This is going to be a very concise post about the tools I use for streaming. I have to be honest right off the bat: if I didn’t have a job, in no way I could be doing this and would have bought the tools I am using right now. When it comes to streaming, all of your expenses are going into the hardware, while software thankfully can always be found for free.

My gear:

  • Nikon D5200 (bought for 500 euros circa almost 6 years ago)
  • HDMI Capture Card (you can find one for 10/15 euros on Amazon)
  • Mini HDMI to HDMI cable, which goes from the DSLR into the capture card. Can be bought under 10 euros.
  • Power adapter for the Nikon D5200, so I don’t have to use batteries and have the risk for the camera to turn off during a live stream. These are a bit expensive, as they cost at least 20 euros
  • Manfrotto MKCOMPACTADV-BK Tripod. Any will do, but avoid cheap ones if you care about your camera.
  • Behringer U-Phoria UM2 (under 40 euros)
  • Behringer ULTRAVOICE XM8500 (as of 24/05 it can be bought at 10 euros on Amazon).
  • XLR Cable (from 5 to hundreds of euros, again, it’s up to you)
  • Microphone Arm (any will do and they go from 10 to hundreds of euros, again, it’s up to you) to attach to the table so it can hold your microphone for you

The software I use:

  • Streamlabs OBS (free-tier): it’s very user friendly, has tons of tutorials and is an overall great software for streaming on Twitch and Youtube
  • Voicemeeter Banana: a free to use software for your PC audio management. It deserves a post on its own, but basically it lets you separate your audio sources in different inputs/outputs, which makes the audio management for streaming so much easier

Considerations on the Nikon D5200

I am using a DSLR camera only because I already had one and I wasn’t using it as much as I would have liked to, so I thought: why not use it as a camera for streaming or a general purpose webcam? There is one limitation tough: the live view cannot be on for longer than 15 minutes by default and there is no setting to turn that off. Luckily the firmware can be patched [DISCLAIMER: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK] and the time limit can be turned off, which is what I did. The only reason for such a setting to be on the camera is for the Nikon to not get their DSLRs labelled as video cameras, for purely tax reasons.

Considerations on Behringer ULTRAVOICE XM8500

Of many microphones I had considered, this stood out for the positive reviews and for its ridiculous price. If you have always used built-in microphones or some microphones in the headsets, you have no idea how much of a difference a dynamic microphone makes. The jump in the quality is astronomical and it’s worth every penny. Your friends and your viewers will thank you. The only “downside” to this microphone in particular is that it needs an external audio interface, but as you can see on the list it’s relatively cheap and it can be useful for many other things.

The reason I went for a dynamic over, let’s say, a condenser microphone is because it doesn’t get the surrounding sounds as much and can isolate it completely with a few settings set in Voicemeeter.

Final considerations

Unfortunately streaming can get very expensive, but it is possible to do so on a budget as you can see from the list. There is no need for a DSLR, you can still do it with a webcam or a gopro or an old camera with HDMI output. Everything else can be bought cheap, especially if you buy it used or reconditioned. I haven’t covered some obvious parts such as PC and connection speed requirements. The latter is a must and there is not much which can be done. The PC requirements depend on your content. If you want to stream things like Warzone or some AAA titles, get ready to spend a lot on a decent PC, especially in this period.