Open: The "O" in "OBS"; My Sony ZV-E10

My Sony ZV-E10 camera

I love my Sony ZV-E10 camera (and I mention it in this week's newsletter because somebody asked me about it during the week).

Garrin Bulani ?? from MicroStudio.ca | ?????????????? ???????????????? ?????????????????? ?? was one of the first people to recommend that camera to me. At the time, I remember thinking, "My terrible skin? In 4K?!" ?? It does have a skin smoothing feature which I initially found really weird, but then forgot to turn it off and have been using it ever since. (And honestly if "I don't like how I look on camera" is one of your video objections, watch the video at the end of the newsletter.)

Honestly other than a few weird quirks with the battery in recent weeks, I've been insanely happy with this camera.

So much so, that if it were to die, I think I would just buy it again.

There are some quirks though:

• Although it has a USB connection to use as a webcam, this has always been a little hacky. You have to unplug the cable, change the mode on the camera and reattach it each time.
• The way I got past this was to use the HDMI output to an Elgato Camlink. (HDMI is better quality than the USB for this camera, I think 1080 versus 720, but check the documentation if you need to be sure).
• If you're not using the USB connection, you can power it via USB but it has to be connected to something without a data connection (so a charger, not your computer).
• I recently bought a dummy battery that connects it permanently to power, without using the USB connection and it's working well so far.

I realise it's probably a slightly dated option at this point, but I have nothing but love for this camera.

Sony have released a bunch of other models more recently too though I personally find trowelling through the specs a little confusing.

I've never really been a gear reviewer and am pretty happy with my current setup, but I am exploring additional options for a second home office. Some of the gear that I am keen to explore includes:

• Elgato Low Profile microphone arm
• R?DE PodMic USB
• Elgato Prompter

Subscribe to the newsletter if you're interested in hearing more about these.

Open: The O in OBS Studio

If you're not interested in OBS, you have my blessing to skip this section.

This week on The Video and Livestreaming Show, Sam Proof and I will be showing up another 4 of our favourite OBS Studio plugins.

OBS stands for Open Broadcaster Software.

The 'Open' in OBS alludes to the fact that it is free and open source.

Some people might not know this but Streamlabs Desktop is literally built on the back of the OBS Studio code.

The great thing about the open aspect of the software is that there a bunch of developers building awesome things to extend OBS Studio's basic functionality.

We've talked about plugins on previous episodes of the show.

This week I'm keen to introduce you to the Advanced Masks and the Move plugins and Sam will talk about two of his own favourites too (though I don't know what they are yet).

I'd love to hear about some of YOUR favourite plugins too, let me know in the comments.

Join us live

Check out the event invites for the day and time in your local time zone.

• 4 More OBS Studio Plugins (Watch on YouTube)
• 4 More OBS Studio Plugins (Watch on LinkedIn?)

Join us!

Creator Check-in (LinkedIn? Audio Event)

I'm trying out something new this week. I'm going to do a content creator check-in LinkedIn? audio event.

Content creation can be a lonely business so I'm looking for more opportunities for us to get together and reflect and celebrate and encourage.

Come and share what you're working on, what challenges you're currently facing, and what wins you can celebrate!

I think this will work better if a few people turn up, but I realise it's a brand new thing for me, and time zones are weird, so no obligation, but if you'd like to join me, please do!

Creator Check-in (LinkedIn? Audio Event)

Have a great week

Have a great week!

Remember, if you're interested in video, livestreaming and content creation:

• Subscribe to the Learn Livestreaming channel on YouTube. Currently sitting on 360 subscribers! ??
• Connect with me on LinkedIn?

Thank you!

BONUS: Overcoming Video Objections

Watch Overcoming Video Objections on YouTube

Last week on The Video and Livestreaming Show, Sam and I addressed some common video objections. Specifically:

• Time
• Tech
• Money
• Fear (of being on camera, of being in front of a microphone, or something else)