Canon Powershot V1

[Dave Baker]

As my ageing back can no longer carry lots of heavy camera gear for hours on end, over the last few years I have been trying to reduce the weight of my travel gear. The camera is relatively heavy, so everything else was subject to being sacrificed for lightness, to the extent of carrying only a Gorillapod for support and trying moving the camera to prevent wobbly standing shots. The OIS isn't bad, but stabilizing in post with ffmpeg is time consuming and all that panning and fake slider shots make ne feel seasick and looks very amateurish.

Using a GoPro with Labs firmware and a Mediamod added is a decent solution, handheld is a doddle, but it isn't quite the substitute I want.

Enter the Powershot V1. The only real compromise is the short zoom range. Clog3 gives 10-bit 4:2:2 footage, the lens has focusing, a customiseable ring, iris, OIS and short zoom and there are enough manual knobs and buttons to make it easy to use. It is light in weight, so now I can add more support and carry it about relatively easily. Having just done my first real test with it, I think I can safely say I have found my new travelling companion. Thanks Canon!

[Doug Jensen]

I have six high-end OConnor and Sachtler tripods, but they are all way too heavy and bulky to carry on a hike, on a small plane, train, boat, etc. I've got an upcoming 4-month road trip to Alaska and the Canadian Rockies this summer and I wanted something smaller and lighter for my A1 and Z200. I found this Cayer tripod at NAB and really like it. $150 bucks! Amazing. I highly recommend it. Still plenty good enough for following action and makeing smooth pans/tilts. And very lightweight.

https://youtu.be/uLiw9AFeSjI?si=SO42GR7EOBXI7fHo

[Dave Baker]

Thanks Doug. What a lovely place, but more importantly, what lovely stable footage. It says a lot about the tripod, not forgetting the operator of course!

It seems we both went in a similar direction. A couple of years ago I bought the 3 Legged Thing Leo legs with the Airhed Cine head, relatively pricey at around £500 and weighing about 5 lbs. Highly versatile, including detachable legs that can be used as monopods, boom poles etc., but sadly even that is too much and it is just gathering dust in the corner.

I'm in reverse now, rather than building up equipment to be more flexible, I'm slimming it down so I am able do photographic trips while I can still travel, but I shall persevere, maybe look at my carrying arrangements, for instance whether my back pack is still the right thing to use. I am afraid my opening statement "My ageing back" is the clincher. I also suffer from chronic back pain, but aTENS machine and minimum equipment weight allows me to keep going for the time being.

My current walking kit consists of the Powershot V1 and Sennheiser MKE200, a Gorillapod 3k pro fitted with a 3 Legged Thing Airhed Pro head, which allows reasonable pans with care and a Velbon Ultrastik 8 with a Manfrotto tilt head. When I can't find a suitable place to stand or fix the Gorillapod, or tripods are not allowed, I use the monopod. All carried in, or attached to, a Lowepro Photo Traveller 150 back pack.