Has anyone brought a video camera on the trail? I’d like to bring one to document some of my adventures next year. Obviously, the concerns are damage, weather, and battery life. Let me know if you’ve brought one and would recommend it or not. Thanks.
grinds
Check the AT 2004 journals for ‘the camera crew’. As the name implies, they carried a small video camera for most or all or much of their thru-hike last year, both are very nice and I am sure they know more about carrying, damage, weather, and battery life on trail then most anyone, especially any salesperson at a store trying to sell one !!!
-xtn :boy
airferret
Airferret brought up the camera crew, posting on trail forums as camera1 normally. Arwen and heather were at springer when many of the march 1st folks arived last year. it was a sweet memory. i remember at least 4 or 5 times they were filming impromptu that was pretty funny. from my best memory, they recorded every night for a few minutes things that they thought were special to them that day. they also filmed events, trail days, paddler’s pub, and Miss Janet’s and such that should never be exposed to anyone who wasn’t there. to protect the inocent.
there journal is
and there is also ASHTRAY of 04 who would film you when you didn’t think he was. ashtray would film, and when you told him to stop, he would shut it off, and as soon as you looked away, he would turn it back on. now i liked ashtray, and knew he was doing it, but, if you do it, be sure that the people you are filming know it, or ask permission. or be a better cheat than my buddy ashtray. gotta love people you hike with.
burn
We were not video camera people so we had no idea what it would be like. It was a lot of hard work running the camera every single day but eventually it became automatic. It was definitely worth the hassle and we love having 33 hours of footage from Springer to Katahdin!!
We used a sony widescreen miniDV…can’t remember which model, but it was one of the smallest made. Widescreen was very nice. It was a good and expensive camera (a loner from the production company that followed us).
Since we were new to cameras we made lots of mistakes while rolling the tape. Footage of sceenery and just hiking down the trail makes good B roll but watch out or you will end up with WAY too much B roll…we have hours of grass, trees, and rocks. The best footage is always of people!! We found out the hard way that the people are the trail. Also, when you are having a lot of fun or are completely miserable you better pick up that camera because you are probably missing the shot! It was easy to get good footage with people like Burn and AirFerret around acting like goof balls!! 
Oh, and let everyone around know that you have a video camera (some people really don’t like them). Plus, people start to loosen up after it has been rolling for a while.
Finally keep the camera in a pouch velcroed to your chest strap (the very best place for it), try to keep it extra steady while rolling, and just simply keep it rolling a all the time.
Camera2
I seem to remember a 20 min rant about how you HATED the trail on that video…you were talkin’ to that camera like a squad of sailors at a bar on a holiday pass in France. Nope, not buying it pal. Video brings out the best in people folks and Leki is the goof of it.:cheers
BW
:eek: I enjoyed watching my friend “LOKI”'s video capture of a massive brown bear a mile away from our shelter in N.J. proof beyond doubt! The bear was unaware of his filming a good 15 min. Not by a video camera but a digital
“A6” camera very nice quality.
1/4 of the way
