Recommended video kit for Financial Planners

We’re often asked by Financial Planners about the kit they should buy to start creating video content.

Producing videos is an excellent way for Financial Planners to engage with new and existing clients.

It’s a highly authentic form of content, with the ability to connect with your prospective clients on a level that written blogs doesn’t allow.

The following kit recommendations are not the cheapest, but they will result in very high quality video content for your website, social media or YouTube channel.

As always, this is our tried and tested kit. We use all of the following items on a daily basis in the Bamford Media office, so we know it works as intended!

Get all of this kit in one place

Camera

I spent years as a Nikon fanboi for photography, so it took a lot of mental effort to make the shift to Canon for video.

My recommended camera for Financial Planners is the Canon EOS M50.

This mirrorless camera comes with a 15-45 mm lens. Most importantly, it has three features which I’ve not been able to find in other mirrorless cameras at this price point:

1 – It shoots 4k video.

2 – It has a flip-out screen, for vlog-style selfie filming.

3 – It sports an external mic plugin, essential for the reasons described in the next item!

Audio

Getting the sound right in your videos is critical. While viewers can forgive poor picture quality, they won’t watch your video for long unless you get the sound quality right.

What you must never do is rely on the on-board microphone that comes with your camera.

Instead, mic yourself up with the Rode Wireless GO compact microphone system.

The wireless receiver sits on your camera hotshoe and plugs into the external mic input. The transmitter (which includes a microphone) clips onto your collar.

Take this setup to the next level by adding a Rode Smartlav + lavalier microphone (you will need the Rode SC3 adapter as well).

Platforms

While viewers might forgive poor video if you offer excellent audio, there’s no reason to ignore the quality of your video production.

For static shots, always place the camera on a tripod. We love the Manfrotto tripod for this.

For moving shots, a gimbal is the way to go. Our favourite is the DJI Ronin SC, which allows us to capture beautifully cinematic gliding shots.

Lighting

A good camera becomes a great camera with the right lighting.

There are two ways to go with this.

The simplest/cheapest option is to buy a ring light, as used by many of the beauty vloggers on YouTube. This 14″ ring light is very effective and gives your eyes a nice circular light reflection, which looks great on camera.

A slightly more expensive option is a pair of LED light panels. These come with batteries which last for around 3 hours before they need charging.

Editing

It’s perfectly possible to edit video using free software on your PC or Mac. There’s a good list here.

Once you start working with 4k video, and want to produce something more professional looking, it’s time to invest in more powerful software.

Editing software is very much a personal preference. Here at Bamford Media, we edit video on an iMac running Final Cut Pro X.

An alternative to investing in powerful computers and expensive editing software is to film your content in house, and then share the files with us via Dropbox (or courier a portable hard drive to our office) so we can edit for you.

Another part of the editing process, which we also handle on behalf of our clients, is cutting longer videos into shorter clips suitable for social media sharing.

The ultimate app for this work is Headliner, which also adds a transcript and titles to your clips, making them incredibly engaging on social.

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Do you have any questions about the video kit you need as a Financial Planner?

Fancy working with us to create engaging video content for your website and social media?

Schedule some time in my calendar and let’s have a chat over Zoom to find out more about how we can help.