Shooting POV

We’ve been getting asked what type of camera’s we shoot with and so I thought we’d do a few posts covering our kit. We’ll focus on the helmet cameras first. Shooting POV (point of view) is a great way for us to break up longer runs and add variety to segments. When it’s done right you feel like your right in the skiers boots. Some things we found work best is when there are plenty of obstacles like trees and rocks to give definition and a sense of speed. The cameras are very small and can be used in creative ways to capture your activities. It’s been incredible to see the boom in the last few years of people shooting and posting their own adventures online.

We shot with the Contour HD camera last year and we were excited to finally have a reliable way to easily capture POV footage. Here are the things we like about it. First they are very very easy to operate, low profile and switch over from athlete to athlete with the goggle mount, no harnesses or helmet mounts required. The quality is good and with a little tweaking in post production it’s very good. The batteries last long and you can easily switch out the cards for more storage. Try to shoot with good light it will make a big differnce. Make sure to use the leash or you may loose your camera if you tomahawk down a huge Alaskan face (Jake was OK). We also used this camera on the expedition to the Revelation Mountains and simply recharged the battery with a USB connection to a solar panel. There a few shots in the movie using the GoPro thanks to Chris Erickson. The quality seems great, but the mounting systems and the extreme fisheye look swayed us towards the Contour HD.

Here’s a peak at some shots Andy Jacobsen nailed in Haines, Alaska.