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I love the photo and video equipment I use on the trail right now. Read on to find out what I love about them.
Best still camera for hiking photography
Panasonic Lumix ZS80 with 4K video
I love the Lumix as a hiking camera:
- It’s reasonably small and portable (unlike a DSLR)
- 4K video
- Big display that can be turned around for selfies
- Quality Leica lens
- 30x optical zoom
- Great price for the quality
For me, the still camera is all about the ability to zoom. My phone takes great photos, but not if you try to zoom. With the Lumix I can get great close up shots of distant wildlife and scenery and the flip display for selfies is a nice touch.
I love this camera enough that when I dropped it in a swamp and destroyed it, I bought another one just like it – though I’ll try a little harder to not drop this one in a swamp.
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Best action camera for hiking videos
I love my GoPro Hero10 Black! I had the Hero5 before this and switching to the 10 was a big upgrade. The 11 is out now, so there’s an even better upgrade. Here’s why I love the GoPro Hero as a hiking camera:
- Front and back displays – see yourself when you’re talking so you can frame your shot to include scenery
- Quality – the Hero takes great videos AND great photos
- The wide view lens allows for good scenery shots and looks good even when walking
- The stabilization is so good it feels like magic
- It doesn’t care about rain. You could take this thing SCUBA diving, so rain doesn’t bother it at all (just remember to wipe the lens now and again)
- There are so many ways to attach it, allowing you to get all kinds of amazing shots
- It’s so small and portable
- The optional media mod gives you a microphone upgrade
- You can attach a very bright, very portable light to improve your shots
Accessories for GoPro
The GoPro 3-Way 2.0 is a great accessory to have. You can hold it to film yourself while walking, use it as a selfie stick / monopod, or set it down and use it as a tripod. I was SO glad I bought it for the West Highland Way in Scotland. Shop the GoPro 3-Way.
I also really like the GoPro Media Mod and the GoPro Light Mod.
Best video camera for hiking videos
Panasonic HC-WXF991K 4K Cinema-Like Video Camera Camcorder
What I like about it:
- 20x optical zoom
- Quality Leica lens
- Display screen flips over for selfies (are they still called selfies if it’s video?)
- Stabilization
- Compact size
Once again, I LOVE having the zoom. The GoPro has a wide angle lens and no zoom – it’s better for action shots. But to really put together a high quality video of your hiking adventures, you need a good zoom. I also love how compact this camera is. I can put it in my waist bag along with my still camera and my GoPro.
This also has a smaller camera to create picture-in-picture videos. I used it and didn’t care for it – I’d rather edit the pieces together. There may be use cases where this would come in handy, but I wasn’t really a fun – which is fine, I just don’t use the feature.
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My camera gear setup for hiking
These are the cameras I use and I am very happy with all of them! I’ve been trying to improve the quality of my videos since my Isle Royale trip when I had so many problems with audio. I’m excited to edit together all my videos from the West Highland Way!