My Gear
Cam, Mic and Lighting
I often get asked what camera and microphone I use for my Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet video calls.
I spent about 1,000 hours researching cameras, microphones, lighting and sound proofing on Youtube (subscribed to over 253 channels!)
Below is the full 150+ item gear list that I used if you want to replicate something like this (and don't want to spend 1,000 hours researching it).
I bought almost all this stuff on Amazon. Purchases made through these affiliate links earn a commission, helping to support my channel at no additional cost to you.
Also, feel free to check out the 67 minute walkthrough Youtube video where I show you all the gear I used and how I put the studio together. Hopefully this will be helpful to you and save you some time if you want to up-level your setup.
📷 Camera & Lenses
Primary camera
Secondary camera
14mm lens
24mm lens
35mm lens
50mm lens
85mm lens
24-70mm lens
70-200mm lens
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These are the workhorses of the setup. The primary video camera behind the prompter is an FX3, which also powers four other angles. The other four views are powered by the A7SIII camera. I love both, and they are perfectly suited for their jobs.
For my Zoom calls, I use the 85mm lens, which sits behind the prompter and provides a nice tight shot of my face. For my YouTube videos, I use the 35mm lens, which offers a wider view of the studio. If you are unsure about your space, get an adjustable 24-70mm lens.
🎥 Camera Tripods, Sliders & Heads
Tripod:
Sandbag:
Gimbal:
Slider:
Monopod:
Tripod head (for slider)
Tripod head (elsewhere)
One really cool addition was the slider. It basically slides your camera back and forth during a shot showing you a cool moving view while keeping your face centered in the shot. If you use one of these, you will need a tripod and a sandbag to help keep everything stable.
I've also listed some of the other monopod and tripod heads I used throughout the studio.
🔧 Camera Mounts & Accessories
32" camera support arm
11" camera support arm
9.5" camera support arm
Camera clamp mount
Camera clamp mount 2
Camera screws 1/4 & 3/8"
Camera hot shoe mount
Camera cage
Memory card CF Express A
Memory card UHS-I
The camera support arms are good for getting the cameras in the exact position you want. The clamp mounts work really well when attaching to the support poles, allowing you to place your cameras in many more positions.
The camera cage goes over the camera and allows you to have more places to mount it. For instance I have a camera in the green screen room that is suspended by a Varipole close to the ceiling. The cage allowed me to attach the camera from the top.
🔌 HDMI Cables
HDMI fiber optic cable 100'
HDMI fiber optic cable 75'
HDMI fiber optic cable 50'
HDMI fiber optic cable 33'
HDMI fiber optic cable 10'
If you can, get the fiber optic hdmi cables. They are a little more expensive but are much less bulky than the standard versions. Just be careful when installing them. One side goes to the camera and the other side goes to the monitor (I learned this the hard way).
🎙️ Microphone, Mixer & Sound Accessories
Youtube studio mic
Greenscreen mic
Zoom/Teams/Gmeet mic
Audio interface
Noise assist plugin
Earbud for Zoom
Headphone for vid editing
Wireless lav mic
Microphone boom arm
One thing you will hear time and time again when researching this is people will deal with bad video quality but they will not tolerate bad audio quality.
These mics are some of the best you can get and produce crystal clear audio. I use a different mic depending on the application.
The audio interface helps power those mics and you can adjust your gain levels there. I use the earbud for the speaker on my Zoom calls as it is discrete.
🔊 Audio Cables
75' XLR microphone cable
25' XLR microphone cable
10' XLR microphone cable
6' XLR microphone cable
3' 3.5mm cable
With the audio cables the big thing is the SHIELDING. Cheaper cables don't have good shielding and you are more likely to get interference and static when these get near or cross electrical cables. The Mogami cables are more expensive but are considered the best in the business and have excellent shielding.
🎛️ Acoustic Treatments
Acoustic panels for walls
Acoustic foam panels for ceiling
Adhesive strips for ceiling
Tape for ceiling panels
Alcohol Prep Pads
Sound blankets
Curtain rings
Thick rug
Felt pad under rug
Mass loaded vinyl for under rug
Cork pad for desk
Acoustically treating your room is one of the best things you can do for audio quality. I used several layers here to reduce the reverb or echoes that come from non sound treated rooms. Acoustic panels are one of the best things I put in as they work amazing. Also a good thick rug or carpet helps a lot. I put in mass loaded vinyl under the rug as that helped block out noise coming from underneath. Sound blankets hung on the Varipoles also absorb a lot of sound.
💡 Lighting: Lights
Key & fill light
Rim light
Green screen light
Accent light
Conical snoot light
Led pulsating light, 4'
Led pulsating light, 2'
Led pulsating light, 1'
Smart light bulb
Under cabinet LED
Table lamp
Using a simple 3 point lighting setup really helped me out. The idea here is you have a key light (to your front left), a fill light (to your front right) and a rim light (behind you).
As I built out studio and green screen room I also added additional lighting. The cool "window effect" you will see on my videos comes from the conical snoot powered by a big 600 watt light. The led pulsating lights are Infinibars.
Note, one of the best part of the lighting setup is I control them all with a single button (via a Kasa smart plug). Aputure lights are KEY here as they support a studio mode which remembers the state they were in when you turn them off. Definitely recommend those!
💡 Lighting: Softboxes, Barn Doors, Diffusers & Accessories:
35" Softbox
23" Softbox
Conical optical snoot
Barn doors
Diffuser with honeycombs
Softboxes are absolutely critical to help diffuse the light and give you a nicer more balanced lighting for your face. Without them you get really harsh light and the lights are hard to look at because they are too bright.
🔩 Rigging
Main support poles
Support pole extension 78"
Support pole extension 59"
Super clamp
Double super clamp
Right angle baby pin
Heavy duty swivel pin
Adjustable pole
Swivel mount brackeet
Quick release plate
Cheese plate
Heavy base
The main support poles (Varipoles) were key to getting (almost) everything off the ground and out of the way. I was able to mount many of the lights, microphones and cables on these poles.
The super clamps are the main item you use to mount this stuff to the varipoles and they work perfect with them. I also listed some of the other rigging parts (pins, plates and bases) that I used here and there.
🖥️ Prompter & Monitors
Prompter
Tripod for prompter
Counterweight for prompter
Confidence monitor
The prompter setup is one of my favorite things in the studio. It allows me to look people directly in the eyes for the video calls.
The confidence monitor is nice if you have multiple cameras so you can see what exactly is showing on each feed.
🔌 HDMI Switcher
External capture card
Video switcher - 8 port
Video switcher - 4 port
SSD Drive for switcher
Heat sinks for switcher
Fans for video switcher
The Atem video switcher allows you to plug multiple cameras and microphones into a single device. If you are filming Youtube videos everything is perfectly synched. I also really like the physical buttons for switching camera angle views. The SSD drive works great for the Atem (some do not). Finally, I added some additional heat sinks and fans for the Atem as it gets hot.
🎥 Green Screen
Chroma green
vinyl roll
Matte black
vinyl roll
Gray vinyl roll
Wall mounting kit
Crossbar for rolls
Leader bar
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Make sure to the vinyl rolls for the size you need. I ended up cutting a few inches off them using a power tool saw.
The cross bars are also really important as the vinyl rolls will sag in the middle without them.
Leader bars keep them weighted down and look nice.
🪑 Desk, Chairs, Bookcase and Tables
Standing desk
Office chair
Bookcase
Mid century chair
End table
Clear mat for chair
Woody Wall
The uplift standing desk is fantastic. Built like a rock and is nice for making it adjustable to just the right level. I also really like my Steelcase chair as it very adjustable and keeps cool when sitting for long back to back meetings. The woody wall was a fun project to give the studio a more textured look.
🧰 Cable Management
Velcro tape
Velcro ties
I'm a relative neat freak and so extensively used the velcro tape and ties to keep everything tidy. The velcro tape worked _awesome_ for underneath the desk.
🔌 USB C & HDMI Adapters
Up/down USB C adapter
Right angle USB C adapter
USB A to USB C adapter
Flat right angle HDMI adapter
Right angle HDMI adapter
These are the various USB and HDMI adapters I used to keep things neat and tidy.
🔋 Power Strips, Docks, Chargers and Smart Plugs
Thunderbolt dock for Mac
12 outlet power strips
5 outlet power strips, 10'
5 outlet power strips, 6'
150W USB C charger
100W USB C charger
47W USB C charger
40W USB C charger
36W 7 port USB 3.0 hub
20W USB C chargers
Smart plugs
These are all the various chargers and power strips I used. Note for the Sony cameras I used you can plug in a USB C charger to power it so you don't need to go off batteries (Or use a dummy battery setup). The key thing though is go with a minimum dedicated 20W charger (it needs a lot of juice).
I routed all my lighting into a few Kasa smart plugs. I just turn those on when I come in for a meeting/video and everything turns on.
🔌 Power Cables
15', 60W USB C cable
6', 60W USB C cable
20' extension cord
10' extension cord
6' extension cord
3' extension cord
2' flat plug extension cord
1' flat plug extension cord
1 to 4 power cord splitter
1 to 3 power cord splitter
You end up using a surprisingly large amount of power cables to keep all the lights and cameras powered up. Here are the ones I used. For the USB C cables, if you are using those to power things (like a camera) you need to make sure the USB C cable is rated for power transfer. Some just transfer data only. All the ones I linked to worked in my setup as intended.
🪢 Other Cables
Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable (1.8m)
5ft Cat6 cables
Right angle Cat6 10' cable
20' USB C cable
15' USB C cable
I use a Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable for hooking my laptop into my main dock. And then Cat6a for all the ethernet cables.
🛠️ Bits & Pieces
Digital media player
Headphone hanger
Gaffers tape
'On Air' light
Mini digital clock
I have a digital media player that I plug into one of the Atem mini hdmi slots that just shows a soothing beach video. I could switch to that if needed on a call to show for my video if I needed to go away from the live shot.
The "On Air" light has also saved my family multiple times from walking in during a call or when I was filming.
🌿 Plants
Desk plant
Trailing vine
Banana tree
I'm a big nature guy. Love plants. We have cats though so these are all plastic plants. But hey, I still think they look nice. 🌴🌺