 Hey y'all, what's up? My name is Sonali, welcome to my channel if you are new. We are currently staying at home trying to flatten the curve and I know a lot of you have probably thought about making a YouTube channel out of boredom. You also may be looking for something to spend your stimulus check on and I think buying a camera is a great investment. Content creation is getting bigger and bigger every single day. There are so many new vlog channels to watch and just YouTube channels in general. So I wanted to make this video for anyone who is buying their first camera or people who are wanting to upgrade their camera. Today we're going to be talking about the best vlogging camera to buy and that is the Sony 85100. This camera is small, but so mighty. This camera came out in 2014 so obviously Sony has made upgraded versions since then but I find that this specific model has everything I need in a vlogging camera and today I'll tell you guys why. The biggest thing about this model is that it has the iconic flip up screen. Everything a vlogger wants and needs. A couple of upgrades do have this but they tend to get heavier and when you're holding your vlog camera out, trying to vlog yourself, you're definitely going to want to think about how heavy your setup is. The thing that made me really interested in buying this camera out of all the other vlogging cameras out there is that you have the ability to change your lens. So this gives you the opportunity to make some really cool cinematic, professional videos for an affordable price. I'll be talking about my top three lens recommendations later on in this video but I thought that was so cool because I am Boca obsessed. I love me a good blurry background. I'm currently filming on a 1.2 lens. So for all the beginners out there, a lower aperture lets more light in and it also compresses the background so you have that really nice blurred background like you see here. When I was researching cameras, I found that the aperture didn't really tend to go below like 2.8 which is definitely great when you want to get everything in focus but that's not what I was looking for. Another reason that led me to purchase this camera was that I was actually in my makeup phase at the time and I found out a lot of beauty bloggers use this camera to photograph their looks and I found out that yes, the videography on this camera is really great but the pictures are even better. A really cool feature that this camera has is the skin smoothing feature. So if you're not feeling confident enough to film that day, you can definitely just go ahead and turn it on and it actually looks pretty natural. So I'm going to show you guys without the filter and then I'm going to turn it on. This is what it looks like with the effect off. This is what it looks like when the effect is turned on low. This is the effect on the middle setting and this is the effect on high. I also feel like this camera is extremely durable. I never really put it in a case. I always throw it in my purse which is so bad of me but it has miraculously survived so many drops. I hate to admit it but if you do end up purchasing this camera, I definitely recommend getting the warranty just in case. I've heard so many YouTubers say that the Canon G7X, AKA the camera every vlogger has, breaks so easily. Apparently like the screws come out of the flip up screen and nothing like that has ever happened to the Sony A5100. One big thing to know about this model is that it does not have a microphone jack and I feel like this is a big differentiator from the other models. I personally don't mind that it doesn't have a mic jack because I don't really think it's that relatable to have like studio quality audio on just like a normal everyday vlog. I totally get it if you want really great audio when you're out doing like an informational video or a sit down video or a beauty tutorial. So that is when you would probably have to look for an external mic like the Zoom recorder or you can use a lav mic plugged directly into your phone and then you can just record the audio on the VoiceMemo's app on your iPhone. Having this external audio will definitely give you more work to do during post-production because you're gonna have to sync up the audio with your mouth moving, but a really easy thing to do that will help a ton is just clapping once before you start so that the audio picks that really loud sound up and then you see it physically clapping so that you can match both of the audios and then just mute one. Does that make sense? I hope that made sense. I'm going to do an audio test for y'all. What you hear right now is the wireless RODE mic go. And now you're listening to the Sony A5100 mic. I personally don't think the audio on here is bad at all, but I will say one thing, it does pick up a lot of wind in certain situations. An easy solution for that is just to purchase these little mini dead cats that you actually just put on top of your microphone. It's literally just a sticker, so it's really easy and it works pretty well. I'll link them down below. Like I said, the audio really isn't that bad, but if you are a filmmaker wanting to do more professional interviews or you're just even doing like a beauty tutorial or a sit-down video, you will want to look into some external microphones, so I will link them down below. Now it is time for the fun part. Like I mentioned previously, this camera allows you to change out the lenses, so we will be talking about the three lenses that I recommend for the Sony A5100. Unfortunately, I do not have the kit lens because I never used it, so I sold it a while ago, but the lenses I'm showing y'all today are so much better. So let's get into it. This first lens is the Sony 16 millimeter 2.8, and it runs for $250. This is also known as the pancake lens because it is very thin compared to all the other lenses. This lens is similar to the kit lens being that it is a 16 millimeter, but it is a fixed lens and actually all my lenses are fixed, so that means none of them can zoom. I bought this lens when I was on the hunt for a lower aperture lens. So this lens has a 2.8, which is a big jump from the kit lens being a 3.5. Even though this lens is a 16 millimeter, it ends up looking like a 24 millimeter because you are using it on a cropped sensor camera. So that means it's just gonna crop it in a little bit more, which definitely sucks when you wanna get that super wide angle. What you are seeing right now is the 16 millimeter 2.8 pancake lens. As you can see, it does have that wide angle. I'm holding it all the way back, but unfortunately it doesn't really have the blurry background that I love. This next lens is my tried and true lens. I've been using it in all my recent vlogs. This is the Sigma 16 millimeter with a whopping 1.4 aperture and it runs for about $400. If you guys are looking for like a travel vlog lens, I highly recommend this one because not only can it get you that wide angle for your landscape shots or your landmark shots, but it will also give you really great B roll. Let's say you wanna shoot someone walking down the streets of Italy. It will just give you that really cool like blurry background effect and make it just look so much more expensive. The one thing that sucks about this lens is the weight and size. As you can see, it protrudes out quite a bit from the body itself and it is very heavy. So when I'm vlogging, I have to hold it by the lens and not the camera. So it's definitely an odd ratio, but you kinda get used to it. That's actually one reason why I keep the pancake lens around because if I wanted to take the camera and vlog on a bike ride or something kind of more active and I have to bring like a small purse or a fanny pack, I can't really fit this big lens in that fanny pack. So I'll switch my lens to the 16 millimeter 2.8. Before I bought my Sony a7 III, I would use my Sony a5 100 with the 16 millimeter 1.4 for a lot of my event videography. I was able to get a lot of the atmosphere with that wide angle shot and I also didn't really have to switch out my lens to get a detailed shot since it did have that really nice bokeh. I'll go ahead and link some of my past videos down below and I'll label which lens I used for each video so that you can see the lenses more in action. Now I'm vlogging with the 16 millimeter 1.4. As you can tell, the background is a lot more blurry, especially if I bring it up a little bit closer, but I am holding the lens itself, which is an odd concept to grasp, but I have to do it because this whole setup is a little bit un-proportionate, but overall, this is definitely my favorite lens to vlog with. This last lens I recommend is the Sony 35 1.8 and it runs for about $475. You have to remember that you are shooting on a crop sensor camera, so this 35 millimeter will end up looking more like a 50 millimeter, so it will definitely be a close up shot. That makes this lens really cool for any of those cinematic clips that you see. When I was getting into event videography, this is the first lens I actually picked up, so I did have to step back from the subject to get everything in the shot, but I loved the bokeh it gave me. It is a 1.8, but the compression, since it is a bit of a tighter shot, is beautiful. I think my top two lenses are definitely the 16 millimeter 1.4 and this one because it is easy to just bring both of them and switch them out, so if you wanted to get a wide angle shot, then you can use the 16 millimeter, but then if you wanted to get some of the more details and you didn't want that wide angle distortion, this lens is perfect for that. This clip is being shot with 35 1.8. I'm stretching my arms so far out just to try to get a little bit more of my hat, but I really can't, so that is why I don't really recommend this lens just for vlogging, but if you guys are doing more tutorials, beauty videos, anything more cinematic, I definitely recommend this because look at that background. It is so creamy, very blurry and beautiful. I highly recommend just buying the body of the camera separately, decide what you're gonna use it for, and then buy your lens. There are so many other lenses out there that are way better than the kit lens, so that is why you should buy the Sony A5100. I hope you found this video helpful and let me know in the comments down below what you plan on filming with your camera. Before you go, do subscribe and like this video and I will have all my past videos linked down below and I will label which lens I used in that video so you all can get a better feel for what lens you should use in your videos. I will see y'all in my next video. Bye.