Be ready: you’re gonna need a lot of stuff

Your phone is a great camera. For most things. The iphone 7 Plus [1], Google Pixel XL [2], and Samsung Galaxy Note 8 [3] can all shoot in 4K resolution and have image stabilisation and their new models will just get better. So it comes down to whether you

Try a lens

Wide-angle lenses take in more light and widen the field of what the viewer sees, which is especially useful in tight spaces like cars. It’s a small difference that’ll set your phone video apart from everyone else’s. Moment lenses [4] come in macro, telephoto, wide, and fish-eye varieties. You’ll need to buy the case, but that ensures that the lens is always perfectly mounted.

Get a Joby

The Joby Gorillapod [5] has bendable arms that let you mount your phone on tree branches, wrap it around a skateboard for tracking shots, or just hold it as a small-scale selfie stick. It’s great. There’s a reason that every vlogger uses one and the inventor is a millionaire investing in flying cars.

You’ll want a microphone, too

Built-in microphones are just okay. They usually give you static. Youtuber Natalie Alzate says people won’t even watch a video if there’s static. She uses a Røde -Videomic Pro [6] or a Sennheiser G3 when she’s outside her studio. “It makes sure you capture just the voice, no static or background,” she says.

Move up from your phone. Eventually.

The Canon EOS 80D [7] has a huge sensor, a flip-out monitor and quiet and fast autofocus. The only downsides are its bulk and the fact that it doesn’t shoot in 4K. The Sony RX100 IV [8] is cheaper and exceptional, especially considering its small size. It has video autofocus and a big sensor for low-light shooting. It’ll do buttery-smooth slow-motion at 240, 480 or even 960 frames per second. It can’t match the vividness you get from Canon’s lenses, but the small size means having it everywhere, and it shoots in 4K.