I've been debating on jumping into this for a while. I've always wanted to capture my own hunts on camera, but never wanted to risk not getting a shot, or fouling something up by moving a camera arm, etc while in the treestand. I finally broke down and ordered a Tactacam 4 this morning. My plan is to use it during the late season to hopefully harvest a couple does and to get accustomed to using it, etc. For me, it seems like the best option for someone that doesn't want to mess with cameras. Just push a button on the stabilizer and its up and running, all while grabbing the bow off the hook. I'm guessing once I get used to doing it, it will become second nature and won't interfere with getting a shot. I'm hopeful that it will be able to capture the impact of the arrow, but judging by many videos I watch, that may not be the case as it really seems dependent on the bow and how much it moves at the shot. I've also found a product by TAP called a stabilizer booster that was specifically designed for use with the Tactacams to help reduce that shock on camera at the shot. I may try it out to see. I'm kind of hoping that it behaves well enough on my bow to see shot impact. With the wireless of the camera and being able to review footage on the phone while in the tree, it seems like it may be a decent tool in identifying where a deer was hit if the shot looked sketchy. Anyway, I'm pretty excited to at the least film deer right up to the shot. Anyone have any tips or tricks they'd like to share? The one question I had was concerning memory cards for it. I've read that you should use a very high write speed card like the Sandisk Extreme. Whats the benefit there? Hoping the Bowhunt or Die folks can chime in as I know they use them pretty heavily.
First deer I shot this year was the biggest buck of my life, somehow remembered to turn it on. Shot a doe last Fri, forgot to turn it on. You’d think it’d be the other way around. I may look into this booster you’re talking about cause it definitely shakes pretty good on a shot Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
hey I want to get one for spring turkey and try to mount it to a tripod and point it on the decoys at 15yds away from our ground blind,thought that would be cool and I would not have any shock from our guns, what do you think, russ
I despise the shots from similar cams mounted to bows personally...I mounted my Stealth Epic cam and practiced shooting with it in the yard and decided nope I would rather hang it on my head, tree, a branch or anything else to catch 2nd angle stuff. Now that said I've thought about how nice it is to have a bow mounted cam for some of the right before or right after shots if tracking the deer and may go back to mounting it on it next year.
See I'm the opposite. I like the "first person" view you get with them as its about as close to what I see as possible. For what I want it for, its about perfect. I will never monkey with a tree mounted camera while trying to shoot a deer. Just not my thing or goal.
No doubt. If I were you I'd experiment with a action cam (think GOPro) mounted to head strap. I've dabbled in this and I've begun to think if I get the right angle it would provide the same but without as much shake at shot.
I'm running a relatively small card (32gb) on my Tactacam 4. It's the Sandisk Extreme card. I have it set to the 2.7k setting and have found that 32gb is plenty large for the small amount of footage you will take on it, it takes almost an hour and a half of footage before full. Only tip I'd provide is to check the battery life on a consistent basis. It's easy to accidentally turn on when putting in the case, etc and it's easy to neglect the attention that you might normally give to a bigger camera by checking batteries constantly, etc. You don't want to find out the battery is dead at the moment of truth. Good luck and have fun with it!
I just bought the same exact card yesterday and was wondering if I should have gotten the 64GB card. I too plan on running it at max resolution to get best possible footage. Thats really good to know. I'm going to run it after Christmas during our late season to get a feel for it and most likely get the external charger and another battery. Thanks for the insight guys.
I'm going to see what my bow does with shake at the shot. I've seen some footage of bows that barely moved, think it was a Bowtech BTX, while other had quite a bit. If the shake is tolerable, I have quite a bit of video editing experience (work) and lots of software options on my computer, and should be able to slow it down, stabilize it enough, to see impact ok enough for what I'd want to see.
Good deal.....also remember to track the deer after shot with that arm, may assist you greatly in reading where and how the deer is acting. That as well as impact can be incredibly helpful in tracking decisions! Keep us updated on your filming!
Thanks bud. You know that brings up a good point. Now I don't necessarily have a problem with it, but I can see how being a bit conscientious of your follow through on the shot (to keep the camera on the deer) and then tracking the deer with the bow would make you a better shot, etc. No doubt about it, watching the deer afterwards, at it runs off , will be a big benefit, not to mention so cool from a "reliving the moment" type of thing. Its honestly been a long time since I was this excited about a piece of hunting gear.
One other tip. I'm really good at breaking stuff, and wasn't comfortable with the lens being exposed all the time. I decided to buy a flip up rifle scope cap to throw on the camera. I'm pretty sure mine is the size 24 Optics Defender by Vortex. Cheap insurance and it works really well.
I don't understand the value of a bow-mounted camera. All you get is a few seconds of first person angle during full draw, just before the release. You don't get the deer walking in, the shot/hit, or the run-off. There is no zoom, and the quality is inferior to a good main camera. I suppose if you already have a great main camera and a few GoPros running for extra angles, then a Tactacam adds some extra interest. Definitely a cool little camera though.
Not following you on "not getting deer walking in, shot, run off". The shot itself is about the only thing you that can be sketchy (depends on bow). The Tactacam has a 5X built in zoom so a deer at 20 looks like a deer at 20, rather than what the GoPros give you. You can get the whole episode with a deer on film fairly easily. Just grab your bow and turn the camera on. Point the bow at the deer and follow it. Seems simple to me. While the quality isn't of a high end main camera... its not thousands of dollars either. It still records at 2.7K resolution. Not too bad in my opinion.
I didn't know it had the zoom. That's pretty cool. I went and watched some videos filmed entirely with a Tactacam, and I did enjoy them. I still think they are significantly inferior to the videos filmed with good arm-mounted cameras ..... but, like you said, that set-up costs a LOT more money. I guess what matters is if the hunter is having fun ... and the Tactacam does seem like a relatively inexpensive way to have fun filming your hunt. I retract my earlier comment =)
No arguement here brother! I just want something I can capture most of the experience. The shot itself will be sketchy I know that, unless I get luck and it behaves decently on my bow. But, its compact and integrated into the bow, simple one button on and off and for the price, gets more than adaquate video for my needs. I didn't want to fool with a camera arm, camera, etc in the treestand. I have enough going on.. lol
Is the 5x zoom overkill on deer that close, say less than 15 yards? I would worry with that zoom you’d only be getting a little portion of the deer instead of the whole deer in the shot. I’ve been watching vids on their sight but they don’t specify which cam they are using the 3x 2.0 or the 5x 4.0.
I have a video from last year where you can compare the type of footage you will get with a bow mounted camera vs. A camera mounted on the tree. While my bow mounted camera is not a Tactacam, it will give you the same perspective. For those interested, my bow mounted camera is a Sony Handicam CX 220 mounted to the bow with a Caddy Buddy camera mount. The Handicam is actually mounted upside down. I correct the image when editing. Anyway, here is the video. Sent from my SM-S902L using Tapatalk
