5 Best Poker Vlogging Cameras [How To Film It?]

Nowadays, vlogging has unlocked a lot of opportunities for people who have hobbies and want to earn additional money.

You can easily travel the world, record your trip, do your favorite activities, engage with your audience, and earn money from YouTube.

This article is for poker players who want to record their poker vlog, but don’t know how to film it and what kind of camera they should use.

In this guide, we will help you to find out what are the best poker vlogging cameras in the market.

What is a Poker Vlog?

If this type of vlogging is new to you, we are happy to tell you more about it:

People who are vlogging show their regular life, traveling experiences, and routines. However, if you are a poker vlogger, then it is apparent that you are going to show your daily life as a poker player.

Usually, poker vlogs are entertaining and sometimes can be educational for beginner poker players. It depends on the content you are the most familiar with. If you are a great teacher and poker professional, you could create a perfect educational poker vlog like Doug Polk.

Here’s the deal:

If you are a professional poker player, you can easily vlog your poker game and show your techniques and experience to other starting poker players.

Usually, a poker vlog takes 10-30 minutes of playing; however, you can vlog as much as you want. Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen create perfect poker vlogs in general.

They are one of the most popular poker vloggers, and you can learn more about vlogging experience and poker games.

Source: Andrew Neeme

How To Film a Poker Vlog?

Before starting a poker vlog, you should know that many casinos don’t like people with cameras.

What we mean by saying this, is that if you are going to come into a casino and start pointing at people with your camera, you can get banned from that casino, that’s for sure. Well, at least at most of the casinos in the world.

It would be best if you had a technique that allows you to play the game and record your experience.

Here’s the solution:

Almost all vloggers, while sitting at the poker table and want to film action at the table, use mobile phones. Mobile phones are allowed at the table, but you need to be careful while filming with a phone.

So if you want to film a great poker vlog, follow these tips:

• You can film your daily life and your trip to any casino in your town;
• You can shoot how the casino looks like and your emotions about it;
• At the table only use mobile phones to record the game;

Lean your phone’s windshield on the poker table and set the camera so that your cards are properly seen. It may take time to learn, but this is the only way that works great when filming poker games at the casino.

• Record only cards, chips, and the entire table don’t show other people (don’t point your camera at other players’ faces).

If you are planning to record online poker tournaments at home – feel free to act as you want, but don’t forget to use a good webcam and required software to record your computer screen.

Best Cameras For Poker Vlogging

All poker cameras from this list were selected based on the experience of poker players.

1. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra – Best Smartphone for Live Poker Vlogging

If you are looking for the best poker vlogging phone camera in 2024, then meet the Samsung S22 Ultra smartphone. Stylish with a slim design, the S22 ultra produces outstanding performance when it comes to poker vlogging.

Equipped with the same quad camera setup as the S21 Ultra but having two optical zoom cameras, the Samsung S22 Ultra has the main 108MP camera, 12MP ultra-wide which is great for low light performance and image clarity.

Aside from that, it has night mode features, which are great when shooting poker games in a low-light environment.

Of course, we can’t forget the macro mode feature that uses an ultra-wide-angle camera to capture close-up objects. There’s also the Director’s View mode that basically enables one to shoot videos via multiple cameras.

These two features are pretty helpful for poker vloggers as they get to capture detailed information at the poker table as well as shoot different players via multiple cameras. As for recording, the Samsung S22 Ultra has Zoom–in MIC that focuses on the direction of the sound enabling poker vloggers to capture sound more clearly.

The battery life is not that bad as it lasts at least 12 hours on video shooting; this is enough time for vloggers to shoot a poker match without the camera’s battery dying. For storage capacity, the camera has different internal storage. However, the lack of a microSD card for internal memory expansion is a bit of a letdown especially if you are buying the 128GB RAM phone.

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2. Apple iPhone 14 Pro – The Most Popular Device Between Poker Players

In the past few years, the iPhone has taken slower steps in developing high-quality cameras. However, the game is changed by Apple released its new iPhone 14 Pro.

Comprising three 12MP rear cameras; the smartphone also has a 3D LiDAR scanner which makes autofocus more accurate whenever a vlogger wants to take stills of the poker items or the table.

When it comes to videos, the iPhone 14 Pro has 4K@60fps capabilities as well as a new cinematic mode. Interestingly, the mode uses rack focus to seamlessly shift the focus from one subject to another when capturing video, therefore, making it a must-have for poker vloggers.

Better yet, the phone supports ProRes recording in HDR which is also a great benefit to poker vloggers since it allows greater control when editing videos. Just keep in mind, that the ProRes doesn’t support 128GB RAM.

What about the built-in microphones?

They are pretty good at recording any poker events or even podcasts about poker. However, for capturing clear sound you can use an external microphone.

The battery doesn’t disappoint as it lasts longer than the iPhone 12 or 13 Pro. This means it can last a day without needing to be charged. It also supports fast charging when using a Lightning to USB-C cable making it possible to charge in just an hour.

Lastly, the phone supports 5G connectivity; this is a big plus for poker vloggers as well as other YouTubers since you get to upload videos much faster.

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3. Canon PowerShot G7 x Mark III – Superior Camera for Poker Vlogs

It goes without saying that the Canon PowerShot G7 x Mark III camera is mentioned in practically every “The Best Cameras” sort of guide.

It’s for a good reason: the G7 x Mark III remains one of the greatest cameras for any type of vlog.

The camera has an excellent AutoFocus system, a high-quality lens, strong image stabilization, and, of course, a tiltable touchscreen, which is quite helpful for vloggers.

Furthermore, the G7 x Mark III improves on its predecessor, the Mark II, with 4K video quality and a 3.5mm connection for any extra microphones to make your vlog even better in quality.

These major features are super helpful for creating poker type vlogs.

What could you ask more for vlogging?

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4. Sony ZV-1 – Our Favorite Poker Vlogging Camera

Looking for a compact camera that is specially designed for daily vlogging? The Sony ZV-1 has you covered.

Aimed squarely for all types of vlogging, poker vloggers get the opportunity to experience its amazing features while shooting a poker game or when live streaming.

With a ton of features to make poker vlogging easy, the Sony ZV-1 has a side opening swiveling touchscreen LCD display which comes in handy when composing shots in selfie mode.

Moreover, they introduced a new feature known as a product Showcase that enables vloggers to focus on the item in front of the camera. This makes it easy for poker vloggers to focus on the poker table without the camera moving to the player’s faces.

As for audio, the directional 3-capsule microphone is designed to capture clearly the vlogger’s voice while minimizing the background noise especially when live streaming. That said, you can also use an external microphone if you want to reduce any wind noise or the wind muff (dead cat) that is included with the camera.

Finally, the Sony ZV-1 offers 4K capabilities as well as a built-in ND filter which enables shooting in very bright light and in a low light setting too.

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5. Sony HX80/B – Best Budget Camera for Poker Vlogging

Last but not least camera on this list is the Sony HX80/B point and shoot camera for poker vlogs.

It has a compact design and a 30x Optical Zoom Lens with an EVF. Also, the camera has an 18.2MP 1″ Exmor R CMOS sensor and 5-axis SteadyShot picture stabilization.

If you have the chance to record your poker game at the casino playing hands, the Optical Zoom lens will allow you to zoom in on all of the cards on your poker table. In reality, it is not very likely to happen, but who knows? Also, you could use that feature to play your home games.

Furthermore, the powerful BIONZ X image processing ensures that you get the greatest budget and pocket-friendly camera for your poker vlogging experience.

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Summing-up

If you love playing poker why not start recording video blogs? It can be a fun way to start your YouTuber career.

However, if you want to maintain professionalism, you need to follow every casino’s rules. In this way, you will not get banned and can continue your poker vlogging.

Remember that you can’t film with the camera while you are at the table. Instead, you can use side shooting or vlogging with your phone.

Besides, we have tried to help you by providing the best cameras for poker vlogging. We highly recommend recording the table with your smartphone and for side content use a camera like the Canon PowerShot G7 x Mark III or Sony ZV-1.

All options are great if you will have great audio and video quality.