Looking for some advice filming wildlife!

Hey everyone,
I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me some insight on this...I'm planning on spending some money to buy some filming equipment. I'll be filming primarily whitetail deer hunting . Most of the advice I've read has been on hunting forums and I feel that you guys would be able to give me more insight on the actual filming process as opposed to what is more convenient to film a hunt with. I feel like everyone that films hunting is in the same niche...they all buy their cameras from Campbells Cameras and use all the same equipment. I have been leaning toward filming with a DSLR (which is out of the box when it comes to self-filming hunts...apparently), more specifically the 70D. I am a bowhunter and I will be filming myself more often than not. Lets say I have the 70D on a camera arm, with a fluid head, LANC remote, and a shotgun mic. Am I going to have a hard time getting a deer that is 0-20 yards away in focus? I plan on getting a telephoto lens (70-300?) and a regular lens (18-55). I really want the crisp image quality that DSLR can provide. I want my footage to be quality. My other option was the canon XA10, a camcorder. I know that the 70D has an autofocus tracking system. Will this make it easier to self film a deer hunt? I have a lot of time before next season and I plan on getting a lot of practice in. Can anyone kind of steer me in the right direction? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks guys!

The DSLR is a very heavy, cumbersome, and limited camera for action video. The 70D + lens is 4 lbs. The 70D will not autofocus quickly with non STM lenses and will not record longer than 30 minutes. Camcorders will have much less weight, built zoom lenses, larger flexible LCD screens, and LANC remote zoom/focus control. I would mount the camcorder on an arm at your position, mount the LANC control to your bow or opposite wrist, and mount a second lightweight GoPro camera right to your bow or hat for POV shots. http://www.consummates​portsman.com …a-mount-bowfinger-20.html

The XA10 is a solid but more expensive camcorder with a mount for the shotgun mic. However there are other Canon camcorders that are lighter and cheaper with longer zoom lenses. A lavalier mic attached to your jacket would be helpful to record your own voice comments during the hunt.

Awesome thanks so much for the advice!

sspellman wrote in post #16632160
The 70D will not autofocus quickly with non STM lenses...

People who say this have either not used a 70d or don't understand how it works. USM lenses will focus as fast, if not faster, than STM lenses using the 70d's dual pixel autofocus. STM just makes focus silent, so it won't be picked up by on-board mic. I say this after using my 70d with a 18-135 stm, 10-22, 15-85, 70-200 F4 and 400 5.6.

That being said, going back to the original question, a DSLR would be much more challenging for your purposes than a high quality camcorder.

Appreciate the input! Thanks again!

There is a great deal of work that goes into producing good video and I'm not sure it is doable while concentrating on something else at the time. I agree that the video equivalent of a "point and shoot" is likely to produce the best results because it will need less input.

GoPros are good as you don't need to worry about them, they are light, small and waterproof - DSLR based video is none of the above.

GoPros aren't great for long shots as they have a wide angle lens but the 4k footage from the Hero 3 would give you some latitude for software zooming.