Cameras on sheep hunts
Wild Sheep
For those of you who have gone on sheep hunts and really any mountain hunts, what type of camera did you carry up in the mountains? Did you take a big camera or a point-and-shoot or just take pictures on your phone?
I am going on my first sheep hunt in a week and am bringing a Sony A6000. I am not a photographer at all, but it takes great pics and that is my goal. And for that I will lug the extra weight (16 oz)
I carry two.
1. The one on my iPhone, and;
2. A Panasonic Lumix 20X Full HD. It's light and compact, but takes good photos.
To me, the most important thing is to make sure your batteries are fully charged before you leave and esp. on the iPhone, to turn if fully off at all times when you aren't taking pictures. Taking an extra battery is also a good idea.
Phone camera doesn't cut it for any of my hunts. Panasonic lumix with 24x optical zoom with extra battery. I take lots of photos.
Phone camera, small digital cam, & full format slr. And yes, carrying the slr sucks. There are days where it stays in the tent, & there are days where I think I can get shots that will make it worth the weight.
I'm satisfied with the camera on the iPhone 7. Prior to the better phone camera I carried a small Sony point and shoot too. I carry a phone skope and a blue tooth remote shutter release for digiscoping with the spotter as well. Good enough for my purposes.....but I'm not as picky as you might be and hate to carry too much "stuff". Good Luck on the hunt!
I drew the Montana sheep tag in 482-20 and was wondering about using a go pro ? I can not wear it because I am bow hunting but my buddy will be doing some of the video. Do the Go Pro have a decent zoom feature ? Will they give me a high enough resolution for clarity ?
No zoom in GoPro. The Ultimate Predator Action Camera has 4 power.
I always brought an bigger SLR and a small point and shoot. The SLR pretty much stayed in the pack unless something reall interesting came up, sheep, moose, so,etching I wanted to reach out to. The point and shoot stayed in my shirt pocket for pictures around camp, on the trail or just something impromptu. Since I started doing this I have taken more and better pictures. Plus if one craps out there is a backup.
Sheep hunts usually don't come around very often so I take full advantage of as many light, compact cameras and a camcorder as I can. Nothing worse than a battery or camera going bad on a hunt. It's always good having a backup...or 2! Some of my best pics come from my IPhone. Pano shots in sheep country can be breath-taking! I also have a waterproof lumix that also takes pretty darn good video! I have a go-pro but haven't used it much other than for fishing...where I take underwater shots. I also have a Panasonic camcorder that will fit in a pocket and takes amazing HD video. It has a pretty amazing zoom on it. Be sure to take the time to get lots of pics of the country, camp, and scenery! I often put together shutterfly photo books and videos of the special trips....great memories last a lifetime!
There are a few really cool options for filming these days.
1. cell phone with a phonescope from tinesup.com on your spotting scope. This will give you incredible pics as long as there is enough light. It's close to the lightest setup you can bring.
2. Panasonic G7 or GX85 with 100-300mm zoom and a 15mm f/1.7 for hero shots on a light weight Slik cf624 tripod. This setup weights less than 5.5 or 6 lbs total and will do full 4K movie theater quality video with pretty nice stills. Anything past this gets way heavier and way more expensive. Just remember, it's a catch 22. Every step up the chain requires more time money and weight on all ends of the project. As soon as you go down this road you'll need a new computer and monitor on top of all the camera gear to edit the stupid thing. Learning the editing software can be the most frustrating thing you'll ever do. In the end of the day I think it's some of the most fun next to hunting I've had the fortune to mess with.
Here's a goat hunt video with the older G6 and the 100-300mm
Cody's Mtn Goat Hunt 2013 from pete carney on Vimeo.
Cheers, Pete
I liked the video. Hope you didn't lose the arrow that coming loose in your quiver....
I too carry both my i6 and my Cannon camera.
Cool vid Pete!!
Good luck, Robb
Panasonic Lumix DMC -TZ40 - 30x optical zoom. Keep it in my pocket and take all sorts of photos during the hunt. Cost is about $400. I've used this camera on all sorts of mountain hunts and Africa. I'm on my second. Killed my first when I accidently dropped it. DSLR (Canon 7D mark ii) for digiscoping and grip and grin pics of sheep. Use 300 M lens on heli hunts and always bring the 10-22mm lens for pics of sheep. (Use Canon 40 mm lens with Tines Up Adaptor for digiscoping with Zeiss Diascope 85)
Waterdog when I search he TZ40 it's saying 20 optical zoom, did you have a typo or is there a different version? Thx Carl
Just added another camera to my collection...a Canon SX60. It has one of the biggest zooms available (65X optical). Great video as well! Should be good for scouting!
Yes typo - but then I looked it up, and here is what I found - Optical zoom 20x; "Intelligent zoom" - 40x (it is simply digital zoom on top of the optical zoom). The ridiculous zoom is nice for taking pics of the animals and then judging the critters in the viewfinder instead of in the spotting scope. The camera was first introduced in 2013. Im not sure they are even sold new now. I think they are on the TZ80 model now.
Sony NEX6 with a couple of different lenses. I was never satisfied with the phone camera or the point and shoot cameras so it is a good fit for me.
