Not for professional use, mind you... but maybe some self-filmed hunts every once in a while -- but especially as my boys get older, I'd love to film them. What's your suggestion for filming? I've taken a quick look at the Muddy camera arm, as Hunsucker suggested it would be everything I'd ever need for around $250 or so if I wasn't putting a camera like they use on it. Is there a camcorder out there that's adequate? Or is it better to delve into the used market for something nicer that's a little closer to what the big boys are using?
Im very very amateur at it, with no money, and even less time to hunt. I use a gorilla tree arm and a Sony handy-cam, the whole setup was less then $400. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqCp6YhY6gI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Pj3ykZnFA If you have a little more money, go with more expensive equipment. You get what you pay for in the filming business.
I bought the Lone Wolf Strong arm for bear hunting this fall, paid 119.00 for It. It does everything I think you would need but I'm fairly new at this too. Your saying 250.00 for a Muddy camera arm? Wow!!! As for a camcorder I went with a Sony HC52 (300.00 dollar range I believe), It has the night shot on It. Hell, talk to Rob. He knows this stuff, that's who I talked to.
What kind of money are you wanting to spend? I have a friend that retired this year and bought a $4000 dollar camera and is extremely happy with his investment.Claims it is as good or better than what you are seeing on tv and he can film right up untill dark.(I saw some video of deer 200 yards away and it was very good)The camera is not really all that big but quite a bit larger than what most home cameras are.If you are interested in that kind of setup,I could find out what he bought. I use a cheap panasonic and the deer need to be close.
Not sure at this point, Todd... I'm thinking it'll take at least $750 or so to make me happy. Maybe more.
I am a fan of the Sony Handycam DCR-SX41 and it even has a easy button for you, lol Greg not sure if you seen the footage on my facebook of that nubber buck but if you get a chance take a peak under videos. 8 Gig is more then enough and uploading is simple as it gets. I do need to find the right camera arm to go with this so I will be looking at what some of our fellow members have to say. T One other thing you will not need the digital zoom with 60X optical on this camera. Any questions feel free to PM or text me. Also if you go to best buy tell them you had seen on circuitcity.com that it was selling for $279 or you can do ebay where my brother just snagged a new one for $188. SOB! Good luck.
Greg - this all depends on how serious you're thinking about getting in the future with it. Like anything, you skimp on the initial setup cost and then end up wanting to upgrade it's gonna cost you even more money in the future. If I were you for starting out filming some of your own hunts, and some with your kids, I would get the LW arm. It's smaller, lighter, and easier to set up than the Muddy is. For smaller cameras it works wonderfully. My only suggestion would be to replace the crappy pan/tilt head that comes on it with a nice fluid head. After that, camera choice is up to you. The small handhelds are going to be the most cost effective for sure. We have a small Canon HD that we picked up on ebay for a few hundred bucks that works nicely. We primarily use it for 2nd angles and capturing footage at the office. I'm sure it would make a great general purpose camera for both hunting and filming the kids. If you think for whatever reason you'll ever upgrade to a bigger camera like an XHA1, PD170, Z1U, etc then I'd go with the Muddy arm. The LW isn't big enough to handle it. So long as you're not getting super crazy with the camera, the Muddy will work great. At the point you need an HB Sniper Pro arm you better be shooting professionally for a TV show. :D
I was actually just going to edit my post to include the PR arm. Both are very good for small handheld cams. The PR arm has a much better system for securing it to the tree, which I like. It uses a ratchet-style strap to really crank that base down vs. the LW standard cam buckle strap which I did have kick out on me a few times on crooked trees. The LW has a little bit more adjustability side to side than the PR, but the PR is longer with a more secure base. Honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Check out John's review of the PR arm here: http://www.bowhunting.com/blog/post/2009/10/22/Pro-Bow-Cam-Camera-Arm-by-Pine-Ridge-Archery.aspx
I use the Canon VIXIA HF11, AVCHD camcorder. I also purchased an external mic with a very good windscreen (important for obvious reasons). This camera will take video in very high resolution exceeding 1920X1080, as much and more than you would ever need. It's functions can be operated manually or by using the easy set button that will pretty much do it all for you. It takes SD video cards and has a 32GB built in memory. It is on the higher end of the money spectrum for the Canon HF series due to the 32GB internal memory, but I love having the extra memory capacity. I also picked up two 16GB SD cards, so I have tons of memory. Even filming in HD I can film well over 8 hours of footage with the set up. These cameras are small and lightweight and don't take up much room in the tree. This would be right around your $750 price. (camera only) I am very happy with mine. The only problem I am having is that my computer won't support the high resolution video it produces and as of now I cannot import about 80% of my hunting footage from this year to be edited. It doesn't take a monster workstation computer, but there are a couple of moderately advanced requirements that it needs to be able to function with the editing software.
Not only are there a bunch of professional videographers and editors on this site everyone is helpful and very knowledgeable. They have done it all and will be able to answer any question you can throw at them. When I got started this is where I went seeking answers. http://www.huntingfootage.com/ Don't just jump into it. Think ahead and decide what you want out of it and where it might lead to. Like Justin said, if you buy medicore stuff and then decide to get serious you end up wasting money. I spent quite a bit of money and went in small, but I bought theings that can work with upgradeable equipment. I will be getting a new camera next spring and using the one I have now as a backup/hunter camera. Good luck and you can PM me here or shoot me a message on Facebook anytime.
I agree with what Justin said. Definitely do it right the first time. The only reason I would not suggest getting a small camera that is a consumer type camera is because I believe you will end up being frustrated in losing "camera light" during prime time. We all know that the last hour of light or first hour in the morning is when the deer movement is best outside the rut. That also happens to be the time when you will have to wait for more light in the woods if your camera does not have an adjustable iris and gain. With any of the "pro-sumer" cameras you will get these settings. They will extend your filming time. I don't care what your resolution is on an HD camera if there is not adequate light getting through that lens you will have high pixel rate footage of black. The caveat to this is that with the additional features comes a higher cost and a steeper learning curve. However, if you are serious about doing it right it is worthwhile. As seen by much of the footage posted by members here a great job can be done with a consumer camera. Howerver, if I had been self filming this year when I shot my buck with a consumer camera I would not have gotten any footage. With the gear I have I would have gotten great footage. As it stands I didn't self film that hunt so I got no footage. If you have any questions feel free to pm me and I can get into greater detail for you.
