Steady Your Screen: The Key to Slowdown in YouTube Videos (48 Chars)

YouTube Slow: How to Slow Down YouTube Videos [3 Ways]

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Master Video Creation: Understanding the Role of Camera Lenses in Vlogging

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