Camera sought for outdoor video and photography

delmonte4 · 11-03-2021 11:43am #1

Hows it going all,

I do a bit of sailing, camping, hiking and fishing etc. and recently made a crude enough video from iPhone footage of a night camping in a so called hot tent in the Dublin hills near my home. I enjoyed it and thought I would try take it to the next step by getting a proper camera for 4K video.

My research initially took me towards a Canon G7X and then onto a the Lumix G90/95. The more I researched and became aware if the various tradeoffs the, more acceptable it seemed for the budget to increase

Though I would like to keep it under €1000

I would be happy to go with the G90 as it weather sealed, has image stabilisation, 4k capable, time lapse recording etc. However, the drawback is it seems to have poor ratings for performing in low light conditions, something I think would be important for some of the footage I would like to shoot. I would be interested in dabbling in some astrophotography though not to a professional level.

I suppose my question is, is there another camera with the above attributes that also performs better than the G90/95 without having to go towards the €1500-2000 mark?

Thanks

CelticRambler · 11-03-2021 3:53pm

The question you really need to be asking is what could any replacement camera do that your iPhone doesn't already do?

Or to put it another way: you've identified several specialised photography/videography applications, each of which has different requirements in a camera; but it sounds like you don't (at this stage) have any particular, borderline obsessional or professional interest.

So:
- Why do you want to shoot 4k video? What's wrong with the 4k footage shot on your iPhone? Have you got the equipment (and time) to edit 4k footage to a standard that warrants the extra expense?

- What timelapse scenes are you planning to shoot? What's wrong with the timelapse setting on you iPhone? What will you do with the footage afterwards - incorporate it into the 4k footage above, sell it as stock footage, or upload it to YouTube to compete with the millions of hours of other timelapses? The answers to these questions will help guide you towards the right camera, bearing in mind that the primary function of a camera "for timelapse recording" is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, for 98% of the time it's in use. :eek:

- What is it about astrophotography that appeals to you? What's wrong with the night sky photos you've taken so far with your iPhone? (noticing a pattern here? ) When you talk about "dabbling" in the discipline, how far do you think you'll take it? The go-to standard for astrophotography is a secondhand DSLR, mostly so that you can open it up and remove the infra-red filter (thereby voiding any warranty but getting better pictures). If you're not going to do that, can you get the same effect using photo-editing software?

- Image stabilisation is included pretty much as standard in every phone and camera now. Are you using it on your iPhone, and if so, what more are you hoping for from a camera?

- Weather sealed? Do you mean against showers and splashes (like your iPhone) or do you mean waterproof to 15m, or is this for a camera that you're going to leave set up in a remote location for two months, or are you hoping that you can plonk the camera down on a rock with no protection from wind/rain/sheep/quad bikes and leave it to take beautiful 4k timelapse footage of a sunrise while you stay in the tent? :pac: Again, the vast majority of cameras now on the market are perfectly well able to cope with the outdoor life - but one giant gob of mud on the lens, or a howling gale rattling a lightweight tripod, will make your images unusable.

All in all, picking a camera is likely to be the easiest bit of the process. Getting good quality images out of it is going to require a whole lot more time, effort and equipment. Which takes us back to my first question: what's wrong with the footage your getting from the iPhone (depending on the version, considered to be one of the better multipurpose cameras), and in what way do you want to improve it?

delmonte4 · 12-03-2021 12:01am

Ah, I’m off the beer for lent and just thought I’d spend the money on something tangible. Then again, I could just lump it on a few horses at Cheltenham and that would solve all the concern and dilemmas of the different attributes when looking to buy a decent quality camera that would be a good basis to develop my interest in the hobby.

Any ideas about the camera anyway? I’m not looking to dunk it into 15m of water. Showerproof would be fine. I’ll leave off staking it out in the mountains for 2 months. The odd time lapse of a few stars as the earth rotates would be nice I think.

CelticRambler · 12-03-2021 1:49am

delmonte4 wrote: »

Ah, I’m off the beer for lent and just thought I’d spend the money on something tangible.

You're saving 2000€ on beer? :eek:

It's impossible to give you any recommendation for a new camera until you say what's wrong with the iPhone. Even if you have to use a third party app to take more control over it, it can do everything you want, including astrophotography, so what more do you want it to do?

Now as it happens, I hate iPhones and would happily leave one alone in the mountains for two months, while I play with a real camera and the superzoom lens I just paid 500€ for (secondhand) last weekend; but I acknowledge the fact that they're pretty darn good as a point-and-shoot, always-to-hand camera - so if you've got one, why not push it to its limits until you know what you really need in a replacement/supplementary camera?

Camera sought for outdoor video and photography

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