Dslr and 70-200mm lens great combo for photography and filming bow hunting. You can easily spend more than 2k there. But also a lot of good used stuff you can probably have that set up under a $1000 maybe even $500. Especially if you don’t buy the 70-200mm F2.8 but instead the F4. I know Canon stuff fairly well. If you go that way happy to help with questions.
YouTube is a great resource for photography. If you get in to wildlife photography you can “hunt” all year long for anything you want. Most of the time it easier to kill something with a bow than get a great picture.
Photography can be more of a rabbit hole than archery. There is always something else you will want or think you need.
FWIW.....I've filmed a few tree stand hunts (shots actually) with my little Sony HDR-CX130 cam. Also filmed the tracking jobs with the same vid cam. It's an HD cam with a fantastic zoom ....42X. They can be had on EBay for cheap these days. They can fit in your pocket or pack easily. They also take stills.
I also got a clam shell mount on EBay. That will mount on the tree stand armrest or a limb or whatever is nearby. Bike riders mount them to their handlebars when filming. Those are around $10 on EBay.
I bought a knock-off "go pro" on Amazon. It works great (no zoom). It does "4K" and 60-120fps. It came with a bunch of attachments (wrist strap with buttons for photo or recording, etc.). The bike handlebar attachment allows me to connect it to my stabilizer and my rifle barrel.
I'm wanting to buy either a DSLR or mirrorless camera (extreme noob, have plenty of research to do to figure out which style I want) that i'll take pics with that I can also film my hunts.
I originally bought a DSLR to take video of my hunt and quickly abandoned the idea once I tried. It's great if you're the cameraman filming someone else's hunt, but it involves a lot of work keeping it in focus, etc., which is not conducive to the hunting part of the equation being successful. I quickly returned to using a camcorder style camera for the video part of my hunt, and use the DSLR for photos. Maybe if you spent a LOT of hours becoming incredibly familiar with it's use, you could be successful with the DSLR, but I found it distracting and the results were often poorer than they are with a camcorder. I also disagree with those that say that 4K is not needed. It really depends on whether you are willing to settle for "watchable" video, or if you really want a final product that "pops" and you are proud to show. As time moves on, and the average person gets used to watching 4K or soon 8K on their everyday TV, your HD quality videos will look very old and poor quality. I absolutely LOVE my 4K cameras, and they aren't that much more than the HD models. Well worth the money in my opinion. And as stated, tripods are A MUST for watchable quality video!
If you buy a 4k, you may as well get you a high end laptop with lots of processing speed. Otherwise, you wont be able to edit or watch the footage very easily.
KHNC, that's true too. I'd guess a lot of people don't currently edit their video, and it's better to "future proof" your video as much as possible with the possibility of editing it in the future. I really enjoy video editing, and I did have to upgrade my computer equipment to do so effectively. But, I don't think that a person should shoot sub-par video just because they currently don't have the equipment to edit it, unless they have an immediate need to be able to edit it with the equipment they have. In which case, HD could still be the best for them.
I do a lot of with my dlsr. I try to take some pics most day. A take lot more pics than video. I have found there is a learning curve with video. Mostly with the settings. But once you have the correct setting focusing is not a problem. It is about how you set your Auto Focus. You will want it in tracking mode. DSLR are great for video IMO. I have found by biggest issue with filming hunts is it is just more gear to care. Getting a camera and camera arm to your spot plus into a tree is a pain in the ass when added to all your other gear. Then you got to worry about it getting knocked around and weather. So I am usually going to either be a hunter or photographer but not both at the same time.
As far as dslr vs mirrorless there are pros and con to each. Cost is a big one. Especially if you are willing to buy used. Lots a used dslr lens for fraction of new cost. Mirrorless because it new tech not as many lens to choose or find on used market. I doubt you will be happy with one lens if you get into it. I have three in my bag. Canon 24-70mm 2.8, 70-200mm 2.8, and sigma 150-600mm sport. They are not cheap lens but some really good deal on them used. If you get down between a choice a higher quality lens that are used and less expensive lens that are new I would take the used all day long. Battery life is another down side of mirrorless especially if filming they just use a lot more battery. If you want to have gear you are happy with and do it under 2k you going to struggle to do that with mirrorless. You are going to want at least two lens if you get into it. One for landscapes, people, and wide angle type stuff. And something that will reach out a little further. Then if you get into photographing wildlife you will start wanting a lens that will will reach out there. It is a rabbit whole but great reason to get out into nature when hunting season is closed.
I film everything. I also tried the DSLR because the picture quality is second to none, but it's really difficult to self-film with it and it's not quite as convenient to pack. I use the DSLR for hero photos and my Sony 4k cam for video and that works great.
As far as editing 4k, I would say that just about any laptop sold in the last 2-3 years should edit and play the video without a problem. Most editors don't edit in 4k, they use a highly compressed signal to edit and then you render the final video in 4k. The bigger problem is disk space and disk speed. If you have a 500gb or larger Solid State Drive (SSD) you will be fine for most hunting projects.
What I do is keep the raw video files on my laptop SSD and after I've uploaded the clip, I move the entire directory of files to a USB drive. That frees up your laptop for the next project.
If I was just starting out, I would buy a 4k video camera, a Muddy Treestand Camera Arm ($200), a $100 shotgun mic (if your camera doesn't include it). I also like Adobe Premiere as an editing platform but that's getting a bit more advanced.
Just remember that filming is a distraction. A lot of guys like the idea of filming, but find the reality to be very frustrating and they give it up. I've been doing it so long it's 2nd nature to me and I have nearly all of my kills captured for the last 15 years. It's priceless, but it's definitely not for everyone.
I agree with everything Pat says above, but I use Final cut Pro rather than Premier. Self-filming is a more difficult thing than most imagine, but once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. I find that turning the camera to record, and making sure the scene is framed how I want it, actually distracts me from becoming overly excited when a big animal is working its way toward me. I think I probably stay calmer than if I was just watching it walk in and probably make better shots because of it. I took a friend to Africa a couple of years ago and asked him to film his hunt. He was so frustrated the first few days at having to concentrate on the filming when just the number of animals and different species in front of him at one time was overwhelming for him. But he adjusted and was very happy he did so afterward.
One thing that should be noted, the OP stated that he didn't want a camcorder because he wanted to also take photos. Most all modern camcorders allow you to take photos. In fact, the 4K camcorders often take very nice photos. So, they aren't as mutually exclusive as you might think. This is actually a much less expensive option than a DSLR or Mirrorless camera, due to the extra lenses you'd need to buy for them. I would suggest researching the camcorders in your price range, though, and read professional reviews on them. There are some that take much better quality videos than others at the same price. Much of this is due to the differences in sensor sizes.
I personally love filming my hunts and wouldn't trade all my videos for anything.
The arm on that link is too short to use very easily from a treestand. From a buddy stand I just duct tape it to the front rail. in a tree stand I ended up taping it to a longer bow hanger type arm that screws into the tree.
Pretty easy to put in the tree next to me sitting, and put my phone in it when I want to film the shot. I'm not going for professional, just been neat to see some shots and figure out why I miss! you can see a number of video clips I took with it on the last thread I did-
Thanks Wildwilderness! I see HME makes a longer arm...................I’ll probably try that for now. Don’t wanna get into expensive cameras if I can do it reasonably with my phone.
Lots of variables. If you shoot video in 4K the still frames are acceptable for posting on the web but I would not consider them print quality by any stretch.
