What camera gear do you need to film mountain biking? | How to make a MTB video: Part 1

What's up guys, Jimmy from Mountain Bike Travel Review here and today we're going to talk about one of my favorite subjects, making mountain bike videos. This is going to be a three-part series on how to make mountain bike videos. The first part is going to be focused on the gear you need to make the videos. The second part is going to be focused on filming the videos, tips and tricks. And the third part is going to be focused on how to edit those videos and some basic editing skills to bring them up to the next level. Now before we get started, if you're new to the channel, make sure you smash that subscribe button below so you get updates on all the latest videos coming out. I do trail videos, I do product reviews and how-to videos like this to help you guys through all the knowledge that I've learned over the years. Now without further ado, let's jump into part one of how to make a mountain bike video and that is the gear that you need to film your videos. Mountain biking is one of the hardest things to film because we do move so fast and we cover so much ground. It's not stable, you're bouncing all over the place. So the one thing that you need to get started is a really strong, reliable action camera. It has to be small, it has to be portable and the more features it has, the easier your life is going to be. Over the years I've tried multiple different cameras and I always end up coming back to the GoPro line. Now as you can see here, I've used a few GoPros. I have the Hero 5 Session, the Hero 6, the Hero 7 all the way up to the Hero 8 which is my favorite camera in the latest GoPro release. When it comes to action cameras, the one thing that action cameras have lacked over the years is internal stabilization. These cameras are so small, it's almost impossible to stabilize them. So in the past, anyone making a mountain bike video would have to not only have the action camera but have that mounted to a gimbal or a stabilizer to keep your footage nice and smooth as you go through all the gnarly rocks and bumpy mountain biking. Up until about a year or two ago, I had to use a stabilizer myself. So I've used the Slick Stabilizer, I've used the Evo SS Stabilizer, both great, but again it's just more equipment. They're not water resistant, it's more batteries, you're constantly swapping wires, they get mixed up, it's a huge pain. Luckily in the last couple years, GoPros has stepped the game up and they now have stabilization included in their cameras. So if you're going to buy a GoPro, I recommend buying the Hero 7 or up. Both the Hero 7 and the Hero 8 now have really stellar stabilization. So it's not actually an internal stabilizer, but it's done digitally and even for how gnarly mountain biking can be and how bumpy it can be, it puts out some really smooth footage. Now if you're like me and you're getting into some pretty detailed editing, you might want to go with the latest GoPro version. I always tell everybody to get the latest version, it has the highest frame rates at 4k, it just has a lot of features, and obviously it's the next step up. If you can only afford the 7 that's fine, but again going any lower isn't going to have that stabilization and then you're going to have to pay the extra money and deal with an external stabilizer. A couple more differences between the Hero 7 and the Hero 8. For the Hero 7 you're going to have to have an external case. There's an actual cage that comes with this and that's how you would mount it to your chest mount or whatever you're using for this camera. The Hero 8 actually has the mount directly on the camera itself, so it flips open and close, it makes life a lot easier, so there's no case required for this. Another great feature. Both cameras are waterproof down to 10 meters, so if you're riding in the rain you don't have to worry about that, and they are extremely durable. I have put these cameras through some serious stuff and I have yet to break one. Another note on the GoPros is that they come in models, so there's usually a white and a black. I always recommend for mountain biking to go with the black model. It is the most expensive, but that actually comes with the LCD touch screen on the back, so they both have voice control. It's a great feature, but this touch screen is key, so while you're riding you can just pop it off, change your features, change your settings. It's super easy as opposed to having to take out your phone, deal with the Bluetooth and all those different issues. Now once you have your camera the next thing you're going to need is some backup batteries, so your GoPro is going to come with one battery, but as you can see I have a few. These batteries, depending how you're filming, can last an hour to five hours if it's on and off, but if you're chest mounted and constantly filming, figure they're not going to last any more than two hours, so you want to have some fully charged backups so you can just swap them in and keep moving. Another thing you're going to need is a micro SD card, so all of that footage that you're going to take is going to go on this super tiny little SD card. Now this little micro SD card can hold 128 gigs, 256 gigs, whatever you want. This one I'm holding is a extreme micro SD and it holds 64 gigs, which is plenty for the amount of film I'm doing. So now we have our action camera, GoPro, whatever else you might choose, we have some extra batteries, and we have our micro SD card, so we're good to go, right? Not yet. First we need to figure out where we're going to mount the camera for riding. For mountain biking there's two different options. Some people like to mount it on your helmet, either under the visor or on top using a 3M stick-on mount, or I prefer to chest mount the camera. For me, when you chest mount the camera, if you watch any of my videos, you'll see that you can kind of see below the bars, over the bars, and it gives you a nice view of the trail ahead of you. Now a lot of people will say that mounting the camera on the helmet is better because it's smoother, but with GoPro's new stabilization, the chest mount is just as smooth with no external stabilization, and it works great. So for a chest mount, right now you basically have two options. You have the standard GoPro chest mount that you can order through GoPro. Their original model was a bit shaky, so I didn't really trust it. It didn't work well for me. They do have a newer model. I haven't tried it yet, but personally I prefer the stuntman mount. Now this has a little bit wider of a plastic frame. It has a nice clip-in feature, so it goes over your shoulders, and then this goes around your back, clips in nice and tight. It's sturdy, it holds to your chest well, and keeps the footage even more stable. Now that you have your camera and your chest mount, I'm going to give you one more pointer, and this is something that people ask me all the time, is how do you get the right angle on your GoPro when you're riding? Most people are going to take this camera, and they're going to mount it vertically, because that just seems to work the best. It makes sense, but GoPro will actually automatically swap if you flip this camera upside down. So when you run this upside down, you would think your footage will all be upside down. GoPro will automatically flip it in their software, but this also will allow you a better riding angle. When you're riding, obviously when you're in attack mode, or going through some gnarly sections, you tend to lean your body forward. So if this is mounted straight up, you lean your body forward, your GoPro is now pointing at the that's not going to work. But if you mount it upside down, then you're able to actually mount it with a little tilt forward. So when you're in attack mode, and you lean forward, your camera is actually now level with the ground. Now when you're riding, if you're just sitting and pedaling, you can play with this. But while you're riding, you can also move this, because these GoPro mounts are adjustable. So as far as basic setup goes, that's pretty much all you need. Your camera, your battery, your SD card, and a way to mount it, chest mount, or helmet mount, whatever you prefer. For me, there's one more issue with any action camera right now, and that is the sound. It haunts me, the muffled sound. These action cameras, especially the GoPro, are waterproof. But in order to have that waterproof shell, they have to have the microphones on the inside. The issue with that is that the microphones are muffled, because the microphone only comes through these tiny holes that you'll see on the GoPro. Now if you know anything about camera sound, you're probably saying, easy fix. I'll just get a lapel mic, and I'll plug it into the GoPro, and I'll have great sound. Not so much. GoPro couldn't make it that easy. So on the GoPro, what you actually have to do is remove the side latch, open it up, and you'll notice that there is a required adapter in order to run a 3.5 millimeter mic through a GoPro. Now is it a pain? Yes. And does it cost extra money? Yes. Now the one primary issue with the GoPro mic adapter is its shape and size. It's extremely awkward. So over the years, I've tried multiple different setups to make this work, and I've fine-tuned it to one setup that's super easy. I can pop in and out, and it works with my stuntman chest mount. So for my microphone setup, I use the Rode Lavalier or lapel mic. I'll leave links below to all of these if you guys want to check them out. There is then a small adapter that you need to run that lapel mic to the GoPro adapter, and what I do is bind all those together, all the wiring for that, and I wrapped it all with electrical tape. And that makes it so that this adapter becomes one piece, and it's something that I can easily slide in and out of the mount that I made on my stuntman chest mount. I also added this little cat's tail as they call it, this soft little fluffy guy to block out the wind noise from the lapel mic. Now when it comes to mounting it on the stuntman chest mount, what I've done is cut a couple small slots in the stuntman. I've taken a small strip of Velcro, and that allows me to slide this microphone setup onto the stuntman chest mount, and I can remove it as I see fit when I use it. And then with my GoPro mounted, I can plug that right into the side of the GoPro. Yes, it's a lot of moving parts, and it takes a little bit to get this set up, but this gives me crisp, clean sound with no wind noise, and none of that muffled sound that the GoPro usually has. Again, I'll leave links to all of these products down below if you want to check them out, and you might have to tinker a little bit to figure out how to make this work best for you, but this is a great setup that gives you some really crisp sound. So to be honest, if you want to make mountain bike videos, this is really all you need. But if you want to go a little more in depth, add some third person to your videos, I'll give you some recommendations for some of the other equipment that I use to film as well. Now there's a couple other cameras that I have in my pocket that I use to make a lot of my third person footage. First off, I have a nice DSLR camera. It doesn't have to be this one, anyone will work. This is an Nikon D3300. I have a couple lenses here. This is a really nice Sigma lens that gives me some nice depth. These cameras are great if you're willing to lug it around because you can get some really crisp footage. They're going to have a lot more capabilities as far as focusing the light that they allow into the camera. It's going to give you some really clean footage and you can also get some really clean photos. If you're out with your buddies, snap a bunch of action shots. This is what you're going to need. In addition to that, I have a Sony AX53, which is a 4K camcorder. Now this camcorder is pretty neat. It has internal stabilization, so it keeps it super smooth. It has a flip screen on the side that allows me to see what I'm filming and adjust all my settings. But the biggest thing with having a camcorder is the ability to zoom in and out. The biggest flaw with these small action GoPro cameras is that they have no zoom in, no zoom out. So there's different views. They have narrow, wide, super view, but you really, if you're filming someone, you can't zoom in and out. You just have to chase them around and hope for the best. So having the camcorder with that zoom in and out feature is great when you're out filming with your buddies. I can bust that thing out, take some really cool footage, follow them down the trail and just do a lot that you can't do with the smaller action camera. Now, last but not least, one of the most important pieces of equipment, one of my favorite pieces of equipment is the Joby tripod. This little guy, it is basically just a super lightweight, flexible tripod that you can use for all those really cool third person shots. You can set this on the ground. If it's pretty much any camera that you can think of, whether it's a GoPro, iPhone, they come in all different sizes. You can set this on the ground for some of that third person footage, or you can wrap it around a tree. You can pretty much do anything with these guys. This is the one that I use the most. This is the one that I use for my GoPro. But again, they also have these bigger models. This is the one that I use for my DSLR and my camcorder, and then they run smaller and bigger. And that pretty much wraps up part one of how to make a mountain bike video. Every video that you see on my channel, every video that I've ever made is made with this equipment. If you guys have any questions, comments, any recommendations, please do leave them below. If you like this video, make sure you like it and subscribe to the channel. And please tune in for part two and part three. Again, part two is going to be some filming tips when you're out there, how to get some of the best footage. And then part three is going to be some editing. So we'll jump on my computer and I'll show you how I link everything together and upgrade all the footage that I have. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Keep riding.