Welcome to Steemit Tyler! Glad to have you here. I'm an adventure filmmaker myself, I've been doing it full time for a few years. I post some tutorials and stuff about it on my blog, so check it out if you're interested!

I'd be happy to give you input on a lot of different cameras I've used, steer clear of the gh5 (bad auto-focus), the sony's (like I use) are nice but they don't have a front facing screen, the canon mirrorless have a lot of good features for vlogging. But I'd definitely recommend you keep using your phone just to get used to the workflow. That being said, there are really inexpensive microphones like the rode video micro that would really add a lot to your sound quality. And a cheap flexible tripod will go a long way towards giving you steady footage as you walk and talk.

There are lots of spam accounts on steemit so it might help you to do something to help verify you're a real person. Lots of people post a photo of themselves holding a sign where they've written steemit, their username, and the date. you can also use your other social media accounts to verify they're real, like have your steemit username linked in your Facebook bio and facebook linked here. It's not mandatory, but it helps. I hope you do well here on this platform. Let me know if you have any questions or need help with anything.