I will be doing some hunting by myself this year and want to film all my hunts. I made my first movie when I went to New Zealand in June and it was a lot of fun making the video. My brother was with me so he was able to film. I will be going to Mississippi, Missouri and Montana and hunting by myself and wanted to film the hunts. Any tips or suggestions on equipment to use? And I already have an HD camera and dont want to buy a helmet cam. Thanks!
alot of use either muddy camera arms or pine ridge archery pro bow camera arm is good for a cheaper model and for use of a sony handy cam or other brand. muddy are more money, but are ideal for heavier cameras. tripods are good for if you want to get footage in ground blind, scouting or filming yourself on ground prior to entry to field and after. you can search on bowhunting.com's shopping and look for camera arms, and other accesories you might need. good luck!
Get yourself a good lightweight but sturdy tree arm. I had the Pro Bow arm for this purpose and personally found it disappointing. I'm going to look into a more robust arm for this year. Self-filming is one of the most difficult things to try while hunting IMO, but it can also be the most rewarding. A good tripod is needed too if you'll be hunting from ground blinds. Good luck, it sounds like you've got an exciting year planned.
There is no comparison between the Pine Ridge and Muddy arms...Don't fight the inevitable...Just get the Muddy arm!
I picked up the Muddy Outfitter arm and coupled it with a Manfrotto 701HD fluid head after spending about a week perusing all the video forums like Huntingfootage.com and others... May be a bit nicer than what you're looking for, but I can guarantee you won't have any buyer's remorse over the quality like I've heard many, many times from people that went with lesser arms.
I understand about quality, but not everyone has the money to buy the best these days, unless you have a way to save or some otherway, I know muddy makes better arms, I'm just giving the guy ideas!
I have the Pine Ridge model and found it difficult to follow the animal without a jerky motion. For the money though it is ok.
Thanks for all the info. I will be checking out all these ideas and see what works best. Come November I will post a video with all the footage. I am thinking of getting a military style PROTEC helmet and make a home made helmet mount. Those helmets are light weight I think I could build a mount pretty cheap. I think it could give me some cool footage while walking around.
Keep it simple and get comfortable. You want to be able to operate your camera without being afraid of getting picked off or making too much movement/sound. I had the camera in the tree with me alot, but only got two decent hunts filmed last year. You need to have a decent amount of action to make a video worth watching. My filmed hunts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqCp6YhY6gI http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Pj3ykZnFA
Here is my first and only video I have done so far. It was my trip to New Zealand in June. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrvpoL2IXHk
