After over a decade of creating movies about tech, my equipment bag’s been shrinking whilst my video resolutions had been mountain climbing. A few of lately’s perfect digicam telephones, just like the iPhone 13 Pro and Google Pixel 6 Pro, are taking pictures crisp 4K pictures. Via comparability, my first vlogging cam – the Canon S90 – capped out at 480p in 2009.
Since then, I have upgraded to a cumbersome Canon EOS 7D for Complete HD video, and now use a nonetheless hefty Canon EOS R6 for 4K, full-frame pictures. There is not any doubt about it – I am residing the interchangeable lens lifestyles, and it will take so much for me to downsize my setup an excessive amount of.
However with the upward thrust of smartphone pictures, compact vlogging equipment have flooded the marketplace. A few of the maximum notable is the MagSafe mounting assortment from photographer-favorite, Second.
Matched with an iPhone (or Pixel 6 or 6 Professional with a Second MagSafe case), there is arguably by no means been a more potent case to ditch my devoted rig and turn to a phone-first setup. In the end, with a MagSafe cage, I will be able to clip on my wi-fi mic, LED gentle and hook all of it as much as a tiny tripod. And that is the reason an increasingly more tempting proposition, in particular if you happen to already personal one of the crucial best camera phones.
What is MagSafe once more?
MagSafe was once presented through Apple to stay wi-fi chargers in position. It is rarely rocket science, consisting of a magnetic ring across the again of iPhone 12 and 13 that latches onto any magnet. That mentioned, it is nonetheless a genius resolution with regards to simplicity and effectiveness.
What is in point of fact thrilling is the best way third-party cellphone accent makers have jumped at the MagSafe teach, and few had been extra ingenious than Second at eking out its vlogging-friendly capability.
Given Second’s pictures heritage, it is little marvel the emblem’s MagSafe equipment is customized to photograph and video lovers, however can it in point of fact revolutionize a vlogging setup?
I have been the use of it for the remaining month with a couple of trusty devices – a cold-shoe Manfrotto LED gentle and a Rode Wi-fi Cross or DJI Mic to peer whether or not telephones have in the end stuck up with a fully-fledged, conventional vlogging combo.
Magnetic second
To in point of fact perceive the ability of Second’s MagSafe equipment, you wish to have to know the broader Second smartphone assortment – in particular lenses and filters.
Second makes circumstances that experience lens fittings on them, and it makes the lenses, too. I have examined out the anamorphic lens in addition to the 58mm telephoto – the latter being best for tripod-vlogging.
Second has upgraded its new line of circumstances, too. They do not simplest take Second lenses, however now upload MagSafe capability to non-MagSafe telephones, just like the Pixel 6 Professional.
This explodes the scope for MagSafe equipment from simply Apple’s ecosystem to Androids. Higher nonetheless, Second’s MagSafe assortment features a sticky ring mount, which provides MagSafe capability to just about the rest with a flat floor.
Solo vlogging
A part of the fight with regards to vlogging is the reality you most likely do not have a movie staff with you when you are chatting to the digicam.
Again within the day, OG vloggers like Sir David Attenborough out within the Serengeti would wish a wi-fi receiver, audio recorder, movie digicam, tripod, lenses and most probably a separate digicam and sound individual to get a tight take. That is far more than maximum vloggers may undergo (or come up with the money for) at the present time. Nonetheless, the good judgment for sporting all that equipment is sound – the objective is excellent audio and video seize.
With this in thoughts, if you wish to get a smartphone vlogging setup off the bottom with Second’s tech and you are a solo vlogger, you’ll pick out up some selection equipment to make a mini model of the Sir Attenborough Serengeti setup.
After all, you’ll shoot vlogging video hand held when you find yourself the use of your smartphone. There is a informal high quality {that a} moderately shaky digicam can upload to a clip, however it may possibly additionally get distracting if overdone.
When vlogging turns into a career, hand shake too can put you in peril of placing out unprofessional-looking pictures. That is why the primary Second accent we would pick out up is considered one of 3 mounts – both a Tripod Mount ($44.99 / round £38 / AUS$65), a Professional Tripod Mount ($59.99 / round £50 / AUS $85), which provides a chilly shoe to the combo, or a Cell Filmmaker Cage ($119.99 / round £95 / AUS $ 170).
All of those equipment will thread onto a tripod of your selection, and the Filmmaker Cage specifically provides lots of versatility with its two bloodless shoe mounts, and 1/4-inch, and three/8-inch attachments.
So along with a microphone and lightweight, you’ll mount exterior garage, an exterior observe if the use of a cellphone just like the Sony Xperia Pro-I with a MagSafe converter, or even a 2nd or 0.33 MagSafe cellphone. Hook up a few Second’s Multi-thread Mounts ($49.99 / round £40 / AUS$70) to articulating fingers and the sky is the restrict.
Second’s magnetic equipment additionally covers extra informal wishes – wall mounts, automotive vent mounts or motorcycle handlebar mounts, and those are nice techniques to make your smartphone lifestyles that bit extra hands-free.
Is smartphone video high quality excellent sufficient?
As glorious as those Second MagSafe equipment are, they simply paintings for vloggers if smartphones seize excellent sufficient pictures within the first position.
In relation to answer, telephones can climb the entire approach as much as 8K lately – so that is not the limitation. Smartphone pictures shot in well-lit scenes, and held in combination great and secure on a tripod, can glance very sharp.
The actual problem with smartphones is dimension – they wish to be skinny, so there is not a lot room between their digicam lenses and sensors. This loss of area makes two issues tricky to succeed in – excellent low-light efficiency, and expensive-looking background blur.
Each Apple and Samsung have made portrait-mode-style video modes (like Apple’s Cinematic Mode above), which artificially blur out the backgrounds when taking pictures video. As spectacular as that is, given the large quantity of computing energy concerned, the effects don’t seem to be best.
I shoot a large number of informal vlog content material in my kitchen, and due to my digicam’s large lens and sensor, the background appears to be like pleasingly blurred, regardless of the reality my kitchen is not the rest fancy.
When attempting the similar set-up with the iPhone’s Cinematic Mode, which attempted to blur out the whole thing on my paintings floor, gadgets would every now and then flicker out and in of concentration, shattering the semblance of DSLR-style filming.
So when taking pictures smartphone pictures, for now a minimum of, traditionalists will most probably need to give those newfangled modes a leave out. As an alternative, do not shoot in a cluttered kitchen like me – make a selection more practical, much less busy backgrounds and use framing that will help you pull concentration.
If you happen to do, you’ll even shoot in flat ‘log’ codecs on some telephones, dialing the in-camera video-processing long ago, and with apps like Filmic Professional, shoot with regulate over handbook settings.
This all way you’ll in point of fact edit up your vlogging pictures to appear nice. No longer fairly to the degrees of the best vlogging cameras, however nonetheless blank, crisp, and balanced – best for attractiveness vlogging, as an example.
MagSafe obstacles
After a month of the use of it, the MagSafe line has earned a spot in my daily lifestyles –and now not simply my filming workflow.
I’ve a magnetic mount through my mattress, the tripod mount lives on a Manfrotto Pixi mini tripod and is used for filming and as a posh cellphone holder, and the multi-thread mount is fastened on an articulating arm.
The road is not affordable, so establish your wishes and make a selection properly quite than purchasing the entire vary if you happen to don’t seem to be positive if the MagSafe lifestyles is for you.
As for court cases, my primary one is that the magnet at the MagSafe cage is not super-strong. In flip, I used to be very paranoid about knocking my expensive iPhone 13 Professional Max off it when taking pictures out and about. Instead of that, the use of the entire line has been a usually sure enjoy.
So am I ditching mirrorless?
As excellent as the use of MagSafe equipment with an iPhone 13 Professional has been, it would possibly not be changing my mirrorless vlogging setup.
I have invested over a decade in increase my lens assortment. Even with the newest iPhone or Pixel, I will be able to’t emulate the high quality clips I will be able to seize on my Canon EOS R6, and I am a sucker for a blurry background, soft-focus shot.
That mentioned, I do have an extra vlogging setup at my disposal due to Second’s MagSafe line and my smartphone.
Best possible for impromptu content material, the MagSafe cage, specifically, matched with a high quality mic and a conveyable gentle must quilt maximum vloggers beginning out, or make for a light-weight possibility when area is at a top rate.
