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johnny
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Not really much help, as it wasnt specifically a barrel cam as such, but i had one of those £30 cylinder jobbies of ebay that promised (at the time about 5 years ago) 1080p quality, and it was like id filmed from a nokia 3310. Sound was terrible also. I wanted it for my bike and gun but resold it. Ive used my go pro a few times, which was ok but the lack of zoom i couldnt make out anything until close. I then used a little tripod for my phone as its 4k, the footage is cinema quality, but again no zoom, so hard to see any thing further than 50 mtrs. 

Things might have improved, but id go watch some vids on here and ask the uploader what kit they are using 👍

Edited by strimmer_13
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I looked at the quality of the reproduction and what you could do with it.

None come even close to Shotkam. I bought a Shotkam. Worth the outlay, you can actually see where you aim and play back frame by frame or at various speeds. Even shot patterns can be seen developing frame by frame. 

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When it comes to cameras or binos any optical equipment , good glass aint cheap . Yes theres more to a camera than glass .I have used several vid cams on my gun and few work well . A few things to remember , if you fit a cam to a gun and you want to film your dog on a retrieve , or your buddy talking a shot , guess where your gun is pointed ?.  There are few well fitting attachments to a gun barrel for a camera such as a GO pro and after a few shots mine would work lose and the recoil would flip it off shot and anyway the field of view of a g p is too wide to see a bird hit well at say 40 yds .  You can get after market lens to zoom in but your field of view is then much narrower But worse than that camera shake and movement is magnified in a norrow FOV ,.     My set up is a head mounted Sony 4k  cam which has the best low light and image for what I want . Cheap cameras are a waste of time , the shotkam is the top of the line for a gun mounted camera , perhaps my next purchase but I think there is a new one one , gen 4 ?, due later this year - promotion on at the mo 50 bucks of for Fathers day I see.     There is one other option and that is , Drones - the small drone cameras now for 100 quid have stunning footage quality , the race drones , not a go pro fitted to a toy one or such , I have one and used to have it taped to my barrel with a rubber strip buffer , but I use that out in front now close to my decoys and have great footage from it .     so my choice is , gun mounted Shotkam ,  head mounted Sony - or to start , gun mounted a cheaper older go pro or a drone cam , RUN CAM I use , . I have footage back to 2009 and I am glad I got started in it for sure . Any questions feel free to ask , cheers .

Edited by GADWALL41
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The shotkams have great image quality, but they have some big drawbacks. The major one for me is that you have to follow the target with the gun. For me, a big part of playback, is seeing the bird hit the ground. This is not easy with shotkam, especially if shooting in company.You also don't seem to get a good idea of range etc when using them. The clanging noise of a semi after every shot is also annoying. 

I believe gopros or similar are better for putting a video together, despite the downsides to them. 

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I too have been thinking about a gun camera recently. Like the op, I cannot justify the £500+ price tag of Shotkam at the present.

I'm wanting one to see where I'm actually missing. I've had 'expert shooters' watching over my shoulder and feel that a camera will be a far more valuable tool.

Having compared youtube videos of Shotkams, GoPros, and other alternatives, it appears that nothing else compares to the Shotkam. All others seem prone to either lack of zoom clarity, too wide a field of view, issues with vibration from recoil, or all three.

I'll keep an eye on this thread with keen interest.

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18 hours ago, GADWALL41 said:

When it comes to cameras or binos any optical equipment , good glass aint cheap . Yes theres more to a camera than glass .I have used several vid cams on my gun and few work well . A few things to remember , if you fit a cam to a gun and you want to film your dog on a retrieve , or your buddy talking a shot , guess where your gun is pointed ?.  There are few well fitting attachments to a gun barrel for a camera such as a GO pro and after a few shots mine would work lose and the recoil would flip it off shot and anyway the field of view of a g p is too wide to see a bird hit well at say 40 yds .  You can get after market lens to zoom in but your field of view is then much narrower But worse than that camera shake and movement is magnified in a norrow FOV ,.     My set up is a head mounted Sony 4k  cam which has the best low light and image for what I want . Cheap cameras are a waste of time , the shotkam is the top of the line for a gun mounted camera , perhaps my next purchase but I think there is a new one one , gen 4 ?, due later this year - promotion on at the mo 50 bucks of for Fathers day I see.     There is one other option and that is , Drones - the small drone cameras now for 100 quid have stunning footage quality , the race drones , not a go pro fitted to a toy one or such , I have one and used to have it taped to my barrel with a rubber strip buffer , but I use that out in front now close to my decoys and have great footage from it .     so my choice is , gun mounted Shotkam ,  head mounted Sony - or to start , gun mounted a cheaper older go pro or a drone cam , RUN CAM I use , . I have footage back to 2009 and I am glad I got started in it for sure . Any questions feel free to ask , cheers .

What Sony camera are you head mounting please, and if possible one of your films shooting if possible.

Edited by muncher
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the Sony FDR-X3000 4K -  it has built in steady shot but as with any action cam worn rather than gun mounted the Body dampens out movements while walking to - just try not to be to jerky moving your head around , it becomes second nature in no time . Will cut out a few snippets of K shots and try and upload em in a bit .

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15 minutes ago, GADWALL41 said:

the Sony FDR-X3000 4K -  it has built in steady shot but as with any action cam worn rather than gun mounted the Body dampens out movements while walking to - just try not to be to jerky moving your head around , it becomes second nature in no time . Will cut out a few snippets of K shots and try and upload em in a bit .

Thank you.

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I have clipped them right down but as you can see still to large , thats 4K  , if I run them through another piece of software I could reduce the file size which would downgrade the image quality . I will upload 2 clips to Y T and give you a link when they are up .

Just a few things about the video footage , at 4K you need a fairly good pc to run and edit those clips and they do eat storage - also shotkam lightly zoomed in image V the rest , well in Post you can with good software zoom in after the fact so to speak , that software is costly.

One in good light , one in grey light , both not in close but you get the idea.  Ah the site has embedded the vids - all birds were retrieved . 

 

 

file size.JPG

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Another range that might be worth a look is the Mobius Action Cam. I had one as a dash cam for a couple of years. They used to do a shotgun barrel mount (single?).. I See they now do a pic rail and cap fitting amongst several others.

I think they were originally for use on model planes and have evolved.

Recordings were good, though standard battery life was limited, hopefully both have improved.

There used to be a supplier in Manchester and the US agent would ship overseas.

 

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I am not sure but I think you can hire a shotkam. Surely  it's not just about the camera . It's the software aswell . That makes it what it is . I get an email from them now and again when they have a special  offer on , the cheapest  I saw on offer was £450 .

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11 hours ago, The Heron said:

I had an aim cam not bad picture quality but setting up was difficult especially the camera on the glasses one tiny little movement made a whole load of difference 

Ditto. Extremely disappointed. Wouldn't recommend it.

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3 hours ago, johnphilip said:

I am not sure but I think you can hire a shotkam. Surely  it's not just about the camera . It's the software as well . That makes it what it is . I get an email from them now and again when they have a special  offer on , the cheapest  I saw on offer was £450 .

/\ this.  Someone posted some pictures on another thread a few months ago that were done by a shotcam - and I thought it was impressive.  I believe the recording 'capture' is triggered by either recoil of audio.  The poster was pleased with his system and it certainly seemed to work well.  How much effort he had to put in the setting up I don't know.

Thread was called "Sporting Pheasants" and was posted in the topic "Sporting Shooting videos" as at 3rd May.

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On 05/06/2020 at 23:32, The Heron said:

I had an aim cam not bad picture quality but setting up was difficult especially the camera on the glasses one tiny little movement made a whole load of difference 

The aimcam looks good enough for a video about shooting, but not as a training aid. I think the selling point of the Shotkam is the intimate view of the shot pattern as well as the crosshair showing your gun position at any given time.

On 06/06/2020 at 09:16, johnphilip said:

I get an email from them now and again when they have a special  offer on , the cheapest  I saw on offer was £450 .

I believe there will be an offer for £100 off towards the end of this month. That will bring the price down to around £450.

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I had a Shotkam and sold it,  as I didn’t think the footage was good enough for the money (content wise, not video quality). Build quality and customer service were excellent, but I agree with Motty regrading the content of the footage; unable to track shot birds on a pheasant shoot without swinging across other guns, I found it failed to record quite often, and although better on the most sensitive settings it still missed a few. Also depending on the presentation of the birds, when leading them and taking the shot you don’t even have the bird in the picture. It may be an excellent training tool for clays, but for game shooting and wildfowling it isn’t for me. I may look at an Aimcam in the future, but will try my GoPro first 

Edit: added link to some of my Shotkam footage 

Edited by Mutiny
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