And all the cameras and technology we use to make this show happen.

テクノロジーが大好きです

Well I have always been such a big fan technology: music, computers, video games and cameras.

音楽やPC ビデオゲーム カメラが大好きです！

Yes, I can remember my first camera. It was a little digital ELPH Powershot

最初のデジカメは エルフ・パワーショット

That thing was so cool and compact.

当時の最先端です

Stylish, it had a little zoom there, just put it in your pocket.

ポケットに入る ズーム機能付カメラ

I ended up taking a lot of pictures with that. I took it everywhere.

沢山撮影しました

It would even take little videos, and I thought that was revolutionary:

動画も撮れて 当時の最先端でした

That the same little device could take pictures and videos.

写真と動画の両方とも

We don't think twice about it today because we all have cell phones that do that for us,

今ではスマホで 出来てしまいますね

But 20 years ago, that was something else.

20年前は最先端でした

So before Ruth and I moved to Brazil I thought "I have got to get a camcorder. I've got to capture this."

米国からブラジルに移る前 ビデオカメラを買いました

And at that time, HD was the new thing.

当時はHDの黎明期でした

And Sony had just come out with an HD camcorder

ソニーのHDカメラは

It used Mini DVs, and you put those little tapes in there, and you could record high definition video.

ミニDVにHD動画を 記録するタイプでした

Oh wow was I excited.

最高でした

I remember paying $2,000 for this camera, that was a lot of money for us 20 years ago or so.

20万円しました 若かったので 大きな出費です

So two years ago, when we went to start Life in Japan, I had this camera right here.

このチャンネルを始めた2年前 新しい相棒を購入しました

This is what I considered my main camera: the Nikon D500.

今のメインカメラ ニコンD500です

Bam! This thing is pretty legit, as far as a camera goes.

とにかく頼れる相棒です

Awesome stills quality,

最高の画質

The video quality greatly improved,

動画機能も優れてますが

But it didn't autofocus while taking videos!

オートフォーカスが 出来ません

So many times I was trying to shoot videos of the family, and I'd have to be fidgeting with the focus on here,

子供の動画を撮る時 焦点が定まりません

Stopping the video and refocusing and focusing again.

焦点合わせで 手間取ります

I loved the video quality that came out of this.

それ以外は 文句なしです

But with so many limitations, it was just not practical.

実用性は劣ります

And would hand this to my wife and say "Hey, can you take a video?"

妻に撮影をお願いすると "焦点合わないから無理" と言われます

And she was like "I don't know what to do with that. Don't even give it to me."

その代わりに

Forget about that.

"シンプルなのがいいわ" とお願いされました

And she had been begging all along:

同感です

She said "Nate, just get me a simple camcorder I can open up and start shooting."

そして購入したのが

That's what I want.

ソニーのFDR-AX53

And as I looked into it, I came across this:

とにかく簡単なカメラです

It's the Sony FDR-AX53

開ければ準備完了

This camera is the easiest camera I have ever used.

瞬時に起動します

You open it up, and it's ready to go.

素晴らしいのが スタビライザ内蔵型であること

And it only takes a moment to get ready to go.

片手で操作出来ます

But what was really revolutionary was the in-body stabilization on this thing. It's fantastic.

誰でも簡単に録画出来ます

You can hold it with one hand, zoom in, zoom out.

軽くて実用的 誰でもプロです！

You hit record. Bam. You're ready to go. It's recording. It's doing a great job.

閉じれば電源オフです

It's lightweight, it's easy to use. Anybody can use this!

開ければ瞬時に 録画再開です

You close the screen, it turns off.

ニコンのカメラは

You want to shoot again? Open it back up, and you're shooting.

レンズや画質は 優秀でしたが

What I found was that more often than not, instead of grabbing for the Nikon,

難易度が高いので

Which is technically a superior image, better lenses, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

ルースのハンディカムを 多用するようになりました

But a pain to use, Instead of grabbing for this...

- プロ並みだね - そうよ

I went for Ruth's camera. And more and more I was using Ruth's camera, and loving it.

玉ねぎと色々

And the grill master. That's right.

ハーイ！

We've got onions, potatoes and corn.

美味しい？

Hi! Hi!

去年の夏に一番活躍したのが このカメラでした

Whoa! Do you like that? Is that your favorite?

沢山撮りました

And honestly, this is the camera we used all the up through the summer of 2019.

屋外では最高です

Tons of our videos were shot on this.

室内は少し難ありです

And outside, in light, it does a great job.

でも屋外では このカメラが一番です

Indoors, it struggles a little more, because it has a smaller sensor in it.

iPhoneよりも 画質が良いです

But outside, nothing can beat this camera. It's handy. You through it in your bag and you go.

内蔵マイクの音質も とても良いです

And it's a much better quality than an iPhone, say.

良い音で 動画が撮れます

And, another amazing thing about this is that I think the internal audio is some of the best audio I've ever heard for any kind of camera.

- 何してるの？ - シャボン玉

You can literally just take the audio right off of this and you're ready to go.

ジョシュア！

What are we doing? Blowing bubbles.

凄いな！

Hey big guy!

ソニーのハンディカムは 最高です！

Oh my goodness!

これを使い続けても 文句なしです

Sony's handycam absolutely nails it.

- 今日何したの？ - 地震の訓練！

In fact, if I were able to, I would just keep using this.

- 地震訓練？ - 大地震の

What is it today that you do? A big huge earthquake drill.

チャンネルが成功し始めた去年の夏 プロ仕様の機材を購入しました

Oh, an earthquake drill? Yeah, no, like a HUGE earthquake practice.

キャノンのXF400 最高の音質と画質

After the Summer of 2019, when Life in Japan saw breakthrough success, I decided to look for a dedicated camera to shoot our episodes.

プロ仕様のオプションが 使いこなせます

I settled on the robust Canon XF400. This little tank of a camera comes with good audio and video options,

最高のイメージセンサーで 画質は段違いです

including many things I missed in the Handycam like built in ND filters and professional audio options.

今の主役機種です

The highlight feature for me though was the bigger image sensor that greatly improved the image quality.

ソニーと比較して 内蔵マイクが良くないので

Up until now, it has been our main A camera.

オプション装備の プロ仕様マイクを使います

When I upgraded to this Canon [camera], the internal audio was not as good as the Sony I'm using to record on right now.

気が付いたのが

But, you could make up for that by using the shotgun microphone on here which does a great job picking [audio] up.

前面以外の音が 拾えない場合があります

But I noticed it would only pick up things right in front of you,

そこで見つけました

When I would talk to the camera at different times, you couldn't hear it very well.

ロードのマイクです

So that's when I researched and found this.

双方向の 音声を拾えるので

This is a Rode Stereo Mic.

最高の音質です

It shoots it two directions, you can see left and right,

この巨大マイクの代わりに

And it has fantastic audio.

大抵ロードのマイクを使います

Instead of using this massive microphone mounted on top of here,

こんな感じ

I'm able to take this off and use the Rode microphone 95 percent of the time.

他にもあります

And that's the way we roll.

空撮です！

And then there's also a lot of specialty shots in Life in Japan.

ドローンで撮影します

Like those beautiful areal shots.

小型の折り畳み式

Well, a lot of those come right from here — the drone.

楽しくて安全

This thing is small, you can fold it up, take it with you.

最高の空撮が出来ます

It's easy to use, it's fun to use, it's safe to use.

もう一つ

And you get great areal images with that.

GoProです！

Another thing I love to use,

防水でタフな相棒です

This little guy right here: the GoPro.

広角レンズで

GoPro's are awesome because they're waterproof, they're tough, they're durable.

子供も使えます

They have a really wide angle of view.

運転中のタイムシフト撮影も なかなかです

So you can hand them to kids and let them run through a playground.

最後に

You can mount this on your car and take a time-lapse while you're driving. Very cool.

ある意味 一番活躍するのが

And last, but not least,

iPhoneです

Perhaps the most important camera that we use on Life in Japan,

常に持ち歩いてるので 大事な瞬間を撮り逃しません

Is this right here: it's the iPhone.

こういう動画が とても大事です

Because this is always in my pocket, so many times I've pulled this out just to grab a little clip of something that was happening.

撮影の後は 遂に編集です

And these [clips] are a huge part of Life in Japan.

素材を基に

After all the footage is shot, then comes the real task of editing.

編集します

Which is importing all the footage that we shot,

保存用のドライブは 12TBです

Organizing it and getting it ready to edit.

小さな巨人 Gテックです！

To store all of this footage, I bought a 12TB hard drive array.

もう11TB 使ってます

This little monster by G-Tech is awesome,

高いけど 新しいのを買わないと

But I've used 11TB of it so far, I'm going to have to look for the next biggest thing.

作曲もします

Which is not cheap.

Life in Japanや教会向けに オリジナル曲を作っています

I also produce music, so that's why you see all these keyboards here.

動画編集には 時間が掛かります

Because a lot of the songs that I write, I write for Life in Japan as well as for Paz Church and different places.

MacBook Proは 動画編集専用です

So much of my time is spent like this: editing at my computer.

外付けモニターを 活用しています

I have a MacBook Pro which I bought specifically for editing video and producing music.

編集が楽です

And I've connected it to my nice big monitor so I have plenty of screen real estate to use when I'm producing things.

動画とサウンドが完成したら 次は字幕です

And this really helps.

まずは英語字幕

Once the video is all done and edited, the music is in, then it's time to subtitle everything.

リョウジとミルカが 日本語に翻訳します

I write out everything that is said, it usually takes a couple of hours to do that.

沢山の作業が必要です

And then I send it to Ryoji and Miruka who translate it into Japanese.

まだ完成しません！

There is a lot that goes into each one of these videos.

サムネイル作成が重要です！

Then, once that's all done, you're still not done!

笑って！

Because perhaps the most important part of the YouTube video is the title and the thumbnail you put on it.

良い動画も 説明やサムネイル次第で台無しです

Yeah, there you go. Smile! Go "Ah!" Ah!

逆もダメです

You can make a great video, but if it has a bad description, or a not so good thumbnail, then it won't get watched.

サムネイルが良くても 動画が良くないと

The reverse is also true: if you make a great thumbnail, a great title.

ガッカリです

Oh! People go in — they want to watch it, but it's not what they're expecting,

そんな経験ありますか？

Then they're disappointed.

この写真どうかな？

Sorry if I've done that to you before. I'm trying to learn!

気に入った？

Hey Dude! What do you think? Did you see this?

納得のサムネイルが出来たら やっと一息です

Is that cool? Do you like it?

今日は東京五輪 開会式の日でした

When you're finally feeling good about the thumbnail, it's a huge relief.

延期が残念です 代わりに楽しんでほしいです！

Today was supposed to be the day that the olympics were starting here in Tokyo.

週末の定番 家族で上映会です

Since that's not happening, why don't you go to Life in Japan and watch Summer Weekends in 2020 — you'll love it!

視聴ありがとうございます！

And the weekend tradition continues: watching Life in Japan together!

いつもと違う動画でしたが

So thanks for watching this episode of Life in Japan.

気に入ったら "いいね！" お願いします

It's quite a bit different from the other ones that I've done before

また次回！

But if you like it, give it a thumbs up,

We'll see you next time on Life in Japan.