Oh my, that's a big question!

Here's my take on it.

Let's start with YouTube and vlogging: "The money is infinitely better on YouTube" is only true for very, very few people. For most, I would say it's much worse.

Filming stock footage (B-roll) and a (successful) vlog (A-roll + B-roll) are two VERY, VERY different things. With a vlog, you're selling yourself, your personality, along with a big story. With stock footage, you're selling a very small story, or no story at all, to be used by someone else in their big story as a small component.

A successful vlog likely means working 24/7 for a year before seeing any meaningful income, and that's only if you're very good and a bit lucky. You have to constantly produce good content, AT LEAST weekly. That's making a mini movie every week. It's not easy.

Vlogging, however, can mean less focus on the technical details, since a perfectly successul vlog can be made with a shaky cellphone, IF the story is good, and your personality is interesting to people.

When you film stock footage, your goal is to film something that the buyer (which could be a vlogger) can't film themselves, usually meaning higher technical quality and interesting locations.

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There is no shortage of things to film in Australia and New Zealand. It's endless. Cityscapes, deserts, people, ANYTHING can be interesting and commercially successful. Maybe the aftermath of the recent fires? A timelapse of the Sydney skyline? A koala resting in a tree? Roadkill (plenty of that in Australia)? Business people walking to work in the CBD?

Anything.

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If you're ONLY going to vlog, simple cameras will be enough, but if you want to seriously sell stock footage, I would try to get the highest quality possible (tripod + D800 will do that).

Simple guidelines for (stock) video that are a bit different from still photography:

� Everything manual - white balance, shutter speed, aperture, ISO.
� Pick a frame rate! It does not matter that much, but MY preference is 23,976 fps (or 24p) since it's universal. Your shutter speed should then ideally be set to 1/50 (or 1/48 if possible, which it usually isn't).

That means that the shutter speed, ideally, will be fixed, and exposure is controlled by aperture and ISO. You will quickly notice that this makes it impossible to film during bright days, and if you don't have an ND filter, you will HAVE to use a faster shutter. It's not the end of the world, but it looks less professional.

If you're filming for a vlog only, on the other hand, you can worry less about the settings and more about the story. If the story is interesting, not many will care that your camera was set to AUTO everything with fast shutter speeds and changing exposure.

Again, filming for stock and a vlog can be two VERY different things.

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Anyway, as for subject matter to search for, see any of the above! "Cinematic settings for my D800 for example" will give you a bunch of people telling you about shutter speeds, low contrast settings, etc.

The best thing is to start filming a lot before you go, to make many of the mistakes you will make before it really matters.

No worries!

By the way, I now see that the D800 is not a 4k camera, which unfortunately complicates things a bit regarding choice...

I don't have experience with any of your cameras, so it's hard to tell if the iPhone 11 might actually look better than the D800 regarding video, but it's not impossible. I don't know, you will have to test them side by side and judge for yourself. As far as I know, you cannot change the aperture on the iPhone, which means you will HAVE to use shutter speeds that don't look professional (same with the GoPro actually). It might still work.

The bitrate becomes very important, and the default settings on phones are generally too low for real use. There are, however, apps that will let you choose a higher bitrate (such as Filmic Pro, and others) on the iPhone, to retain more quality.

The GoPro 7 might be a good choice for shots with movement, even if the bitrate is on the low side on that camera too, which will result in ugly blocking in complicated scenes.

No crystal clear answer here I'm afraid... If the D800 had 4k it would be, but not now. For timelapses, the D800 is an excellent choice.

Let's start with YouTube and vlogging: "The money is infinitely better on YouTube" is only true for very, very few people. For most, I would say it's much worse.

Exactly. I was in youtube's monetisation program for a while and the money was crap. It took about three or four years just to make $100. Much of the time, I was making a few cents per month. I make heaps more $$$ with stock footage. The difference is like day and night. Yes, there are people who make big money on youtube but they have millions of views.