This is my entire YouTube studio all on one desk. From here I can record talking head videos, shoot tabletop b-roll for product reviews, and even capture thumbnails, all without ever changing the setup. So in this video I'll walk you through the gear I chose, how to put it together, and demonstrate its various uses for content creation.
Now I've been making videos in this space for about 6 years now, and one of the biggest challenges I've faced is constantly setting up and tearing down equipment for different shots. And after years of experimenting with different setups, I finally decided to build this all-in-one solution that allows me to make videos in less time with less friction. And I thought I would share this all with you. So to kick things off, let's go over the gear I chose for this build. At the heart of this setup is the desk, and I use the motorized sit-stand desk from Flexispot, which is perfect for standing up or sitting down when you're recording your video.
This is the 48 by 24 inch version which provides plenty of room for filming top down b-roll while still allowing you to move around. There's also a 40 inch version that you could use if you want to save space and will work just as well. I decided to pick up these wheels also made by Flexispot and that allows me to move the desk around my bedroom for different setups or I can roll it back against the wall to keep things tidy.
There are several different surface options you can choose from. I chose the white surface because it not only gives a clean look for my b-roll, but it also reflects the light well acting as a natural fill light for my videos. From here we're going to be attaching a bunch of different gear and one thing I wanted to do is have a power solution to power all my different equipment.
So I decided to pick up this power strip and screw it onto the bottom of the desk and now I have a bunch of different outlets for powering my camera equipment. I also purchased these cable trays to keep everything organized. In a setup like this, it's definitely good to have cable management to keep your workspace clean.
This desk comes with this handy headphone holders which can be used to keep extra cords organized or in my case I can use it to hold my video light control box. For the video light, I'm using my old Aputure 120D. It's plenty bright for this setup and I love that I can control it with this remote.
Unfortunately, the 120D is not available new but you could use something like the Amaran 60D. DS which will work quite well. My go-to for soft lighting is this 36 inch softbox but this setup was much too deep and would stick out onto the desk.
After some shopping I found this softbox made by Godox which is about half the depth of a traditional softbox but provides the same level of softness thanks to its width and its layers of diffusion. Attaching the light to the desk can be tricky if you use a basic light stand it will stick far into the desk but luckily I found this really cool desk magic arm. made by Rabe. It allows you to position the light away from the desk to get into the perfect position. It's kind of pricey at $70, but it's worth it in my opinion.
So that way I can get my light exactly where I want it. Next, let's talk about the camera rig, which is made by Tarion, who are actually sponsoring today's video. I was in the middle of building this setup when they reached out with their camera desk rigs, and I'm glad they did because I think this is the perfect option.
I've used other rigs in the past, but unfortunately they would be a bit wobbly. These, however, are rock solid thanks to its sturdy base, and it allows plenty of flexibility for mounting your camera. It comes with everything you need, including a desk mount, extension column, arm, ball head, and even this iPad mount they could use to attach a tablet or your phone to this rig.
In order to mount this rig to your desk, simply slide it on, then turn the two tightening knobs until it's secure. From here, we can add our camera arm and lock it in place. Then we can attach the camera to the included ball head and secure it.
Now, the camera I've been using recently is the Sony ZV-E10 Mark II. It's great for this build because it's lightweight and has excellent image quality and autofocus for filming YouTube videos. The lens I have paired with it is the Sigma 16 F1.4, which gives you a very wide field of view. And at F1.4, it lets in a ton of light and has a shallow depth of field to separate you from the background.
In order to power the camera, I picked up this dummy power adapter for around $25. This is crucial because it allows me to shoot continuously without worrying about battery life, which is especially useful for long filming sessions. Moving on to the second camera angle, I wanted an overhead setup that I could use for filming unboxings and b-roll for my videos.
You could use a stand and boom your camera above to get that overhead look. However, for this build, I really wanted everything on one desk. So I decided to use this heavy duty articulating camera arm, also made by Tarion, which has these flexible gear joints for allowing you to adjust the camera into the perfect position.
It can support about 6.6 pounds in this horizontal configuration, which is plenty for our use. And I love that these knurled joints help lock the camera so it doesn't sag and it doesn't shake too much. Now, instead of using... the included desk mount, you can conveniently attach it to the top of our previous rig to save on space. This adds height to the overall setup and allows the arm to move out so we have more range for positioning the camera.
For the overhead camera, I'm using the Sony ZV-E10 Mark I, and while it's not as nice as the Mark II, it offers good enough image quality for overhead B-roll, especially when it's properly exposed. And the lens I'm using with it is the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8. which is a tiny lightweight lens that gives me the flexibility to change up the framing.
I love this lens because it is super sharp and allows for crazy minimum focus distance so you can get really close up on products. Again, I have a dummy battery powering the camera and I have an HDMI cable coming from the camera to this external monitor so I can make sure my image is framed up properly and I can see what I'm filming without having to look up at the camera. The monitor that I'm using is the OCG7, which is a 7-inch camera monitor, and that is attached to the center column of this desk rig with a friction arm.
Now this monitor may be a little overkill for this setup, but I already had it in my kit. You could go with something like a 5-inch camera monitor, but I do find that the larger display is nice since you are a few feet away. For audio, you could use something like a wireless mic so that way you can roam around freely.
but I actually prefer to have everything ready to go. So I decided to mount a boom microphone to this rig. The microphone I decided to use is the Rode VideoMic Go 2, which at $100, it sounds pretty decent. It's also extremely lightweight, which is perfect for a setup like this.
In order to mount this to the rig, I simply used a friction arm and this cold shoe adapter and then clamped that onto the overhead rig. Then you can connect this to your camera through the microphone jack. Now you could just mount this to the overhead rig, which is actually kind of nice, or you could run a 3.5 millimeter extension cable all the way into the main camera angle. As long as you're recording with both, it shouldn't matter which camera you're connected to. And with that, the rig is complete.
This is what it looks and what it sounds like. And again, this setup is on wheels, so I can move this around my space, change it up, get different backgrounds, all without ever having to change. anything directly on this setup.
Now there are a few different configurations you can use this for. So let's quickly go through a few different options. Number one is talking head video. So just as I'm doing right now, I can talk to the camera.
I've got my nice soft lighting right here. My microphone is perfectly in place. So all I gotta do is step up, press record, and I am good to go.
Of course, this is a sit stand desk. So I could do this standing like I'm doing now, or I could sit down if I want a more relaxed vibe. The second setup is an overhead setup. So a lot of times I'm doing product reviews or unboxings and I just want an overhead setup that's very clean, very minimal. So right here we have just a nice white look.
I have my little color checker right there, but let's say I wanted to review a lens or so. Can move this out of the way and just have that perfectly. It's auto-focusing so I didn't have to worry about that.
I can just work from here, grab the different shots I need. I could even throw in different props here in the corner. And here we go.
It adds just a little bit more interest while still having a clean look. One thing that I enjoy using are these vinyl desk mats. So you can get these in different sizes, but this just adds a whole new vibe to your video. If you're looking for an extra pop of color, again, if I just had that same setup as before, this just adds a whole new look to the video. And these desk mats are pretty inexpensive and a great way to change up the look of your video.
And because I'm using a zoom lens, I can actually change up the framing. So if I wanna zoom in, I can get an even tighter look like this, or I can go a bit wider if I have a larger product and I can just frame it up just how I see fit. I just love that flexibility.
So I don't have to worry about raising or lowering the camera. And again, the Sigma lens has super close minimum focus distance. So like right there, this is crazy. It's just a few inches from the camera, but in focus. So that just adds to the versatility of what you can do with this setup.
Number three is multi-camera. Because we have our A-roll camera and our overhead camera, we can actually hit record on both. And let's say I'm filming a video and I want to show you a product.
Well, I can do so without ever having to later film in the B-roll clip and insert it in. I can just present it live, which is super cool and helps speed up your workflow. This mat in particular has color on both sides.
So I could have orange or this lighter pale green on the other side, which just kind of adds a little bit of different options depending on what you're filming, what color scheme you're going for. Number four is you can add a laptop to the setup for even more versatility. So go ahead and grab your laptop, grab an HDMI capture card. That way we can connect our cable. through the HDMI and into our computer.
Once it's all connected, your laptop will recognize your computer as a webcam. That means you can have your top notch video, your lighting, your audio as your main webcam, which is fantastic if you are streaming or let's say you're doing a Zoom call, this app will work perfectly for that. The fifth way we can use this up is for what I call tabletop filmmaking.
If you watch any of my videos before, typically I'm filming on a white surface, filming cameras or other gear with the wall or background just behind it. And because we smartly mounted our camera rig and our lights off to the side, we have a little over three feet where we can actually just film a nice clean look for our product B-roll. Because we have a nice large surface and it's on wheels, We can imagine this whole setup being a pseudo tripod.
You can grab a little tabletop tripod, mount your camera, wheel this around your studio, and if you're filming something that's not on the table, you can get some really cool looks. Of course, this desk is motorized, so you could even use this as a dolly of some kind. So really cool stuff you can do with this if you get creative.
One of my favorite little tools I've been playing around recently. is this tiny cheap slider. It's a motorized slider.
So I could simply move around, put my camera on the slider and have some really dynamic shots. And with this, you can just imagine how quickly you're able to capture footage that's really high quality, fast and simple. So for example, let's say you're filming something that's big and does not fit on a table. You can simply rotate your light around. You can adjust the camera height with the desk because it's motorized.
pop on your camera on a little motorized slider, and in just a few adjustments, you can capture some really dynamic movement really fast and simply. One thing that takes up more time than I realize when I'm making videos is grabbing simple and clean thumbnails. And I was so excited to have this kind of implemented in this rig so that way I could speed up that part of the YouTube content creation process. So because we have our camera, we already have the good lighting. All we gotta do is just find a nice clean back wall, turn on the light, turn on the camera, and snap a few photos with some different poses holding up a product.
And with that, I can remove the wall in post, replace it with something really cool. And in just a matter of a few minutes, you can grab several different options all with this setup, which is super nice to have. And once we're done for the day, we can simply roll this whole setup into a corner when it's not in use to keep things nice and clean in your space.
All right, so I calculated the total cost of this setup and it comes out to around $900 minus the cameras and lenses, which honestly sounds like a lot at first, but once you break it down, that's only $3 to $350 for the table, the wheels, the organizer, the rigs, the power cables. If you wanted to achieve the same setup traditionally, you'd have to buy tripods, light stands. and a bunch of other rigging things.
So you're still spending around two to $300 and that's not even the most high quality gear. And don't forget, you still need to buy the items like the lights, the microphone, the camera monitor. Once we break it down like that, it's only about one to $200 more to get this result and it's a low footprint and it saves you just so much time.
Overall, I am very pleased with this desk setup. It has significantly changed my workflow. allows me to shoot faster without compromising on the kinds of shots I'm wanting to achieve.
Let me know in the comments down below if you plan on making one, and if you're looking to improve your filmmaking this year, then be sure to check out this video right here. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll catch you in the next one. Peace.