Camera Reviews for Cavalry Cast

Overview

There are tons of cameras on the market today. These cameras range from simple and cheap webcams high end production cameras that usually have multi function. The cameras that I'm looking for should serve dual purposes for a standard podcast. I would like to have them just mount and face each person that might be talking to get a portrait of that person and also have a full room camera that would show the entire scene. There are a few factors that need to be looked at, mainly how good the video looks. We can record audio in many different ways have a good microphone so the microphone on the camera itself is not so important especially in a room dedicated setting. The following are some factors that I took into consideration when looking at these cameras.

Contributing factors

Picture clarity

Most of today's standards would be 1080p or even 4k. Cameras out there claim to be recording at HD qualities and from a pixel standpoint, yes, they are actually capturing the amount of pixels required however the clarity and motion can be off a little bit because they have lower processors incorporated. A good camera should have a clear picture good color balance and not much motion blur when moved around. Some cameras have a very good depth of field, of course this is due to some lighting constraints where pixelation can really occur in low light situations. 

Focus speed

Many YouTube videos out there are instructional type videos, meaning that the presenter will normally show something on the screen. When they show something on the screen a lot of times the camera has a tough time adjusting between what's being shown and the actual presenter. We're looking for a camera that can autofocus in between different objects fairly quickly so that it doesn't disrupt the flow of the presentation.

Low light situations

We always want to use good lighting, however sometimes we're not in that situation and we don't want the picture to look very grainy. When there's lower lighting the camera's processor has trouble distinguishing between different colors therefore giving a picture a high contrast grainy type look. A decent camera should have a good F-Stop rating to be able to bring in as much light as possible.  Also, in lower light situations with a lot of grain and contrast, which is not good for postproduction refining.

Rating categories

I'm writing these cameras in categories at three different levels. Low-End, Mid-Range and High-End. These categories are not typical industry categories where high end could be thousands of dollars' worth of camera but rather in a smaller budget setting high end would be basically the high end of a budget, so a couple $100.

I'm also just looking at four brands. Insta360 seems to be a very popular model amongst podcasters and such. OBSBOT seems to be another brand that many people are talking about. Logitech has always been in the industry for cameras mice and other peripherals very good reputation. Some other models that are coming up as equivalents on searches I might include as well. I'm not too big of a fan from ordering many things from China, however this is one of those areas where you don't have much choice.

Low-End

Midrange

High end

Conclusion

Of course, for quick videos, video conferencing or traveling, the low end cameras are just fine, but that's what you get for the money is just low end. They would be a really great option for some quick setups on site stuff or whatever but a studio podcast probably not the best.

The high end stuff, is going to give you much better video quality and options we were able to spend that kind of money. That if the podcast turned into a higher production necessity then of course better equipment would be justifiable.

The three cameras in the midrange area seemed that they would all work for the needs of this podcast, however, it seems that the reviews for the OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite are a little bit better. I would think that having one of the insta 360's would allow us to do a better comparison, but they are so close and it seems like the OBSBOTs are making more technical progress over time. I would be comfortable with the OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite.