Gear Up Yourself: Selecting Prime Lenses for Successful Vlogging

A Vlogger’s Guide To Camera Lenses

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
Part 3: Crop Factor
Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
Part 5: Aperture
Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Better low-light performance
Better autofocus performance
Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

More expensive
Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Navigating the Gray Area: When Is Buying Views Acceptable?

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Every day, people from all different parts of the world watch more than one billion hours on YouTube while generating billions of views. If you have just created your YouTube channel, it will take loads of time and effort to grow it naturally. But can you grow your YouTube channel by buying views? This blog post will explain if you can buy YouTube likes and why it is vital.

The Importance of YouTube Likes

Increasing the number of likes on Your YouTube channel helps it grow in several ways. These include:

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After creating your YouTube channel, you’ll focus on getting subscribers. But It can take a long period to get subscribers if you’re still new to YouTube. However, if you get more views on your YouTube videos, more people will easily find your channel.

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Getting popular on YouTube takes time: You have to upload high-quality videos regularly and increase engagement on your videos. YouTube likes can help you get popular and make your videos go viral.

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Viewers like watching YouTube videos with many likes. If your YouTube channel is still new, getting more likes can help you build your credibility. In turn, this will help you to grow your channel.

Can I Buy YouTube Likes?

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Does Buying YouTube Likes Help Boost Your Channel?

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Is It Legal to Buy YouTube Likes?

It’s not illegal to buy YouTube views in any form, shape, or way. However, you have to keep in mind that YouTube does not allow using artificial means to increase the number of likes.

Where Can I Buy YouTube Likes

There are lots of places you can buy likes for your YouTube videos. Most of them are safe to use, while some are dodgy bot farms. While buying real YouTube is essential, knowing reputable and reliable sellers is crucial. There are several signs of credibility you should look out for to find the right services. They include:

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If you want to kickstart the growth of your YouTube channel by buying views, here are some reliable sites that will help you get started.

1. Stormviews

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Stormviews has 42/7 customer support, tons of customer testimonials, and you will not have to compromise your YouTube account by providing your password.

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This service provider focuses on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Famoid has worked with more than 200,000 customers and delivered millions of likes and views.

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Fastlikes helps people grow their social media accounts, including YouTube. They have five YouTube likes packages that you can choose from to grow your channel.

8. SidesMedia

This service provider has a range of social media packages and an extensive network of genuine in-house YouTube users that can give you real likes on videos. They have been providing YouTube likes for many years. The site allows you to purchase likes in different packages - and this starts at 250 likes. You’ll get active and high-quality likes that will positively impact your YouTube account.

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Can I Buy YouTube Dislikes?

Yes. You can buy YouTube dislikes online. You need to purchase dislikes because they are part of engagement on YouTube. If your video has both dislikes and likes, its chances of ranking higher increase significantly. Dislikes make your video appear more realistic to viewers.

The Price of Buying YouTube Likes

Lots of companies offer affordable rates for buying YouTube likes. The exact amount you have to pay depends on the number of YouTube likes you want. You can buy 50 YouTube likes for $4 to 6, depending on the service provider you use. The price of 1000 likes is around $100.

Can the Service Provider Take Back their YouTube likes After Selling them to Me?

No. After a service provider has sent out the likes, they don’t have a way to take them back. If you notice your YouTube likes are reducing, they could be fake likes. YouTube does not like fake likes, so they take them away if they find them on your videos. That is why you must only buy likes from reliable service providers.

Conclusion

● People buy YouTube likes because they help build credibility for their videos, generate more likes, and ensure their videos rank higher on YouTube’s search results. You can also use Filmora to improve the quality of your videos, get more views, and grow your channel.

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