Marketing Summer Camp With Smart Videos

[Travis's note 01/07/18: Like Ferris Bueller says: Life Moves PRETTY Quickly!  Most of the tech has at least one new generation since I made up this list. I recommend you use the list as inspiration and go find whatever the latest equipment is in the price range of the item I put in this list.]

Great summer camp videos are getting cheaper and easier to make.   It's about time!

Having been involved in camp visuals (as a photographer, a producer and a even, a long time ago, as a director/DP) I can tell you that there is amazing potential for camps to DIY video that just never existed before.

A number of members and camp clients have asked for some suggestions of the best budget equipment for a camp to make their own videos.  A lot of this was also included in our How To Podcast – Production Equipment List post from a few weeks ago but there are some specific additions for video production.

Go Camp Pro's Essential Video Equipment List

Video Cameras

• 1. Canon EOS Rebel T3i (please note: DSLR cameras, generally, can only record 12 minutes of video before it stops and you must hit "record" again) - $550.31 USA, $693.47 Canada
• 2. Go Pro Hero 4 (Silver or Black depending on budget.  Truthfully, Go Pro Hero 3's are GREAT cameras - check eBay. Just be sure it is a WiFi model) - $399.99 USA, $452.00 Canada

External Microphone for Video Cameras (such as the T3i)

• 3. Rode Videomic Pro - $223.99 USA, $385.69 Canada

Portable Microphones

• 4. (2 x) Rode SmartLav+ - $79.00 USA, $112.00 Canada (lavalier microphone that records to any smartphone)
• EDIT: 4.5 The Mighty Mic from Photojojo - $70 USD (shotgun microphone for smartphones).  *Thanks to Gabrielle Raill for sharing this as her Tool of the Week on the CampHacker Podcast!*

Tripod

• 5. Slik Sprint Pro II Tripod - with Three-way Panhead - $74.95 USA, $139.91 Canada

Lighting

• 6. 60" x 80" 5-in-1 Large Reflector: $89.95 USA, $59.00 Canada
• 7. 10.5" Clip-on Brood Lights (see this awesome Wistia video) $13.97 USA, $24.97 Canada
• 8. LED Video Light for DV On-Camera Camcorder Lighting- $31.99 USA, $32.74 Canada
• 9. Fancierstudio 2400 Watt Lighting Kit With Boom Arm - $129.99 USA, $248.36 Canada

Essential Accessories

• 10. GoPro mounting kits (too many options to choose. We recommend getting a tripod mount and a suction mount)
• 11. SanDisk Extreme Plus 32GB SDHC UHS-1 Flash Memory Card (you need 1, hopefully 2 or 3, fast SD cards for the cameras) $37.79 USA, $65.00 Canada
• 12. SanDisk Extreme PLUS UHS-I 32GB Micro SDHC Card (for the GoPro) $22.99 USA, $81.32 Canada
• 13. Anker® USB 3.0 4-Slot Card Reader with Built-in 0.4ft Cable (you need a card reader so that you can be downloading your videos while still being able be ready to shoot.  It's also WAY faster than downloading from the camera) $15.99 USA, $19.99 Canada

A note about Affiliate Links

A careful look will tell you that the links to the American Amazon Store are affiliate links - meaning someone gets a commission from Amazon on each sale.   At Go Camp Pro we are not set up to take affiliate commission but have chosen to support SCOPE - an organization that helps send kids to camp with the Amazon Smile program.