Camera Gear How many cameras have you gone through?

Hiking with Shawn · Feb 19, 2022

What's your camera use history? What all cameras have you used for your videos?

I started out my channel using a GoPro 5 which had absolutely no stabilization.

Then I purchased a Canon G7X Mark II back when everyone was using them. I used it for a long time but needed 4K.

I then went to a Sony AX-43 4K handy camera. It was bigger but nicer quality until I dropped it one day and the 4K quit working.

So then I ended up with the GoPro 7 because I wanted to get into drones and bought the Karma. Never used the drone...lol Ended up using the GoPro with the gimbal for a while.

So then I ended up going with the Sony AX-700 4K handy camera. It claimed to have built-in stabilization. I've yet to see it... but it has a wonderful quality and zoom feature.

The shakiness of my video was killing me so I got the GoPro 8 with its awesome built-in stabilization. I used it forever until finally breaking down and getting the GoPro 10.

My primary camera is the GoPro 10 with the media mod. It's mic makes the sounds so much better, even better than my little RODE micro mics. The stabilization is phenomenal and the selfie mode is nice too. I just upgraded to their new Enduro batteries and they last a longer.

My content is hiking and outdoors so a GoPro makes sense, with rain and all that mixed in. GoPro isn't for everyone.

I visit a forest service road during the spring and fall where snakes migrate across. It's called "Snake Road" here in southern Illinois, YouTube it and LOL enjoy my videos because I dominate that market haha. But anyways, venomous snakes are the majority of snakes out there (cottonmouth, copperhead and timber rattlesnakes). I love snakes but I don't want to get bit by a wild animal or stress them out. So I use my AX-700 primarily for that filming because I can zoom from a safe distance for both me and the animal.

That sums up my camera history

How about you?

Damon · Feb 22, 2022

I had a Contour ROAM hat cam, basically it was the main competition to GoPro back when they first started. From there I went to a Nikon D3300. Hated that camera. Bought a Panasonic GH4. Hated that cameras well. Now I shoot with a Z-cam E2C cinema camera coupled with a Ninv V video recorder, and a DR60 audio recorder. Once I stopped listening to photographers trying to give motion picture advice, I chose the right camera for me. My goal is to shoot documentary-shot films of my fishing adventures.

Hiking with Shawn · Feb 22, 2022

Damon said:
Once I stopped listening to photographers trying to give motion picture advice, I chose the right camera for me.

I like that right there! Photo and video, way different in terms of what we are looking for.

Barkey · Feb 23, 2022

I have some knock-off brand action cameras, a webcam, and some old cell phones, but I never use them. My workhorse as been a Canon SL-2 (200D), but I've recently acquired a Panasonic Lumix G100. I'm gonna try that one out in some of my upcoming videos and see if I like it or not. I don't have the lens I'd prefer, but I'll give it a whirl anyway. I liked the SL-2 just fine, but it's an older model and I wanted a back-up camera.

The Jungle Explorer · Feb 23, 2022

I have owned a LOT of video cameras in my life, and have used footage from just about all of them in videos on my YouTube channel, because when I first started using YouTube, I was using it for hosting videos for my website, not for building a YT channel. I have been with YT since 2007, so it is really hard to say what was my first camera as YouTuber, because I started with footage I shot in the 1980s.

My video cameras.

1. Sony Video8 HandyCam M8U (First model of HandyCam ever produced by Sony in 1985)