Studio Gear Upgrade Dilemma
Hey, what’s going on? Welcome to The Doug Show. Today, I’m gonna talk about the YouTube Studio, mostly camera stuff, some computer stuff. Actually, they’re going hand-in-hand, and not so much on the audio. But recently, I’ve started to realize that my gear is getting old, and I am hesitant to upgrade at, at times.
I, I tend to use things for, uh, as long as I can, their full lifespan, and I’ll kind of go through some of the pros and cons of that, maybe the evolution that I’ve seen over the years, because I, I used to upgrade stuff all the time. Now, if you’re just listening, which is the vast, vast majority of you are actually just listening, uh, you, you won’t be able to see or appreciate the change in the, the camera gear here.
So, you know, that’s the other thing. It’s like you have to weigh the pros and the cons. So I’ll talk about what I’ve upgraded, a couple things that I’ve learned, and then my observations so far If you’re just listening, I can describe, uh, a little bit of the change and why I wanted to upgrade some of the gear.
New Canon R8 Camera
So number one, I’ll talk about the cameras. So the, the upgrade that I’ve made so far is upgrade the camera. The main camera that I use is like a webcam slash, you know, for the, the podcast on YouTube. And I have used, uh, three different cameras sort of interchangeably over the years, and the one I upgraded to is now a Canon R8.
It’s a full frame and it’ll do– It’s a full frame sensor, so it can capture more information and all that, and it is also, like, full frame 4K. So two of the three other cameras that I have, that I have been using, two of them would do 4K, but it was actually cropped. So I’ll skip some of the technical details, but essentially, it’s only using a portion of the, the sensor.
So even though I have a Canon RP, which I got roughly in 2020 or so, and it’s full frame and it can do 4K, but 4K is cropped, so it actually looks kind of horrible and the focus doesn’t work that well, and I’m actually better off just using regular 1080p. And the other two cameras I have, they’re, uh, smaller sensors or crop sensors, APS-C, and one’s a T7i that I’ve had for almost 10 years, and then the other is an SL3, which is kind of a small entry level, but more modern.
I think I got it maybe two years ago, and I’ve been using that SL3 as the webcam and the main camera over there. I have good, very good lenses, and usually that overcomes some of the limitations with the, the camera gear and the sensors and all that stuff. And I’ve probably mentioned it many times where it’s like, ah, you know what?
People are more concerned about the sound and the audio typically than the video. They’ll actually put up with subpar video. Maybe it’s, you know, lower resolution like I’m talking about. Maybe there’s some other issues that, that pop up. But generally, people are fairly forgiving as long as the audio is pretty good And sometimes, you know, you run into an issue where like the video is critical, but for the content that I typically do, it doesn’t really matter.
Podcast, it doesn’t really matter. A lot of times people are not even really watching it. They’re doing other stuff. They’re actually just listening on YouTube even though there happens to be video. So anyway, I knew I had this limitation and occasionally I was like, “I wish the video was a little bit better.
I wish the 4K video was a little bit better.” And I knew that I was gonna have to upgrade and get a new camera.
Lenses Over Bodies Mindset
One philosophy that I’ve had since I’ve been interested in photography, like in high school and college, I knew that having good lenses was generally more important than the, you know, the changes in the camera gear.
Occasionally, there would be a, a bigger upgrade. Auto-focus, um, has gotten better over the years, and there’s, like, facial, uh, tracking, and, like, it’ll track your eye and actually focus directly on your eye. It’s very good. So there have been some improvements, but generally, if you have good lenses, then it’s gonna work on, you know, good camera bodies moving forward.
And, like, I have this 10-year-old camera, uh, sitting in front of me. It’s the T7i, and then I have a lens on there that I bought used. That lens is probably 35 years old. It’s all beat to hell. I bought it used from someone that worked at the newspaper at CU Boulder, and this was, like, uh, the, the sports v- lens that they used.
So they beat it up over the years, so it’s all scratched up. The– On, on the outside, the lens, the glass is actually, like, pristine. It’s super sharp, and I got a great deal on it. I li- like, I like a good deal, right? So anyway, my philosophy generally was, like, you don’t need to upgrade your camera bodies too much.
Get good lenses, and you’re gonna be in, in fine shape, and when you need to upgrade, you can upgrade. The cool part is a lot of, a lot of photographers are kinda gear folks, and they like to upgrade to the newest thing. So there’s a very rich and… It’s a great used market, basically. You can get very good stuff, and generally, you know, you can get it depreciated, so you could buy it.
You could use it for a little while, sell it, probably not lose any money. Keep it for a long time, which is what I tend to do. So anyway, time has gone on, and I was like, “You know what? Uh, I, I think it could be time to get the camera body that will work here.” And then the other influence on me was, like, just being in Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Marketplace and, like, selling stuff, buying stuff, seeing what’s out there.
So I’m much more aware that there’s, like, used gear out there that I could get, and I’ve lowered… Or, or I’ve become more comfortable in selling on Facebook Marketplace. So I’ve sold a few things. I actually sold the Fender Blues Junior amp that I mentioned just a couple weeks ago. I put it up, did a little sound clip.
I think I do a reasonably good job with the description of the product, any pros, cons, flaws, a little bit more information, and then I’ll take several pictures. In the case of the amp, I did a, a short sound demo so people knew that it worked. I proved that it wasn’t, um, noisy. None of the, you know, pots, none of the dials made any noise.
Played a couple things, and then people have confidence. And, and actually, I think the video shows up, uh, algorithmically more than just a, basically a product that has no video and just, like, three pictures. So anyway, I try to do a good job on the listings. All that to say I saw this Canon R8, and I was like, “This is actually, like, more than what I was thinking that I was gonna get.”
But knowing that I could turn over some of the other cameras that I have made me feel confident. And that’s the thing, like, I mentioned I, I had three camera bodies, right? So I’ve accumulated them. I, I use them all the time, so it’s worthwhile. However, I don’t want to buy another camera g- body. Now I have four camera bodies, so most likely I’m gonna sell two or three of them.
Strong chance I might sell all three and just get, like, one other newer camera to go hand in hand. I might even get another R8 because it seems to work really well, and it’s kinda nice to have just, like, two duplicate cameras. And I do need two for some other gigs that I do, some other live streaming that I do where I need two cameras.
I don’t use one here in the studio. It’s overkill for what I’m trying to do. But I live stream for some, uh, choirs around here and, uh, choral performances and such. So for those I, I use two cameras with two lenses so I can do a wide shot and I can do an uptight shot. So anyway, I’ve upgraded, and I could tell a big difference right away.
4K Workflow Hits Mac Mini
Now, one of the, one of the things that I ran into was, like, if you’re gonna stream 4K like I am doing here, I’m recording 4K, and it should be much higher quality. I’m actually excited to, uh, stream this on the big 65-inch television in the living room and see how much better it looks than, like, the pr- you know, the previous stuff that I was publishing.
So All that to say, instead of, like, being able to use a USB, uh, um, ca- cable, I now need to attach this camera with a micro HDMI to an HDMI, um, cable, and then I have to have a USB interface to take this HDMI cable and put it into the computer. Great. So now I can get 4K and it looks awesome. And the problem is, I, I plugged it into my Mac Mini, which is my desktop computer, so I have, like, the, the dual camera, um…
Or sorry, the dual monitor setup over there, and then I have my, uh, Mac Mini sitting over there, couple external hard drives. And I got that Mac Mini, I believe, in 2020 most likely. I think I got it in 2020. And it’s a 2018. It is the Intel processor. And I was like, “Oh, shit, 2018. That, that computer is actually getting a little bit old,” even though I specced it out with, uh, 32 gigs of RAM.
So a lot of memory, but it is showing its age a little bit. One of the main areas is the fucking thing, I, I was unable to get 4K video into it. So It’ll record 4K and it’ll record audio, but the audio and video is not synced. So kind of a technical hurdle. Surely you can obviously, um, separate the audio and video, sync them up, and then you’ll be good to go.
But then you end up with an extra piece of the process versus like what I’m doing here. I’m recording this on my MacBook in front of me, which is, um, a newer Mac. It is from 2020. It’s a MacBook Air M1. So the M1 processor is what Apple, uh, created so they wouldn’t have to use Intel processors, and I believe just generally it’s faster, right?
So the architecture is faster, made specifically for Apple by Apple, so it’s faster. Again, this is a 2020 laptop. I think I got this laptop refurbished. I got the Mac Mini. I think I got that one on eBay. I can’t remember. I– Maybe I got them both on eBay, but got, got them a couple years, um, after they were out.
So, um, I tried to use the Mac Mini and I was like, “Oh, video looks awesome. Super cool.” However, there’s a huge lag and the audio is not synced. I thought, “Ah, maybe it’s something to do with my specific HDMI, uh, to USB interface,” but luckily I have another computer and I, I kinda remembered in the back of my mind, I’m like, “Oh, the Intel processors are a little slower.
Maybe the M1 is what I need to check out.” So I did a little test over here on my laptop and I was like, “Cool, it’s working, thank God.” But I was like, “Thank God,” but now I have another problem. So I have my, you know, my desktop computer over there and I’m like, “Ah, fuck, am I gonna… Do I need to upgrade that?”
Can I just use the M1? Can I just use the laptop and run everything off the laptop even though there’s less memory on here? I’m using the external hard drives, maybe that’ll be fine. And then I’m like, well, I, I actually do kind of like having, like, the desktop computer. A Mac Mini is, you know, a little bit cheaper than, like, buying a laptop.
Obviously, there’s less components. It’s just the, the little box. And of course, then you’re like, ah, do I, do I need to upgrade the Mac Mini just so I can do the 4K? The whole thing was unnecessary, by the way. Like, everything is fine. I’m not charging, um, uh, basically I’m making no money from doing this.
Like, there’s no advertisers. Just doing it for fun. Um, I do like gear and gadgets and all that stuff, so I ended up… I’m on a slippery slope where I’m like, “Maybe I need to buy a new Mac Mini,” which, I mean, you have to buy a new computer every now and then, and for years I’ve used laptops and computers until they’re just about to die or they just last forever.
So I still have the preceding laptop from this one. So my old laptop is a MacBook Pro from 2014. The fucking thing still works. So it’s, it’s actually sitting right back there, and at one point I, I actually tried to send it to a VA that was working with me, like, three years ago in, in, um, Eastern Europe. So I, I sent it, I actually sent the fucking thing across the world, boxed it up.
I had the original box, so I boxed it up, sent it, and it showed up there. And what… I, I don’t… I can’t remember how much it cost, like 110 bucks to send over there, and I was like, “Oh, this is probably gonna be cheaper than whatever computer she’ll be able to buy there, and it’ll be a Mac. It’ll be great for her to have, and I can just send it over there.”
So I sent it, it showed up, and then I think she was gonna have to pay, like, a couple hundred dollars in customs. And I was like, “You know what? Don’t do it. Just… The computer’s not worth that, and it’s just, you know, I’m throwing, like, good money after bad.” So anyway, they ended up shipping the thing back because she didn’t pay the customs ’cause I told her, “Don’t do it.”
Anyway, the point is, I tend to use the gear for a long time, and the fact that I have, like, an eight-year-old, um, Mac Mini over there, and then I’m still using this M1, uh, MacBook Air, which is totally fine. I mean, I’ll, I’ll probably keep this. But I am in a position where I’m like, “Okay D- do I go ahead and get a new Mac Mini?
I thought maybe I could find some on Facebook Marketplace. Again, I’m, I’m fine with buying used stuff. However, there, there seems to be a little bit of a supply chain issue, so if you try to buy some stuff over on the Apple website, they’re out of stock. The, like, it’s a month wait for some basic stuff like the Mac that I’m mentioning here.
And then it might be a little bit longer for other, uh, sort of higher grade stuff, stuff with more memory, stuff with, um, more hard drive space because, uh, probably AI data centers have driven the price up for memory, for storage space, and all that stuff. So kinda I find myself where I’m like, “Am I now gonna upgrade, like, everything because, because I started down the path?
Is this a good use of my time, and money, and all that stuff?” Um, luckily, you know, some of the frustration that I have… ‘Cause whenever you get new stuff, um, it, it doesn’t work how you think it’s going to. Like I said, I got the camera, hooked it up, and I was like, “Oh, no, there’s a delay. Am I gonna be able to troubleshoot this and, you know, what, where’s the issue?
Is it with the cable? Is it with the interface? Is it the software that I’m using?” I’m using E- Ecamm Live here to record. Um, you know, maybe if I was using different software, I wouldn’t run into the issue. Like, maybe it’s Ecamm, um, giving me the issue here. But anyway, the, the whole point of this is I’m in a spot where I’m like, “Okay, I have, like, old stuff.
Is it time to upgrade things?” I don’t have to use stuff until it dies, and then it’s always harder to get new stuff when you’re in a time crunch. Like, if, if the computer died and I didn’t have a backup, then I’m scrambling. I can’t do anything. I have to, like, buy a computer right away. Maybe I don’t have as much time to find exactly what I need to do the research or something like that.
But if you, if you get it on your own timeline instead of a forced timeline, it’s a little bit easier. It’s a little bit of, like, risk mitigation ahead of time and me justifying, like, upgrading gear for, you know, fun for no good reason. So where are we at now? I would say there’s maybe, like, an 80% chance that I will upgrade the Mac Mini.
At this point, they have– I think there’s an M5 processor for, like, the, the, you know, cutting edge best stuff out there. The general, like, basic Mac Mini has an M4, I believe with 16 gigabytes of RAM and maybe a 256, um, hard drive, which is roughly the specs on, on this MacBook, um, Air that I have here. It’s, uh, 16 gigs and 256…
Yeah, I have e-external hard drives, so no, no big deal. I don’t need a huge hard drive. Um, but all that, all that to say, like, it’s, it’s the processor. Like, the processor is the big deal. So most likely I’ll upgrade. It appears like they– it, it’ll be maybe about 800 bucks with taxes, something like that. Maybe the prices have gone up a little bit.
I actually was perusing on, uh, Facebook Marketplace, and I saw that I guess people have them, like, boxed, like, unopened, and they’re like, “These aren’t available.” They’re trying to sell them for $1,000, and if you bought it from Apple, it would be, like, eight fifty. I’m making up the numbers, but that’s the general idea.
So they’re like, they bought something a couple months ago and for whatever reason didn’t open it. Um, I think sometimes it’s like companies… Actually, I have no idea. Like, I obviously I don’t buy a ton of stuff, so when I buy it, I’ve done, like, a couple weeks of research. Like, I kind of… I’m like, “Do I really wanna do this?”
It’s $1,000 or whatever. So the thing is, computers are cheaper than ever. Like that MacBook, um, from 2014 that I was mentioning that I still have, it still works. I, I think I, I probably paid, like, $1,500 for that. But now I can get a machine that’s, you know, whatever, 10 times faster or 50 ti- I don’t even know.
It’s, uh Probably so, I mean, I can’t even run much stuff on the, the 2014. It’ll do normal web browsing and some basics, but, but anyway, I can get a much, much better computer for half the price, and it’s a great, you know, it’s a great deal. It’ll last for many years. I’ve not had any, knock on wood, haven’t had any trouble with Macs or Apple products.
They, they tend to work really well, and they tend to last for a very long time.
Selling Gear on Marketplace
So I think 80% chance I’ll get a new Mac Mini, and there is 100% chance that I’ll sell the Canon T7i and the SL3. I’ll probably bundle a couple, like a lens with each one of them, because like the T7i would actually be a fantastic like travel setup with the 18 to 135 millimeter lens that…
Actually, that’s my preferred like travel lens along with that, that camera. It’s light enough. It, um, has the zoom, so it would be perfect if someone was like, “Yeah, I want like a travel camera.” It should be great. And the SL3, it’s a newer camera. It’s smaller. It’s great for like vlogging or if someone were to set it up as like a webcam or something like that.
Um, but for vlogging, it’s kind of perfect. So I would probably, um, put that with a 10 to 18 A zoom lens, which is nice and wide, great for vlogging. And the thing is, both of those lenses, I love them, but at the same time, I’m kind of moving in the direction of, like, the mirrorless setup. So I’ll still be able to use my old lenses, but some, you know, those zooms don’t exactly make sense, and if I could bundle, then I can keep the clutter down ’cause I- I’m looking over there.
I have, like, eight lenses sitting around, right? Like, I need to sell some of them because I don’t need eight lenses. There’s some slight overlap, some slight duplication, but if I get rid of those bodies, those are a couple lenses I should send along with it. And then I actually have, like, a 24 2.8 and then a 50 1.8 that I’ll probably try to bundle with those, ’cause it’ll be really nice to just have a pack, like, a few lenses.
Um, it’ll go to a good home, and hopefully I’ll be able to sell them fairly quickly. Now, the cool thing, like I said, with the, that Fender Blues Jr. that I sold, I listed it and someone, the person that bought it, messaged me within, like, two hours and they ended up taking it home two days later. Another person was extremely interested.
So it was priced competitively, and I, I thought someone would haggle a little bit more, but they paid, you know, asking price, which tells me, like, that was a, a very fair price since multiple people were interested at that price point. That said, I don’t know exactly what the price point will be for these cameras, but one thing that I have enjoyed that I will take advantage of is I don’t n- I want the buyer to feel like they got a good deal, and I want them to be happy with it.
And I also don’t wanna fuck around and haggle with people over, like, $20 or $50 or even, depending on the, the price point, I don’t wanna haggle over, like, 80 or $100. Like, if, if they take it home and they’re like, “You know what? I got such a good deal.” The guy was just like, me being the guy, the guy was just like, “I want you to be happy with the camera.
Here’s a couple, uh, whatever. Here’s a memory card,” or whatever kinda thing I could throw in, or the lens cover and a strap or, or whatever. But the, the point is, I want them to be happy with it, and I don’t wanna waste time haggling, and I don’t wanna have a, a product listed for, you know, two weeks where I have to answer a bunch of fucking messages.
I want it to go fairly quickly, and I wanna be able To put it on the market and then someone see it and think, “That’s a great… That’s a really good deal. I would like to buy that.” So I, I believe I will err on the side of pricing it a little bit low, like maybe right around what other people are listing or a tad lower.
There’s, there’s often a range, of course, but sometimes like, you know, the T7i, like maybe I’ll price it what people will, um… Sorry. Maybe I’ll price it exactly what other folks are, um, charging for the, just the body, but I’ll include a lens with it, you know, just to make sure it’s a really good deal. And I haven’t sold, um, a- any electronic stuff really, so this will be the first time listing, you know, the cameras and all that stuff.
Most likely I’ll get a new Mac Mini and then I’ll migrate the old Mac Mini over to the new one before I’ll sell the, the old Mac. And of course, uh, most people know like it’s, it’s fairly easy to go ahead and wipe the hard drive and do the factory restore and reset and all that stuff, so totally wipes it.
For I think most of the, the gear that I have, uh, computer-wise specifically, I actually still have the, the box. So I think it doesn’t really matter that much, but it does show that like you’ve cared for the product. So like showing the original box and the pr- packaging and all that stuff, I think it does make people feel a little bit better.
I know, you know, when I see that versus like someone that, whatever, they just put it in a cardboard box and throw it around or whatever, it doesn’t feel as good as if they actually have cared for the box. You know, they, they brought it home new kinda thing. So that’s what I’m looking at. It’s interesting because I wasn’t specifically planning on upgrading the camera in the short term.
I was like, “Ah, you know what? I’ll keep an eye on it.” The computer I knew was getting a little slower, and I knew that I was gonna have to do something with it. The other thing is, like, I have a producer for my other show, Mile High Five. He has an old laptop, probably seven or eight years old, and he’s like, “Yeah, things are pretty slow.”
So I already told him I will get him a laptop if he just lets, lets me know what he needs, or I’ll give him roughly a, a little bit of a budget. Um, but I was like, “I don’t know what you need exactly, but, you know, I can buy you one, and then you’ll have what you need, so you can do the work that you need to do.”
So yeah, we’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out. But, you know, the, one of the, the pieces of inertia is as I’m decluttering my area and trying not to buy stuff and, like, not get rid of old stuff, I needed a way to, like, get rid of the old stuff, which, you know, I, I’m not a… I don’t know what you would do exactly back in the day.
I mean, you would potentially… I’m trying to think of my old, old computers, ’cause I obviously had them over the years. I would, you know, sell them if I could on eBay. But, you know, I built several of the computers that I used before I switched over to a Mac, and fuck, I, I don’t remember what I did with them.
I- maybe I gave them to other friends who built computers. Maybe I, you know, took out the power supply and took out the memory and hard drives and anything that I could take out of there. But sometimes you just have, like, a, the old box that you can’t do anything with ’cause there’s really not much value in it.
In fact, I did go to the Apple website, and I was like, “What is the trade-in value for my Mac Mini over there?” And it was 60 bucks. I think I’ll probably try to charge, you know, two or $300 when I sell it on Marketplace, but the six… ‘Cause I mean, like, it actually works pretty well, and if you’re not doing video editing or video processing, it’s actually pretty good actually.
Maybe I should check with my wife to see if, if she could use it. She’s not a, she’s not really a Mac person, so she would have a little bit of a hard time. But she has started using her, um, iPad more. So the The, I guess the transition to try to use a Mac would be a little bit easier. But, um, anyway, the point is, I needed a, a place to get rid of the old stuff, the old camera gear, without feeling like I’m, like, just donating a camera that’s still worth, like, 300 or 400 or $500, just, like, donating it to Goodwill or something like that.
So we do have all these pieces, or all these, uh, marketplaces out there to use. It’s just I, I was, like, so not used to it, and you’ve heard my journey out there where I’m, like, slowly testing things out and I’m like, “Hey, this isn’t so bad. People are not trying to scam me.” I, I mean, I sold my truck on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, but I think the actual contact was through Facebook.
So anyway, I mean, there is, there is a, a marketplace. There’s a way to do it. It’s just like I had to start small, although I started huge with the truck, but start small and, like, make sure certain things are, are worth the time. So it has been good. It’s been fun buying guitars, buying amps, selling guitars, selling amps.
Now it’s camera stuff, so it, it’s, it’s practical, and I’m able to get something out of it.
Wrap Up and Next Interviews
So if anyone has tips or ideas or anything like that, do let me know. You could leave a comment over on the YouTube side or shoot me an email, feedback@doug.show. I have a few interviews coming up soon, so I have started, uh, laying the foundation to have more interviews.
I mentioned a couple episodes ago that doing the interviews is actually pretty fun. Like, the solo episodes, depending on what’s going on, I may or may not have something to… specific to talk about in the marketing or business area. That’s fewer and far between. Luckily, you know, studio gear, slightly interesting I’m selling stuff, so there’s some marketing aspect, there’s some sales aspect.
And I mean, from a, you know, just a, a business idea perspective, there… I mean, people do this, but there’s certainly an opportunity to have certain maybe, like, categories of products where you’re an expert in, and know what is a good deal, what can be improved by you adding value. But basically, there’s an arbitrage op- opportunity for sure where, like, you could find good buys on certain things, buy them, and then sell them later.
Maybe there’s some geographic aspect, too, where I’ve seen stuff outside of the Denver metro area sell for a little cheaper because there’s fewer people out there, and if someone’s gonna, you know, buy something, um, and they live in Denver and they have to drive, you know, two hours to get to it, I mean, that’s…
I mean, just the time alone costs something, but the gas, uh, also literally costs more money. So things are priced a certain way, but if you have, uh, maybe you travel a little bit more, you’re able to buy stuff at, um, a bargain farther away from the, the main metro population, then you’re able to actually buy it a little cheaper, sell it for a little bit more.
But certainly an opportunity there. And I think if it’s a certain category of product that you enjoy, well, then it’s kind of fun. I mean, when I do look at listings, I can see there’s some people that I don’t know if they, uh, buy and sell guitars full time, but they have stuff all the time, and I don’t know where they’re getting it.
They’re selling it at a, you know, reasonable price. But basically, you know, they’re, they’re buying it low and they’re selling it a little bit higher. And if it’s something that you enjoy and you have fun with those products, like, it’s a no-brainer to give it a shot. So anyway, you can shoot me an email. Let me know what you think, and I’ll catch you on the next episode.
Have a good one.