How to livestream with a DSLR camera (Simplified set up and tutorial)

I’m walking you through how to start using your DSLR camera to live stream on YouTube and/or Facebook. I’m covering the equipment I use, how to set it up with live stream software I use: Ecamm Live and Streamyard.

🔴Sign up for my free Facebook Live Masterclass🔴: https://saranguyenonline.com/special/4-step-framework-to-convert-facebook-livestreams-into-buyers/

⚙️Equipment mentioned⚙️

Capture card

High end – Avermedia Live Gamer Ultra 4K: https://amzn.to/2DZmWNK
(I got this in August 2020 and am testing it out. love it so far!)

Mid range – Elgato Cam Link 4K: https://amzn.to/2LulnYz
(I’ve been using this for a while but am having problems with it now that I’m trying to resolve with Elgato support)

Budget option – HD Capture card: https://amzn.to/2DIPJ9e

🎤Microphones🎤
Rode NT USB Mini: https://www.rode.com/microphones/nt-usb_mini?buyitnow
My review of the Rode NT USB mini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_rxxdenTaU

Deity D3 Pro Shotgun microphone: https://amzn.to/3dkBovv
My review of the Deity D3 Pro: https://youtu.be/6QExTwjiBBg

📸 DSLR Camera that I use📸 :

Canon 90D: https://amzn.to/2R7KlQV

How to livestream with a DSLR camera – Video Transcript

Okay, so let’s get started. So hello, and welcome, whether you are catching me live now, or if you’re watching us on the replay. Today, I am going to be covering a favourite topic of mine.

I’m going to show you how to livestream using a DSLR camera. And this really will be a simplified tutorial and walk through of what I personally use. So before you go, do I have to do it this way? No, but this is how I do it.

And I think this is kind of a nice and simplified way of doing it. And I’m going to walk you through not only the equipment, but I’m also going to show you how to go end to end.

So once you’ve got all your equipment, how do you actually use your DSLR camera to live stream with it? I’m going to walk you through the software using StreamYard.

And if we’re lucky and it’s playing nice, I may show you the other one I use, which is pardon me, Ecamm Live as well. So let’s get right into it. So for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sara Nguyen, and I help coaches, content consultants and creative pros do their business using video with ease.

And I live stream a lot about live streaming. Make sure that you check out the description because I’m going to put the links to all of the equipment and any of the resources that I mentioned in this video.

And, you know, that’s where a lot of the action will happen if you want any extra information. Let’s get right into it. Okay. Bare basics in order to live stream with a DSLR camera, to the interweb, whether you’re looking to do that for YouTube, or you’re looking to do that for Facebook or both or any other social media platform, the first thing that you need in order to do that is a DSLR camera.

I personally use Canon, I, this is the Canon 80d. You’re watching me now through the Canon 90d. I upgraded because I wanted the Canon 90d, which was 4k. You don’t have to go 4k.

The Canon 80d works really nicely as well. I don’t know what lens this is. This was a lens that my husband had, but the one that you’re watching me through right now is the 18 to 55-millimetre lens.

The one that came with the camera, I believe. So it’s just the standard lens. But obviously, with the DSLR, you can swap out the lens so that you can create different looks and things like that.

So, first of all, you need a DSLR camera. It doesn’t have to be a Canon. I personally use a Canon. I don’t know why. I think it was just the brand that I liked at the time.

And I really love them. Now, the other thing that you need to be cautious of is that the DSLR camera needs to have video capability because not all of them do. So make sure that the DSLR camera that you’re using has video capabilities.

So check the, you know, check with the person you’re buying it from check with the specs of the camera that it can actually play video. The second thing that I’d recommend that you get is a power adapter for your camera, right?

So the cameras come with a battery, and the problem with live streaming with the DSLR is that it juice its battery and you don’t want the camera to shut off because it’s out of juice. So if you can, I highly recommend getting a power battery for your DSLR so that you can plug the camera into a constant source of power.

And then you don’t have to worry about it dying on you. So that’s the second thing that I really recommend that you get. Now, this is a little bit, I wouldn’t say controversial, but times are changing, right?

So the next thing that I recommend that you get is a capture card. There are lots of capture cards out there, and I know that Canon has a web utility now that you can, you know, use your DSLR without a capture card. However, it’s still in beta.

I haven’t tested it out. So I can’t comment about it. I’ve heard it’s a little bit buggy, hence why I didn’t rush out to go and get it, but I recommend getting a video capture card.

There are lots on the market. You need a video capture card in order to connect your camera to your computer. The one that you’re watching me through right now, I got it yesterday. So excited. I’m going to show you my screen.

The one that you’re watching me through right now is the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra. Really cool, really cool, beautiful, reliable 4k on the higher end, but stunning, reliable capture card.

So that’s on the higher end of the ones that I would recommend. The other ones that I’ve used, I’ve used the Cam Link by Elgato, the Cam Link 4k. I’m having relationship issues with this one.

We were really good, but now we’re having problems. So I’ve just had issues with reliability, with the Cam Link 4k. Hence, why I moved over to AVerMedia. For the most part, it’s been really good, but I had, I’ve had issues with the Cam Link because it’s just being inconsistent. I’ve plugged it in and it’s not worked.

It just decides to work whenever it wants to. We’re in a, we’re in a bad relationship at the moment. I’m trying to resolve it with Elgato and it’s this taking a little bit of time.

So that’s another one that I’ve used, but having a couple of problems, you may not, but this is my experience. You don’t have to splurge on a capture card. This is a no-brand one.

It’s a, I don’t even know, literally a no-brand one that I got for about $20 off Amazon and it does the job as well. So I’ve got the links in the description to like a high end, the Elgato, and then like a no-brand one, which really just does the job.

You really just need something to join the dots. And then you need a cable to bring it all together and don’t worry. I’m going to show you how it all comes together. It depends on your camera.

In terms of what HDMI cable you need. For the Canon, I have an HDMI to an HDMI mini. So the mini goes into the Canon, like this. The mini HDMI side goes into the Canon like this.

And then the other side of the HDMI goes into your capture card, right? And then the capture card, move this around, goes into your computer. So in the USB port of your computer, and that’s how you kind of hook it up altogether.

So once again, we’ve got the DSLR camera, the HDMI mini into the Canon 90d, and then the other side of the HDMI cable into the capture card. And that’s a bit blurry, but you get the point.

And then the capture card into your computer. That’s the basic setup. The other thing that I would recommend that you get is a microphone because you want to get decent quality sound.

There are lots of microphones. You’re listening to me now on the Deity D3 Pro, which is a shotgun microphone. That’s going straight into my computer. It’s a little bit on the higher end, but I like how I sound with the microphone.

An alternative is a USB microphone. So this is the RODE NT USB mini. So RODE sent me this one. It’s a good microphone, good quality sound. And it plugs into your computer via USB, right?

So you literally just plug it into the USB, plug it into the USB port, and then you’ve got everything going. So you’ve got the capture card on one side, you’ve got the USB in the other port and you’re all good to go.

So I like the RODE NT USB mini, one because it’s a USB microphone, meaning you don’t need anything fancy to get it working. You can plug it straight into your computer and it’s good. It’s a decent quality sound and it’s easy to use, right?

And it’s not that expensive. So that’s why I really like the RODE NT USB. But that basically is the setup that I have. So I have my camera, a capture card, and a microphone. That’s pretty much it.

So let’s talk about how do you actually go live after you’ve got all of your equipment set up. So I’m going to go over, I’m going to show you how to do this in two ways.

And this is why I had problems this morning ’cause I stuffed up all of the live streams that I’ve got set up. But let’s go over to my computer, and I’m going to show you how it all comes together. Alrighty.

So this is one of my favourite live streaming software options. I do recommend that if you are going to live stream that you avoid at all costs using the native Facebook producer.

So the native Facebook software, it’s just horrible to use. It doesn’t a lot of functionality and it’s incredibly buggy. I use StreamYard and I use Ecamm Live. You’re looking at StreamYard right now.

And I’m going to show you once everything is plugged in how easy it is to make, to get it all to happen. StreamYard I like because they’ve got a lot of functionality. They’re web-based.

So you don’t have to rely on having a souped-up computer. It’s not, you know, hugging all the all of your computers processes and you can get it to work. So now once you go into StreamYard, you select create broadcast.

I’m going to get a pencil. so this thing here create broadcast. This button here. And once you’ve done that, this will open up the ability for you to actually go live.

You connect all of the social media accounts that you want to go live to. So whether that’s Facebook, YouTube, Periscope, you name it, you connect the one that you want to go live to and then you select it.

I’m going to go demo, create broadcast. We’re getting there. And I’ll show you where the camera comes in. Here. So here, when I select cam/mic, so this option here, this allows me to choose the camera.

As you can see here, there’s different camera sources and this Live Gamer Ultra video 2, that’s the capture card, right? So I just choose that capture card. That’s it. That’s it, right?

Audio, you can choose the microphone that you want to use. I’m gonna close that. Into broadcast studio, add myself to the stream. Boom! Boom goes, the dynamite hit go live and that’s it.

Then I’m going live via the StreamYard and that’s it. So how easy was that? It’s not as hard as it used to be. The software has gotten made life so much easier for us and I think the technology is becoming more streamlined.

And as you can see, I’m live now, and this is using the same, I’m doubling seeing myself, the same camera as this broadcast. All right, I’m gonna end this now. So that’s how easy it is to go live using StreamYard.

So I’m going to close that now. So that’s how you do it using StreamYard. Because I’m living life on the wild side, I’m going to show you how to do it from Ecamm Live.

I just need a second to set it up and to move all of my windows. And then switched you over to do that. I’m going to show you how to do it now in, come on, Ecamm Live. All right.

So now you should be able to see Ecamm Live. So this is my live set up. Lot of inception, a lot of risking life right now, but with Ecamm Live, once you have everything set up, all you have to do is go to camera.

And as you can see, Live Gamer Ultra Video, that’s my capture card. I just select the camera and that’s it. And I’m live now, and that’s it. So that’s how easy it is to go live using either StreamYard or Ecamm Live.

Literally select the capture card as your video source. So that’s it. I actually absolutely love it. Now, I need you to stop doing that so we can go back to me. Okay. So hopefully we’re back. Live life on a little bit, a little bit on the wild side today with the technology setup.

So that essentially wraps us up. Hope that was easy because I try to make it as simple as possible, right? Try to break it down in terms of you need a camera, you need a capture card, you need a cable to bring it all together and you need a microphone for the most part.

And then obviously you need a computer because it needs to plug into something. And then you just need software to go live with it. So it’s not as complicated as it used to be probably five years ago.

And I think now, particularly with DSLRs, the price of DSLRs have come down so much as well, particularly 4k DSLRs. If you want to go live streaming 4k, that I really, really encourage you to give it a go. If you can.

Once again, you don’t have to use a DSLR. You can also use like a webcam, but this tutorial obviously is about how do you set it all up, put it up all together with a DSLR camera. So that essentially wraps up the tutorial today.

So thanks again for being here, as usual, Dave, Meidiana. So Pete John, my brother from another mother in Adelaide. Pete said, ‘camera specs are important. Some entry-level DSLRs like mine, don’t send a clean HDMI signal’. This is true.

So as I said, you need to make sure that you also, you know, it’s one of those things where when you spend a little bit more sometimes. It helps makes life a little bit easier.

As Pete said, the entry level ones don’t always work as nicely, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. Just need to find that space, ask the, you know, retail assistant can this output in 4k or HD, whatever it is.

Ask questions, do your research, but this is how it comes all together. So that essentially wraps up the live stream today, had a couple of difficulties, but we got through it in the end.

So if you found this video useful, give me a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel where I do a lot more tutorials about live streaming about social media, and I have a lot of fun.

Now, I’ve also got a link in the description to my Facebook Live Master Class. Yes, I’ve released a masterclass. It’s free. And if you sign up, you get access to it.

And I’ll walk you through, how do you turn your Facebook live stream viewers into buyers. So it’s about monetising and making money from your actual live streams as a business. So check that out.

The link to that is in the description. So thank you so much for joining me today, had a lot of fun. There’s gear everywhere, so I need to go tidy it up.

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Sara Nguyen

Video and Course Creator | Online Marketing Strategist | Wine Lover | Coffee Addict | Geeky techy lady| 😀 Helping small businesses build and grow their business using social media with ease.

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