New looking for advice

[RobbieH12]

Hey everyone I am Rob from IL. I am new to hiking trails and have a trip planned in late August to Acadia National Park. We are going to hike the beehive trail and I was wanting to record it. What is the cheapest but good quality camera to record with? Can anyone give me some advice. I am looking between 50-80 dollars if that is even possible.

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Hi Rob and welcome. What type of production quality are you looking for? Most would use a smartphone if you have one. For a higher production quality than that, and they are often pretty good, you’d be looking at some more expensive professional or higher end camera gear.

[Geezer Tom]

If you search the Internet you'll find a couple of places that rent equipment. GoPro seems to be a popular rent by some people just getting started. It's inclusive. Batteries, cards and the like. That way hikers sample a product and then buy or move on.

Sony has some good quality cameras for rent through bigger camera stores. Some Sony models are great looking images and good sound recording.

Good luck and it would be nice to hear what you used and maybe see a sample.

[Michael aka Mac]

Ironically, I took photography at Brown University, and collect vintage cameras...

@Aaron Zagrodnick If he is recording nonstop his cell phone battery life wouldn't cut it, not to mention he would probably need spare memory cards and set storage to the card vs internal memory and just swap out the cards when they get full. I wouldn't want to be swapping those tiny cards outside, as many of the new phones the card sits on top of the SIM card, and mine (SIM) fell out onto my table as  I was installing a Mirco SD memory card, just image that falling in the wilderness and not being able to call out.

He could potentially use a power bank, place it into his backpack, and keep his phone plugged in to it, but the cell phone will definitely get HOT, not to mention that cord will get annoying.

@RobbieH12  Not a chance you are going to find a new digital camera, get the rechargeable batteries and a few spare ones for it and enough storage memory for $80.

Your best bet is to buy a used digital camera, like Minolta, Canon, Nikon etc. so you can afford the spare batteries and memory cards for it. Best that it charges using a USB port so that you can use a power bank to charge a battery while you are recording with another. Your best bet is finding one manufactured prior to 2019 as IMO electronics have been crap since lockdown, breaking down within months to a year.

I am speaking from personal experience, and I am a computer technician and electronic & small/large appliance  repair man

As a favor, just remember us here at Trailgroove and post some photos of your journey...

Edited Saturday at 08:54 PM by Michael aka Mac