What's the Best Camera and Microphone for Online Meetings?

• 00:04 Let's talk technology.
• 00:06 Video cameras, quite often that's the first question people have.
• 00:09 TJ, what's the best video camera I should get?
• 00:12 Here's the thing.
• 00:15 Pretty much any camera that's been made in the last couple of years is going to be
• 00:19 perfectly fine for your video conferencing needs.
• 00:23 Any webcam you plug it in will generally work, built-in cameras, and
• 00:27 laptops are perfectly fine for this.
• 00:29 Far more important is getting it at an eye level and
• 00:32 having decent lighting on your face.
• 00:35 That's really what's more important.
• 00:37 I beg you don't spend any more time searching,
• 00:40 researching for the perfect camera.
• 00:42 Get a camera and start practicing, recording yourself on video.
• 00:46 Start doing conference calls with even friends and
• 00:50 family to get used to speaking on camera, and conducting meetings online.
• 00:56 The camera doesn't really matter.
• 00:59 The camera angles, the lighting.
• 01:02 That's what's key.
• 01:04 You do have to make sure it's compatible with your computer and
• 01:07 the system you're using, whether it's Zoom or Skype, but that's a simple matter.
• 01:12 More important than your video camera,
• 01:16 than a lot of other aspects of the production, your sound, your audio.
• 01:21 I do recommend that you try to get some microphone that isn't just
• 01:25 the built-in microphone.
• 01:27 I'm wearing a lob, short for Lavalier microphone right here.
• 01:32 You can buy lav microphones that then plug into your computer.
• 01:37 You can buy these on Amazon or other stores, typically for less than $20.
• 01:42 The earbuds, if you're using any Mac product,
• 01:45 the wired ones can often work quite well.
• 01:48 They have a nice microphone in that.
• 01:52 If you are going to use the built-in microphone in either a laptop or
• 01:56 a computer, it's even more important that you're in as quiet room as possible.
• 02:02 That ideally there's carpet on the floor, and
• 02:05 the least amount of background sound possible.
• 02:09 People will forgive, if they can't see every aspect of your face or something.
• 02:14 But if they can't hear you, your video conference is really a waste of time.
• 02:19 So do everything you can to make the room quiet.
• 02:22 And if you're going to be doing video conferencing on a regular basis,
• 02:27 get some form of a lav mic.
• 02:29 Now microphones are things you can spend $2, you can spend $2,000.
• 02:34 You don't have to have the $2,000 kind.
• 02:37 But any microphone for simple video conferencing,
• 02:42 that isn't the built-in microphone, should be fine for you.

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