you do not have or you cannot afford proper videography equipment? Well, not to fear, here is some non-traditional videography equipment that you can use to shoot videos with.

What are the non-traditional videography equipments that you can use?

Smartphone

You read that right. With the advancement of technology, the hardware of smartphones is getting better and better. Will it replace DSLR cameras in the future? Only time will tell. Coming back to the point, a smartphone is enough to shoot videos for your project as long as your smartphone is capable of shooting at least in 720p (HD) with 30fps. Even Though it will be better if you can shoot in 1080p, 720p should be the minimum as it is HD. 

Fun fact, you do not even need to have a flagship smartphone to shoot your videos. A mid-range phone of the current generation of smartphones is more than enough to film your videos. As long as you can utilise your videography skill to the greatest extent, the audience who watches the video will not realise that the video was shot with a smartphone.

Lapel mic

Although in some industries, a boom mic is used, it is not necessary depending on the type of videos that you are shooting. Whether you are a beginner videographer or you are shooting a video as a personal project, there are many budget-friendly lapel microphones or voice recorders that you can find that won’t break the bank. In fact, you do not even need to use a lapel mic or a voice recorder. You can even use your spare smartphone that is lying around, to record your audio if you wish to do so as it is all about utilising the things you have. Want to turn it into a boom mic? Wrap the smartphone to some poll you can find around your house and you will get yourself a DIY boom mic.

Lights

Lighting is essential when it comes to videography as it can set the tone of your video or it can brighten dark parts of the video. Lighting is also important for videography as if the video is too dark, your camera will pick up so ‘noise’ in your footage, which will essentially ruin the flow of the video.

What can you do if you do not have proper studio lights for your videography? One thing you can do is you can purchase cheap portable LED lights that you can get on E-commerce sites. Although the result of the LED lights won’t be as great as your studio lights, it will definitely be better than shooting footage with no lights at all. Another way that you can do it is to use your smartphone lights if you have an extra smartphone lying around in your house. As said, it may not be as good as a studio light, it is better than shooting your footage without a light source.

Editing software

Unfortunately, if you are looking for a free video editing software, your choices are limited as most of the ‘free’ software will put a watermark on your footage or it’s just a free trial. 

Here are some of the best video editing software out there that you can use:

• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Da Vinci Resolve
• Filmora
• Movavi (IOS and Android)
• Capcut (IOS and Android)

It is always best to edit your footage on your pc as not only it is easier for you to edit, there are no restrictions when it comes to video editing in comparison to editing on your phone due to the software limitation.

For a powerful FREE video editing software, I highly recommend you to use Da Vinci Resolve as not only it is as powerful as Adobe Premiere Pro in terms of software and functionality, it is also free.

The next video editing software that is recommended is Filmora. Although you need to pay for the pro version, Filmora offers lots of presets that you can use for your video such as text animation and so forth. All of this is provided so that you do not need to take your time to make the animation from scratch.

Individual skillset matters!

To conclude all of this, this is why you do not need to have the best gears in order to be a videographer. In fact, anyone can be a videographer if they set their mind to it. If you have recently been taking interest in videography and you do not have a DSLR camera and whatsoever to do videography, you can follow the list that is listed in the article to start off your videography journey. From there onwards, you can slowly build your foundation in videography and also build up your skills in videography.

Lastly, it is not about the hardware or software, it is all about the individuals’ skillset. There are videographers and video editors out there who manage to produce a stunning result even by using hardware and software that are not as powerful as the industry standard pieces of equipment.