Schedule
One important aspect of keeping an active blog of any kind is keeping to a release schedule, and having fresh content to release as you expand and maintain your audience. So, it becomes important to have a fair bit of content ready to go because, as we all know, life happens and gets in the way of our plans. Granted, you will want to keep your content timely, but ensuring you can deliver to your audience a new episode, especially when there is nothing topical going on, is a key to success.
Editing
The ZV-1 records 4K as MP4 using the XAVC S codec with a data rate up to 100 Mb/s, and HD in AVCHD at up to 24 Mb/s, both of which should be easy for your NLE (non-linear editing) system to handle, so you aren’t going to need any special hardware to work with your footage. It captures to SD cards—SDHC, SDHC, or Sony’s own Memory Stick Duo Hybrid cards.
Production Value
Another key to success with vlogging is going to be the quality of your picture and your audio. High-quality picture and sound are of utmost importance here, especially if your segments are longer. Someone may be willing to tolerate five seconds of bad picture or sound, but it becomes very difficult to keep my attention for several minutes if I can’t see what you are showing me or, worse, I can’t hear what you are saying. I’ve got too many things competing for my time. This is where the ZV-1 and its 4K resolution and nifty shooting features really shine. If you want to see an example of what I am referring to, check out this video made entirely using the ZV-1 by B&H’s Jake Estes.
Lens
An integrated 35mm equivalent 24 to 70mm lens is built into the camera and covers a popular focal-length range. Fast at f/1.8 at the wide end, it is a little slower at the long end, but not a bad tradeoff considering how small and lightweight the lens is. The lens features a manual zoom ring that lets you step between five common focal lengths—24, 28, 35, 50, and 70mm—by rotating the zoom control ring, so you don’t have to stop shooting to get to the focal length you want. Additionally, the lens supports the camera’s autofocus system, and works in conjunction with the camera’s more creative functions such as background defocus.
Audio
Built into the top of the camera is an unassuming microphone. Hard to see, it offers a fair amount of rejection of background audio so you can clearly hear your on-camera subject, usually yourself, clearly. A windscreen is included, to help prevent distracting audio artifacts caused by the wind rushing over the microphone. Surprisingly, or perhaps not considering the amount of time Sony put into making this camera, this built-in mic delivers excellent audio, and you can always use external mics using the built-in 3.5mm mic jack.