For the last year or so I have had an increasing interest in videoing my own hunts. It's really not possible to get someone to tag along with me as my schedule is always spur of the moment and not to much is planned in advance. After some consideration I realized the only way it would work for me was to do it all myself! Hunter and camera man. It sounded like quite a challenge.
I already had a starter camera, a sony handicam, hi8 with 20x zoom. It is really what I would consider a minimum quality camera but it has a few interesting features. One is, It will film in the dark without a light source. One disadvantage is no external mic jack.
However, the posting is not about the camera. If you are reading this posting you interested in filming yourself and particularly, how to support and operate the camera you have selected.
Lets start by saying you can spend as much or as little on a camera treestand arm as you would care to.
Also, the quality of the arm is directly related to how much you spend on it. The more you spend the better the quality you get, period. The higher the quality the arm the more fluid the movement of the camera will be and the less binding and jerking will show up in the footage. This is the most important issue of the camera arm to consider.
There are some other issues that change the category of arm you will be look at. First, we have determined you are going to be filming yourself. That means you have to pack all you hunting equipment and the camera gear also. You will have to keep the weight and size down. If you already have a larger camera this becomes more problematic and you are going to need an arm that can handle additional weight.
Since were talking about entry level and do it your self videoing we will no get into the larger camera and arm possibilities. With a small camera you can use a small and light weight arm. If you are just dipping your toe in the water so to speak you don't want to spend a pile of bucks when you don't know if this is really for you.
The camera adds a lot of new issues and complications to overcome. It is difficult enough to shoot a deer with a bow let alone be worried about operating the camera, panning, zooming, etc. It takes a lot of concentration to shoot a deer with a bow and the camera is a complete distraction to the flow of making the killing shot.
With that said, it is possible to do and when you film your own successful hunt for the first time, it is pretty incredible.
As this was an experiment that I was not sure was going to work for me I did not want to spend a lot on the arm until I was sure this was something I could do without scaring every deer that came in range.
I stumbled across this arm and it has worked out o.k. for what it is. Certainly, the price was right and is the least expensive arm I have seen. The biggest negative of this arm is that the pan rotation is not smooth and wants to jump along. I tried grease, oil, etc., nothing helped much.
The vertical tilt can be operated fairly smoothly but you have to back off on the handle and a little tough with one hand without the camera moving up and down.
One manufacturing error on my unit was that the holes on the smaller tube that slides in the larger tube for the arm length adjustment were installed on the wrong side. I over came the issue but it is a little pain in the neck.
Other than that it functions acceptably and gets the job done with a minimal amount of weight and size. I see myself investing in a better quality arm next year but this one allowed me to get my feet wet and see what I was in for, for less than $30 bucks!
Here's some photo's of what the unit looks like.
Good Luck,
Larry S.
Here is a link for more info and pricing for this mount.
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