Video your own safari

[Fire652]

i videotape my own hunts st home and have been thinking of videotaping my safari. I am bow hunting do most of my hunts I’ll be from blinds. Has anyone attempted to film your own safari. If you have any tips

 

[CAustin]

i videotape my own hunts st home and have been thinking of videotaping my safari. I am bow hunting do most of my hunts I’ll be from blinds. Has anyone attempted to film your own safari. If you have any tips

Yep used a GoPro. It’s worth the $$$

 

[Fire652]

Yep used a GoPro. It’s worth the $$$

I haven’t used one much but planning to this safari. Going to hopefully have lots of footage. Going for 12 days and have 14 animals on the hit list.

 

[CAustin]

I haven’t used one much but planning to this safari. Going to hopefully have lots of footage. Going for 12 days and have 14 animals on the hit list.

You need to get it and practice with it long before you go.

 

[K-man]

Absolutely practice a lot in hunting situations before you go. Make sure you have lots of storage space internal and external, and don't spend precious moments focusing or adjusting when you should be shooting. Treat your footage as a bonus because you may or may not get that perfect shot footage. Have fun and good luck!!

 

[stug]

Videoing your own hunt is hard work. To do a good job you need to focus on the filming more than the hunting.
Hunting from a blind will be easier as you can set the cameras up before the animals come in. I'd take two cameras, one to film the animals and the other to film you.
If you don't think about the shots you will just end up with a lot of useless footage that isn't very interesting.
Practice doing it at home as Charlie suggested.
Talk to your PH as well because it will change the hunt dynamics.

 

[Dave Zimmerman]

Planning to do this myself next month when I go. Luckily we are hunting 2x1 so whoever is hunting will have the other one in our group run the camcorder and digital camera. That way, we both get footage of our hunt without taking away from the hunt itself. Since its my buddy and me together, shouldn't be an issue to capture the entire thing.

 

[Hank2211]

I've done it, both professionally and "not".

A couple of points. First, unless you're a bow hunter and plan on getting very close, or the blind is very close, a GoPro might not be what you need. The lenses are so wide angle that you see nothing 50 yards away, or whatever you see is so small as to negligible.

I would use a camcorder, but pay a little extra and get one with manual focus (oddly, that tends to cost more!). One challenge you will find is that you are filming animals hiding in bush, or through bush, but your camera or camcorder will only focus on the grass, or reeds, or trees, or whatever, between you and the animal. Manual focus eliminates that problem. You should also pay attention to the degree of zoom. Obviously, more is better, but at some point, you will have to pay a lot for image stabilization in the camera to make up for the long distance and high zoom.

You won't be able to film the actual shots, unless you have a friend along or train one of the trackers to hold the camera. Both you and your PH will have something else to do when it's go time. A tracker can do a good job of holding the camera still if you show him how, but test it a few times with the gunshot. Many - if not most - will jump or flinch at the sound of the shot enough that you will lose the picture when you most need it. If you are going this route, you might want to bring along some spare ear plugs for the guy. He won't be able to stand back, and he won't be able to put his fingers in his ears. And something extra in terms of the tip would be nice.

Good luck. I love looking back at these old movies, or clips, of my hunts.

 

[jeff]

I've videoed some of my bow hunts and I put my camcorder on a tripod in the hide aimed where the shot will be and already have the zoom adjusted and when there are no animals I want, I can pan and show the other critters and the view from the blind.