Using DSLR For Camming and Filming Clips by Empress Mika

Camgirls: How To Use A DSLR For Camming / Clips

The use of a DSLR camera for both camming and clip producing gives you the highest quality, clarity and options possible for your work. This fact alone makes it a strong consideration for any adult performer that does this work as a career, and wants to produce the highest quality content possible. This being said, a DSLR isn’t for everyone. There are some very strong pros alongside some very strong cons to using a DSLR. It is my hope that this article is able to help you decide if using a DSLR is right for you and your business as an adult performer.

DSLR Pros

• Highest quality possible
• Highest clarity possible
• Most options for zooming in and out (This helps ensure you have the perfect background)
• Can keep focus on you, even if you’re far away

DSLR Cons

• Expensive
• More difficult to use
• Stationary (Not nearly as mobile as a webcam or other recording device)
• Requires other expensive equipment with it (Lenses and lighting)

I’ll now explain and expand on these pros and cons below.

High Quality / Clarity

This fact alone makes using a DSLR for your work a very serious consideration in many cases. There is just no other way to obtain the highest possible quality or clarity in both filming clips and camming without the use of a DSLR camera. It is what the pros on the field use, even outside of our adult industry, such as photography and videography professionals.

One important piece of information to keep in mind here, is that the DSLR for camming works best on sites that actually support HD streaming. For example, having a DSLR works beautifully on Streamate and makes a huge difference from streaming with a standard webcam.

However, on sites that do not have a big focus on high quality streaming, the effects of the DSLR won’t be as grand-scale. It may still boost your clarity but the site itself will cap your quality. In these situations, unless you also film clips to get the full benefit of the DSLR, it may not be worth the extra money and effort to use a DSLR for camming.

More Options For Zooming In and Out

Using a DSLR allows for you to choose from multiple lenses that effect the way it captures you in an image or video. These customization options are an amazing feature to have, especially if you’re filming and producing clips, but also for camming.

Each lens allows for you to zoom in and out with ease, furthering your control over how the overall capture looks. This not only works for zooming in and out on yourself, such as your face or other body parts that may be a focus at any given time, but also the background as a whole. You can fit a lot more background in or a lot less, giving you control on how the over all feel of a capture is.

Learning about different types of lenses can be a topic in and of itself, so if you truly have a passion for photography and/or videography, a DSLR may very well be for you.

Far Away Focus

Another major feature of the DSLR is its ability to keep focus on you, even if you are standing much further away from the camera. This is especially useful for tall people, like myself. With a standard webcam, standing as far away as I need to in order to see my full body in the frame (head to toe), a standard webcam is pretty unclear. With the DSLR, I am still in crystal-clear focus.

This, again, is very useful for filming clips but can also be useful on cam, especially on sites that support HD streaming. When doing full body shots on cam, I am much more clear than when using a standard webcam, for example.

DSLRs Are Expensive

Of course, professional grade equipment like the DSLR comes with a professional grade cost. This said, there are a wide variety of DSLRs that range in cost from affordable to expensive. However, my advise is to always stay on the more expensive side.

There are many reasons for this, but suffice it to say that there really is no shortcut to obtaining professional high quality work, by obtaining a reasonably priced DSLR. Keep in mind, too, that many cheaper DSLRs do not include auto-focus when capturing video which, in my opinion, is a huge must.

I personally recommend the Canon 80D. It is what I myself use and has everything you’ll need to produce awesome clips and stream in beautiful, high quality. It’s around $1,000 for just the body of the camera.

More Difficult to Use

Unlike a standard webcam or recorder, the DSLR is much more difficult to use, both physically as well as with software. For example, unlike a webcam that easily sits on top of your monitor that you can bend and move up and down at will, a DSLR must sit stationary on a separate tripod. The tripod must be adjusted if you’d like to move your capture angle up and down or the DSLR itself up and down. This is an enormous difference and takes a lot of getting used to over a standard webcam.

Additionally, the DSLR requires knowledge of software, as well as other things generally ignored with standard webcams and recorders. This will take time to learn. Such knowledge includes setting the frames per second, among other details within the camera that require research on your part for the best optimization for you.

Requires Other Expensive Equipment

This leads itself into the other equipment you will need with a DSLR. Unfortunately, your investment does not end with just the DSLR body. Here are a few of the essentials you’ll need:

Tripods

As discussed, a tripod is a must for a DSLR to hold the camera up since your monitor will no longer do the job for you as with a standard webcam.

•  I recommend this Allbot tripod. This is durable and has good height. Remember, there are other, cheaper tripods out there but, again, I recommend not trying to cut corners in cost with this stuff. It just isn’t worth it in my opinion. Tripods that are cheaper usually aren’t nearly as durable nor have good height.

• In addition to the Allbot tripod, I highly recommend the Manfrotto Articiulated Arm to go along with it. This allows you manipulate and more precisely obtain the angle of your capture. I honestly don’t know what I would do without mine. It’s a must-have.

• Finally, I recommend this Kamisafe floor tripod. This one will allow you to obtain shots on the floor. This is certainly a must for clip producers but you may or may not need it for camming, depending on what types of shows you are performing.

Lights

Arguably, lighting is important no matter what set-up you have. However, lighting is especially important and essential with a DSLR. In fact, there is no point in obtaining a DSLR if you do not have excellent lighting with which to use it with.

• I recommend this lighting pack if you need an affordable way to obtain a good lighting set. I’ve mentioned over and over not to cut corners but this is an ever so slight way to cut a small corner if you’d like to save a bit of money.

• If you have more of a budget, I highly recommend this ring light alongside these soft box lights in place of what I recommended above. This set up has the perfect and ideal lighting set up for nearly every type of capture you will encounter both on camming as well as with filming. I highly recommend getting this in the future, as your budget allows if you must start with the lighting pack mentioned above.

Lenses

With a DSLR, you have many lenses with which you can choose from. Generally speaking, the longer a lens is, the better it is for head shots. The shorter it is, the wider of a shot it can take. Therefore, I highly recommend getting a lens that has a good range that can fit a variety of situations. 18-135mm should be perfect and you can purchase it with the body of the camera.

Software

Remember, a DSLR is not made to necessary be a webcam, though it is possible to use it as one. Therefore, using a DSLR as a webcam requires the use of software (and it is not free). There are many available but I highly recommend Sparkocam. If you do not plan on camming with your DSLR, the camera comes with software which you can use to film with.

Another software aspect I’d like to mention here is that, along with obtaining a higher quality and higher clarity picture, it is important to note that the DSLR will be able to capture EVERYTHING that your other cameras couldn’t. This sounds nice but remember that this includes things such as pores, acne, or any other such things we may consider imperfections on ourselves. It is for this reason that many professionals in the field also use a high quality editing software to smooth such things out as desired. This in and of itself is yet another things to research and learn.

Is a DSLR Right for you?

A DSLR is a powerful capturing tool for both camming and clip producing. It is right for some but not for others. Generally speaking, a DSLR is best suited for those very interested in learning the technology – both the camera itself and the associated hardware and software, and for those that have a strong desire for the best quality and clarity as possible for their content.

That said, it can be argued that standard webcams produce a “good enough” quality and without the extra time and money investment required with that of DSLR and associated equipment.

In fact, if the DSLR is too much for you but you want a step above a webcam for filming, I highly recommend the Canon Vixia recorder. This will give you a noticeable quality boost (of course, not as much as a DSLR) but without the associated knowledge and costs and equipment that a DSLR requires.

Of course, only you can answer if the DSLR is right for you, and it is my hope that this article helped you come to the right choice for you and your business.

Best of luck! 🙂