"Quick Share  Your YouTube Playlist Journey for 2024"

"Quick Share Your YouTube Playlist Journey for 2024"

Kenneth Lv13

Quick Share: Your YouTube Playlist Journey

YouTube has become the most popular video-sharing platform on the internet, with users from all over the world uploading and watching videos daily. You can find content on just about any topic you can think of on YouTube, making it an excellent resource for entertainment and education.

But what if you’ve created a playlist of your favorite videos and think your friends or family would enjoy it? To help you with this, we’ve put together an extensive guide on how to share a YouTube playlist on your computer and mobile devices.

So, let’s get started with our guide without any further delay!

Why Doesn’t The Share Function In The Playlist Work?

Firstly, let’s figure out why the “Share” function doesn’t work. The “Share” function in the playlist does not work because it is set to “private,” and YouTube doesn’t allow you to share them. To fix this, you must first change the privacy settings of the playlist to “public” in the following way:

Step1 Head to the YouTube website using a browser on your PC and sign in to your account.

Step2

  • Click the three-line “Menu” icon at the top-left of your screen.
  • Go to “Library.”
  • Scroll down to the “Playlist” section.

changing playlist visibility

Step3 Select your playlist labeled as “Private.” On the next page, click the “Private” option in the playlist details section and select “Public” to change the visibility of your playlist.

Once the privacy setting has been changed, the “share” function will work as intended.

making youtube playlist public

How To Share The YouTube Playlist?

If you want to share the playlist on YouTube using your computer or mobile device, read the instructions below carefully:

1. For Computers

Here are four different ways to share your YouTube playlist using your laptop or desktop computer:

Sharing your YouTube playlist is a perfect way to increase the number of views and subscribers, allowing your viewers to see all the videos in one place.

This is especially helpful if you have a series of videos that you want viewers to watch. Here are the step-by-step instructions for achieving this task:

Step1 Visit the YouTube website using a browser on your computer and sign in to your account. Click your Profile in the top-right of the screen and select “Your Channel” from the drop-down menu, which will take you to your YouTube channel’s dashboard.

accessing youtube channel to share playlist

Step2 Next, go to the “Playlist” tab and click the “View Full Playlist” option under your playlist to access it.

sharing own youtube playlist

Step3 Finally, click the “Share” icon in the playlist’s details section, and a window will pop up. From here, you can either click “Copy” to save the link to your clipboard or share the playlist directly to WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Email, KakaoTalk, Reddit, and more platforms.

If you want to share someone else’s YouTube playlist with a link, do the following steps in sequence:

Step1 In the first step, launch your preferred browser, visit the YouTube website, and sign in to your account using your credentials.

Step2 On the left side of the website’s main interface, click the “Library” option and scroll down to the Playlists section.

sharing others youtube playlist

Step3 Under the “Playlists” section, click on the playlist you want to share. Now, click the “Share” icon in the playlist’s details section, and a pop-up window will appear. In the “Share” section, copy the URL and paste it into an email, message, or social media post to share.

That’s all there is to it! Anyone you’ve shared the link with can watch the entire playlist.

How To Share The Playlist While Watching?

We all love using YouTube for research or just scrolling through videos to pass the time, and we often share our favorite videos with others. What if you wish to share a whole YouTube playlist while watching it?

Fortunately, there’s a simple and quick way to do this, and here are the step-by-step instructions for this method.

Step1 In the first step, head to the YouTube website using a browser and use the search bar to access the playlist.

sharing youtube playlist while watching

Step2 Click the playlist to start watching it. Next, click the playlist title in the grey box on the right-hand side.

Step3 On the playlist page, click the “Share” icon in the details section, and a window will pop-up. Click “Copy” to save the link or directly share the playlist to social platforms.

That’s it! The recipient will now be able to watch the entire YouTube playlist you’ve shared.

Through the “Collaborate on playlists” feature, YouTube allows you to add friends to your playlist, who can then add videos to it.

Here’s how you can share a YouTube playlist with a link to collaborate with your friends:

Step1 In the first step, go to the YouTube website using your preferred browser, and sign in to your channel’s Gmail account using your email address and password.

Step2 Click your “Profile” icon, choose the “Your Channel” option from the drop-down menu and go to the “Playlist.”

Step3 In the next step, click the “View Full Playlist” option under your preferred playlist. This will take you to your playlist page.

Step4 In the details section of your YouTube playlist on the playlist page, click the three dots (ellipsis) icon and select the “Collaborate” option.

sharing youtube playlist link to collaborate

Step5 A pop-up window will appear on your screen. Toggle on the “Collaborators can add videos to this playlist” option to enable it, and the “Allow new collaborators” option will appear.

Toggle on the “Allow new collaborators” option, click “Copy” to save the URL to your clipboard, and click “Done” to apply the changes.

allowing collaboration on youtube playlist

That’s about it! You can now share the playlist link with your friends, who can now add videos to it.

2. For iOS and Android

If you want to quickly share a YouTube playlist using your iOS or Android device, follow these instructions step-by-step:

Note: The method of sharing the YouTube playlist on an iOS device is the same as mentioned above.

Step1 Since most devices have YouTube already installed, locate the YouTube app in your device’s app drawer and launch it.

Step2 On the app’s main interface/Home screen, tap the “Library” option at the bottom right corner of your device’s screen.

Step3 Now, scroll down to the “Playlists” section and open the playlist you wish to share with your friends.

sharing youtube playlist from mobile

Step4 In the playlist’s details section, tap the “Share” icon above the “Play All” button. Now, tap the “Copy” icon to save the playlist’s URL on your clipboard, or use other available options to share the playlist directly.

Bonus: Do You Want To Create Your Own YouTube Videos?

We hope you have found the solution to share your YouTube Playlist. Supposing you are a common YouTube user and like to share the fantastic things you found on this platform, are you interested in making a YouTube video by yourself? If yes, please watch the video below to start editing your own videos with a user-friendly video editor - Wondershare Filmora . With it, you can create your video with ease:

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Conclusion

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve explored why the share function in the playlist is not working and how to share a YouTube playlist using your computer and mobile device.

Step1 Since most devices have YouTube already installed, locate the YouTube app in your device’s app drawer and launch it.

Step2 On the app’s main interface/Home screen, tap the “Library” option at the bottom right corner of your device’s screen.

Step3 Now, scroll down to the “Playlists” section and open the playlist you wish to share with your friends.

sharing youtube playlist from mobile

Step4 In the playlist’s details section, tap the “Share” icon above the “Play All” button. Now, tap the “Copy” icon to save the playlist’s URL on your clipboard, or use other available options to share the playlist directly.

Bonus: Do You Want To Create Your Own YouTube Videos?

We hope you have found the solution to share your YouTube Playlist. Supposing you are a common YouTube user and like to share the fantastic things you found on this platform, are you interested in making a YouTube video by yourself? If yes, please watch the video below to start editing your own videos with a user-friendly video editor - Wondershare Filmora . With it, you can create your video with ease:

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Conclusion

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve explored why the share function in the playlist is not working and how to share a YouTube playlist using your computer and mobile device.

A Vlogger’s Guide To Camera Lenses | Wondershare Filmora

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.

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).

Crop Factor

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

Camera lenses 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).

Camera lenses Aperture Range

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 .

author avatar

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.

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).

Crop Factor

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

Camera lenses 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).

Camera lenses Aperture Range

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 .

author avatar

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.

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).

Crop Factor

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

Camera lenses 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).

Camera lenses Aperture Range

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 .

author avatar

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.

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).

Crop Factor

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

Camera lenses 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).

Camera lenses Aperture Range

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 .

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Richard Bennett

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

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  • Created at : 2024-06-05 09:16:06
  • Updated at : 2024-06-06 09:16:06
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