Essential gear for starting your travel vlog: A beginner’s guide
Here is the essential gear for starting your travel vlog, including a quality smartphone camera, wireless microphone, portable selfie-stick/tripod, and video editing software, to capture and produce stunning content. Picture: Farryn Sherman
Image: Farryn Sherman
Travelling vlogs are all the rage these days, and that has a lot to do with the fact that you probably have most of the gear before you start.
The main thing you need is a good camera, and with any smartphone from the last five or so years, the quality is good enough to start a travel channel on your platform of choice.
In fact, most phones these days have excellent cameras and record in 4K, which is still cutting edge in 2025.
At the core of any travel vlog, filming interesting or pretty scenery is the starting point, and capturing those scenes with decent equipment is paramount.
However, there are a few pieces of equipment that can help ensure you get the best footage possible.
1. Microphone
Most travel vloggers do a lot of selfie filming and talking to the camera, and there’s nothing worse than a beautiful scene let down by bad sound. This is especially true when filming outdoors, when any kind of wind can radically affect the audio. A wireless mic, therefore, is a non-negotiable. A decent wireless mic that connects to your phone will cost at least R500 but will make the world of difference.
2. Portable selfie-stick/tripod
Working in conjunction with a wireless mic, a tripod to secure your camera in position is just as important. Most mid-range selfie sticks have fold-out tripod legs these days, and a 42cm selfie stick can, for example, easily extend to around 1.5m. A selfie stick like this is also incredibly handy if you can extend it to get high-angle shots and also help with filming cinematic low-angle shots. Look to spend at least R800 here to ensure you pick up something decent.
3. Video Editing software
Though not technically equipment, some sort of video editing software is essential to bring all your clips together and tweak any audio or visual settings. There’s plenty of free software out there, and I’m always amazed by what you can do with the free version of CapCut. This is available on mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, so there’s no reason anyone can’t go out there and create good content right from the start.