Sometimes I want something that is useful for spontaneous, low ceremony use. For that I may really want to have a digital camera, or even phone, which some video capacity. A youtube mentality begs for something simple, cheap, and always available. A short learning curve is also appealing.
A lot can be learned from even a simple photo:
Sometimes I want, or think I want, a pro level camera. Something like $5,000 will get one these days. Perhaps if I spend that much money, I'll spend the time an energy to really learn the thing. Reality check: there is no chance I'll do that. A pro level camera makes no sense unless I want to make some kayaking, kite surfing, paddle boarding, (or yoga?) videos with a commercial intent. That would mean partnering with someone who already is a real video photographer.
That leaves a bunch of cameras in the $1,000 to $3,000 range. Those are probably a good choice once I have done the basic work of developing some storyboards & using a cheap camera to get a feel for what the content -- that is what really counts -- would look like.
Storyboards. Even for something simple like a little video showing people how to:
- warm up for a kite session
- launch a 2 line trainer
- paddle a SUP without a kite
- step onto a SUP with a kite
- story board a series of 4-5 2-5 min videos for a sequence something like that sketched above.
- fly it on youtube
- evaluate the response
- improve the videos & test them on a couple friends
- get a couple local kite surfers and yogis to model
- when people use the videos, get a better camera, a real photographer, and offer high and low bandwidth downloads.
- think about a serious camera using the learning curve as the chief criteria
