Escalate Your Channel with a Swift Move Towards YouTube Partner Status

How to Become A YouTube Partner

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Navin explains this issue really clearly.

YouTube announced changes to its Partnership Program for some time. For a long time, anybody who had an account in good standing could monetize their videos and start earning ad revenue, but now you need to have 10,000 views to qualify.

My first thought was that this isn’t fair. Small channels shouldn’t be barred from trying to earn money.

I was prepared to go to war over this. Or do an angry blog post. One of those.

However, when you consider YouTube’s reasons for imposing this milestone, it actually starts to make a lot of sense. Here are 4 reasons why this will be a good thing for creators.

1. 10,000 isn’t a crazy number

This is actually a very do-able number for a smaller channel if the creator works hard at growing their audience. Remember that this is cumulative – you don’t need to get 10,000 views on a single video.

Say you receive about 100 views per video and post once a week. It would take you about 2 years to reach 10,000 at that rate, except that it wouldn’t because if you’re putting out good content on that reliable a schedule your channel will be growing (even if it’s slow).

If you get 500 views per video and post every week, you’ll reach 10,000 in about 5 months.

2. 10,000 views aren’t worth much money

Earning money from ad revenue has always been tough. This is just a little extra weight.

How much money could you earn off of 10,000 views, anyways? Not much.

You need to earn $50 in ad revenue to be paid out, and 10,000 views wouldn’t have gotten you there. You would have had to have passed this milestone anyways to actually see any money.

It’s too hard to put an exact number on the money you could have earned from your first 10,000 views – there are too many variables – but considering that smaller channels get lower-paying ads we’re probably talking about pocket change.

3. Inappropriate content won’t be monetized

YouTube has been having issues with advertisers lately. A lot of brands have been justifiably miffed that their products are appearing next to some violent, threatening, objectively offensive content. Anyone could monetize, and some pretty bad eggs took advantage of that.

Now that channels will be applying for YouTube’s Partnership Program instead of simply activating the feature, there can be a real screening process. Channels with content that violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines can be barred from monetization.

4. Thieves won’t profit

There are people out there who want views, subscribers, and nice comments but who do not want to put any real work into getting them. It isn’t uncommon for someone like this to download a video they like and post it to their own channel.

This reposted video will steal views and ad revenue away from the real post on the creator’s channel.

Having a review process for the Partnership Program will help ensure that these content thieves are caught before they can make any money.

YouTube also recently made it easier to report users for impersonation, regardless of how many views they have.

TheGamingGuy looked into people who had stolen his logo and found out they had also stolen whole videos from other YouTubers.

There are clear benefits to this new milestone, but there are also some questions remaining.

How does this change stop content thieves from taking views and ad revenue from creators?

It will help stop them from making money themselves, but not from siphoning away views from other channels. The impersonation rules only apply if somebody is pretending to be another creator. You can steal and repost someone’s content without pretending to be them.

This new rule does take away money as an incentive for stealing content, but a lot of people doing this probably aren’t in it for the money. They might just be misguided fans who want to repost videos they enjoy.

Could this affect your CPM?

Competition plays a huge role in how much YouTubers earn from ad revenue. Some genres are bigger on YouTube than others and, the more popular your genre is, the more options advertisers have. The more competition there is for higher-paying ads, the larger your channel has to be to get them.

Could this new milestone decrease competition in some genres?

Leave a comment to let me know what you think. Jayaprakash, one of our members here, also started an active forum thread on this issue so make sure to join that discussion too!

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects in Filmora

You can check our tips and tricks about how to get more views, and here is one thing that need to remember that content is the king. To polish your video content, you can use some YouTube video editing software to remove unwanted clips, add texts and titles, apply filters, create attractive channel arts such as banner and thumbnail. Here, I recommend Wondershare Filmora .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Navin explains this issue really clearly.

YouTube announced changes to its Partnership Program for some time. For a long time, anybody who had an account in good standing could monetize their videos and start earning ad revenue, but now you need to have 10,000 views to qualify.

My first thought was that this isn’t fair. Small channels shouldn’t be barred from trying to earn money.

I was prepared to go to war over this. Or do an angry blog post. One of those.

However, when you consider YouTube’s reasons for imposing this milestone, it actually starts to make a lot of sense. Here are 4 reasons why this will be a good thing for creators.

1. 10,000 isn’t a crazy number

This is actually a very do-able number for a smaller channel if the creator works hard at growing their audience. Remember that this is cumulative – you don’t need to get 10,000 views on a single video.

Say you receive about 100 views per video and post once a week. It would take you about 2 years to reach 10,000 at that rate, except that it wouldn’t because if you’re putting out good content on that reliable a schedule your channel will be growing (even if it’s slow).

If you get 500 views per video and post every week, you’ll reach 10,000 in about 5 months.

2. 10,000 views aren’t worth much money

Earning money from ad revenue has always been tough. This is just a little extra weight.

How much money could you earn off of 10,000 views, anyways? Not much.

You need to earn $50 in ad revenue to be paid out, and 10,000 views wouldn’t have gotten you there. You would have had to have passed this milestone anyways to actually see any money.

It’s too hard to put an exact number on the money you could have earned from your first 10,000 views – there are too many variables – but considering that smaller channels get lower-paying ads we’re probably talking about pocket change.

3. Inappropriate content won’t be monetized

YouTube has been having issues with advertisers lately. A lot of brands have been justifiably miffed that their products are appearing next to some violent, threatening, objectively offensive content. Anyone could monetize, and some pretty bad eggs took advantage of that.

Now that channels will be applying for YouTube’s Partnership Program instead of simply activating the feature, there can be a real screening process. Channels with content that violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines can be barred from monetization.

4. Thieves won’t profit

There are people out there who want views, subscribers, and nice comments but who do not want to put any real work into getting them. It isn’t uncommon for someone like this to download a video they like and post it to their own channel.

This reposted video will steal views and ad revenue away from the real post on the creator’s channel.

Having a review process for the Partnership Program will help ensure that these content thieves are caught before they can make any money.

YouTube also recently made it easier to report users for impersonation, regardless of how many views they have.

TheGamingGuy looked into people who had stolen his logo and found out they had also stolen whole videos from other YouTubers.

There are clear benefits to this new milestone, but there are also some questions remaining.

How does this change stop content thieves from taking views and ad revenue from creators?

It will help stop them from making money themselves, but not from siphoning away views from other channels. The impersonation rules only apply if somebody is pretending to be another creator. You can steal and repost someone’s content without pretending to be them.

This new rule does take away money as an incentive for stealing content, but a lot of people doing this probably aren’t in it for the money. They might just be misguided fans who want to repost videos they enjoy.

Could this affect your CPM?

Competition plays a huge role in how much YouTubers earn from ad revenue. Some genres are bigger on YouTube than others and, the more popular your genre is, the more options advertisers have. The more competition there is for higher-paying ads, the larger your channel has to be to get them.

Could this new milestone decrease competition in some genres?

Leave a comment to let me know what you think. Jayaprakash, one of our members here, also started an active forum thread on this issue so make sure to join that discussion too!

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects in Filmora

You can check our tips and tricks about how to get more views, and here is one thing that need to remember that content is the king. To polish your video content, you can use some YouTube video editing software to remove unwanted clips, add texts and titles, apply filters, create attractive channel arts such as banner and thumbnail. Here, I recommend Wondershare Filmora .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Navin explains this issue really clearly.

YouTube announced changes to its Partnership Program for some time. For a long time, anybody who had an account in good standing could monetize their videos and start earning ad revenue, but now you need to have 10,000 views to qualify.

My first thought was that this isn’t fair. Small channels shouldn’t be barred from trying to earn money.

I was prepared to go to war over this. Or do an angry blog post. One of those.

However, when you consider YouTube’s reasons for imposing this milestone, it actually starts to make a lot of sense. Here are 4 reasons why this will be a good thing for creators.

1. 10,000 isn’t a crazy number

This is actually a very do-able number for a smaller channel if the creator works hard at growing their audience. Remember that this is cumulative – you don’t need to get 10,000 views on a single video.

Say you receive about 100 views per video and post once a week. It would take you about 2 years to reach 10,000 at that rate, except that it wouldn’t because if you’re putting out good content on that reliable a schedule your channel will be growing (even if it’s slow).

If you get 500 views per video and post every week, you’ll reach 10,000 in about 5 months.

2. 10,000 views aren’t worth much money

Earning money from ad revenue has always been tough. This is just a little extra weight.

How much money could you earn off of 10,000 views, anyways? Not much.

You need to earn $50 in ad revenue to be paid out, and 10,000 views wouldn’t have gotten you there. You would have had to have passed this milestone anyways to actually see any money.

It’s too hard to put an exact number on the money you could have earned from your first 10,000 views – there are too many variables – but considering that smaller channels get lower-paying ads we’re probably talking about pocket change.

3. Inappropriate content won’t be monetized

YouTube has been having issues with advertisers lately. A lot of brands have been justifiably miffed that their products are appearing next to some violent, threatening, objectively offensive content. Anyone could monetize, and some pretty bad eggs took advantage of that.

Now that channels will be applying for YouTube’s Partnership Program instead of simply activating the feature, there can be a real screening process. Channels with content that violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines can be barred from monetization.

4. Thieves won’t profit

There are people out there who want views, subscribers, and nice comments but who do not want to put any real work into getting them. It isn’t uncommon for someone like this to download a video they like and post it to their own channel.

This reposted video will steal views and ad revenue away from the real post on the creator’s channel.

Having a review process for the Partnership Program will help ensure that these content thieves are caught before they can make any money.

YouTube also recently made it easier to report users for impersonation, regardless of how many views they have.

TheGamingGuy looked into people who had stolen his logo and found out they had also stolen whole videos from other YouTubers.

There are clear benefits to this new milestone, but there are also some questions remaining.

How does this change stop content thieves from taking views and ad revenue from creators?

It will help stop them from making money themselves, but not from siphoning away views from other channels. The impersonation rules only apply if somebody is pretending to be another creator. You can steal and repost someone’s content without pretending to be them.

This new rule does take away money as an incentive for stealing content, but a lot of people doing this probably aren’t in it for the money. They might just be misguided fans who want to repost videos they enjoy.

Could this affect your CPM?

Competition plays a huge role in how much YouTubers earn from ad revenue. Some genres are bigger on YouTube than others and, the more popular your genre is, the more options advertisers have. The more competition there is for higher-paying ads, the larger your channel has to be to get them.

Could this new milestone decrease competition in some genres?

Leave a comment to let me know what you think. Jayaprakash, one of our members here, also started an active forum thread on this issue so make sure to join that discussion too!

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects in Filmora

You can check our tips and tricks about how to get more views, and here is one thing that need to remember that content is the king. To polish your video content, you can use some YouTube video editing software to remove unwanted clips, add texts and titles, apply filters, create attractive channel arts such as banner and thumbnail. Here, I recommend Wondershare Filmora .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Navin explains this issue really clearly.

YouTube announced changes to its Partnership Program for some time. For a long time, anybody who had an account in good standing could monetize their videos and start earning ad revenue, but now you need to have 10,000 views to qualify.

My first thought was that this isn’t fair. Small channels shouldn’t be barred from trying to earn money.

I was prepared to go to war over this. Or do an angry blog post. One of those.

However, when you consider YouTube’s reasons for imposing this milestone, it actually starts to make a lot of sense. Here are 4 reasons why this will be a good thing for creators.

1. 10,000 isn’t a crazy number

This is actually a very do-able number for a smaller channel if the creator works hard at growing their audience. Remember that this is cumulative – you don’t need to get 10,000 views on a single video.

Say you receive about 100 views per video and post once a week. It would take you about 2 years to reach 10,000 at that rate, except that it wouldn’t because if you’re putting out good content on that reliable a schedule your channel will be growing (even if it’s slow).

If you get 500 views per video and post every week, you’ll reach 10,000 in about 5 months.

2. 10,000 views aren’t worth much money

Earning money from ad revenue has always been tough. This is just a little extra weight.

How much money could you earn off of 10,000 views, anyways? Not much.

You need to earn $50 in ad revenue to be paid out, and 10,000 views wouldn’t have gotten you there. You would have had to have passed this milestone anyways to actually see any money.

It’s too hard to put an exact number on the money you could have earned from your first 10,000 views – there are too many variables – but considering that smaller channels get lower-paying ads we’re probably talking about pocket change.

3. Inappropriate content won’t be monetized

YouTube has been having issues with advertisers lately. A lot of brands have been justifiably miffed that their products are appearing next to some violent, threatening, objectively offensive content. Anyone could monetize, and some pretty bad eggs took advantage of that.

Now that channels will be applying for YouTube’s Partnership Program instead of simply activating the feature, there can be a real screening process. Channels with content that violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines can be barred from monetization.

4. Thieves won’t profit

There are people out there who want views, subscribers, and nice comments but who do not want to put any real work into getting them. It isn’t uncommon for someone like this to download a video they like and post it to their own channel.

This reposted video will steal views and ad revenue away from the real post on the creator’s channel.

Having a review process for the Partnership Program will help ensure that these content thieves are caught before they can make any money.

YouTube also recently made it easier to report users for impersonation, regardless of how many views they have.

TheGamingGuy looked into people who had stolen his logo and found out they had also stolen whole videos from other YouTubers.

There are clear benefits to this new milestone, but there are also some questions remaining.

How does this change stop content thieves from taking views and ad revenue from creators?

It will help stop them from making money themselves, but not from siphoning away views from other channels. The impersonation rules only apply if somebody is pretending to be another creator. You can steal and repost someone’s content without pretending to be them.

This new rule does take away money as an incentive for stealing content, but a lot of people doing this probably aren’t in it for the money. They might just be misguided fans who want to repost videos they enjoy.

Could this affect your CPM?

Competition plays a huge role in how much YouTubers earn from ad revenue. Some genres are bigger on YouTube than others and, the more popular your genre is, the more options advertisers have. The more competition there is for higher-paying ads, the larger your channel has to be to get them.

Could this new milestone decrease competition in some genres?

Leave a comment to let me know what you think. Jayaprakash, one of our members here, also started an active forum thread on this issue so make sure to join that discussion too!

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects in Filmora

You can check our tips and tricks about how to get more views, and here is one thing that need to remember that content is the king. To polish your video content, you can use some YouTube video editing software to remove unwanted clips, add texts and titles, apply filters, create attractive channel arts such as banner and thumbnail. Here, I recommend Wondershare Filmora .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Exploring Vlogging: Selecting the Best Cameras & Lenses

A Vlogger’s Guide To Camera Lenses

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

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

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

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

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

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

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

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

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