Episode 396: Changing Gear and My Upcoming Trip

Show Notes

Greetings, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 396 for Thursday March 28th, 2024. In today’s Episode I want to talk about my recent change in gear for the better and the upcoming trip that Tina and I will be making to the Northeast.

Now the trip is so we can visit family and friends back home and so I can finally get the bodywork and paint job done on my late father’s 2005 Chevy Colorado. Generally we only go for two weeks at a time as we love our grandkids, but after a couple weeks Tina and I are just ready to come home to our peace and quiet.

So for years I have used GoPros as my action cameras for Youtube and client projects. My first GoPro was the original Hero+ and over the years I’ve had several of the models. I never upgraded every time a new model came out, rather I’d wait until a new generation had enough new features and tech to make them worthwhile. I have always liked using the GoPros, except for the occasional crash or overheating issues. GoPros have other oddities to them as well, which I only noticed when I bought my first DJI Osmo Action 3 and the big one for me is the battery drain issues.

What I mean is I have never understood why when you shut down your GoPro and have WiFi and Bluetooth turned off as well the GoPro still drains their batteries quite badly. I could power off my GoPro Hero 12 Black and plug it in to charge the battery back to full after shooting all day and then once fully charged stow it in my GoPro Pelican case and after a week or so of sitting the battery would be nearly if not fully dead. On the other hand I could use my Osmo Action 3 or 4 for filming, come back home and plug them in to charge them fully again and then put them in their Pelican case and leave them for weeks on end and when pulled back out to use again the battery would still be at 100% or only down to 96%.

The other big thing I noticed when I bought my first Osmo Action camera was the fact that they are much better in low light than the GoPro has ever been. The Hero 12 Black has the new sensor with that new 8 x 7 aspect ration so you can crop vertical in post but their low light abilities are still very poor. As a result of these issues, I recently sold off all my GoPro cameras and switched to DJI Osmo and Insta360 cameras as well.

I did part with my Osmo Action 3 as well, but only because the Action 4 is much better so I kept that and just added the Insta360 X3 for 360 degree video to replace my GoPro MAX, I also bought the Insta360 Ace Pro with it’s very large 8K capable sensor it is even better at low light than the Osmo Action 4 is using its Pure Video mode! The Ace Pro is every bit as durable and waterproof as the Hero 12 Black and I LOVE having that rear LCD that can be flipped up to use for vlogging and gives you way more for vlogging than the small color front LCD on the Hero 12 Black.

The final Insta360 camera that I recently acquired is the new Insta360 GO 3 mini camera. The GO 3 is so small and light weight you can use it in so many ways you cannot use a conventional action camera. It can fit into such small, tight spaces you can get some really awesome perspectives for your videos. The GO 3 has that awesome built in magnet system on its backside so you can place them anywhere that you have metal to stick it to. I watched a video the other day about some of the interesting footage you can capture with the GO 3 and this one guy on Youtube used his with a small Aputure LED panel light that is also magnetic so shoot footage of the inside of his washing machine by attaching them both to the underside of the lid.

The final new camera that I got this week is the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal camera. I have seen so many videos on this little gem that I could not resist getting one to use for vlogging and other content for my Youtube channel. My friend Brent Bergherm uses the Pocket 2 for most all of his Youtube videos and totally LOVES his and I have watched a lot of really good reviews that were not sponsored to get a more balanced opinion of the Pocket 3. After watching a few dozen non-sponsored videos I felt that it was a good camera to buy and I am very pleased thus far. It has awesome face tracking for vlogging and I also picked up the Freewell Mega Pack of filters.

Now the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is not the only gimbal camera I have, I also bought the Feiyu Tech Pocket 3 gimbal camera as well. I love that the Feiyu Tech is very small, even smaller than the DJI Pocket 3. Now the big thing about the Feiyu Tech is the fact that the gimbal and camera can be removed from its handle with the colored screen and it is magnetic so you can easily stick it to the roof or hood of your camera and shoot excellent video while driving. The one thing that sucks about the Feiyu Tech is that they don’t allow you to use ANY external mics with the camera and the built-in mics are kind of poor in quality and with their odd placement you can easily cover them with your hand when recording. I decided to just use mine for those exterior car shots and other “B Roll” footage where I don’t need audio to go with it.

The Osmo Pocket 3 not only has way better mics built-in, but also gives you the ability to use the DJI Mic 2 wireless mic system with it without the receiver just like you can with the Osmo Action 4 camera. I even bought the third party case for the Osmo Pocket 3 that allows you to store the camera, the small extender as well as the external battery pack for it, the mini tripod and one of the DJI Mic 2 transmitters too!

I mentioned in one of my recent episodes that I also finally sprung for the PEAK Design Travel Tripod and I picked up their new version 3 of their Capture Clip as well to use with my backpack. I had also been considering for a while now on getting a PEAK Design Everyday Sling so I picked one of them up this week in the beautiful blue color and the 6L size. Now don’t think I am giving up on my ThinkTank Mirrorless Mover V2 as I am planning to take that bag with me as well. I wanted the Sling for Street Photography and I had the ability to get it through Amazon on a Try Before You Buy test drive.

The next new item I am taking with me when I go on this trip is my new Brevitè Jumper Photo backpack. Brevitè reached out to me recently and asked me to give it a try and if I like it to do a review of it on my Channel and so far I am REALLY LOVING that backpack! It has become my new favorite camera backpack with all its handy features and the fact that it looks nothing like a conventional camera backpack. The one they sent me is the regular and they also offer the Jumper in a large size as well, but I am glad they sent me the regular sized one because I already have a few large camera backpacks and this one is one that I can use as an Every Day Carry backpack for when I want to go out hiking and shoot landscape or wildlife. Make sure you are Subscribe to my Youtube channel if you aren’t already as I will be doing a full review on the Jumper during the month of April while I am up North.

I am planning on taking all of my new Action cameras with me for the trip so I have as many options as possible for filming my Youtube videos. In addition to my Action and Gimbal cameras I am also taking both my Fujifilm x100v as well as my Fujifilm X-T5 with a couple lenses. I don’t want to take too many of my larger cameras as I am trying to keep things light and we’ll have limited space in the Colorado even though it is a Crew Cab with four doors.

I am probably going to take the Viltrox 75mm F/1.2 PRO lens as I want to do some portraits with my grandkids and kids too. And I am thinking I will also take the Viltrox 33mm F/1.4 which is 50mm in full frame field of view and I have not done a review on that lens yet and I want to do another video on the 75mm F/1.2 PRO as well.

I am happy to report that I have been getting contacted by more and more companies recently wanting me to review their photography and videography products and I even have one company that is offering a Paid Sponsorship so I want to thank all of you that are Subscribers. This weeks new Youtube video is a review of the Retouch4Me photo editing plug-ins. This company has made some really awesome AI-Powered plugins that allow you to speed up your editing workflow. They allowed me to test drive four of their plugins and I was really impressed. I also love the fact that they are a company that still offers perpetual licenses for their software.

I also am happy to report that my Subscriber count has been climbing again for the Youtube channel as well as this show and I thank all of you for your continued support, it is truly appreciated. I do want to have some more contests between this show and my Channel, but I have not figured it all out yet. I may talk to the Retouch4Me folks and see if they’d be willing to offer one of their plugins as a prize. And I think it might be possible to get something for a contest going with the folks that want to do the paid sponsorship, but we’ll see.

Hopefully things will pick up with this show soon and I can get more paid sponsors like I had recently with the good folks at MagicMind. I would love to one day soon get lucky enough to get Fujifilm as a sponsor and I wouldn’t mind getting the same thing going on with PlatyPod as well. Dr Larry at PlatyPod is a great guy and a very talented photographer and I would be honored to have them as a sponsor. I always get excited when he comes up with new gear to improve our lives while doing photography and videography.

If you haven’t already, make sure you head over to www.platypod.com and use my discount code of WD20 to save on your order. The PlatyPod flat tripods are so handy to have in your kit. I have been to a lot of places when I lived in Georgia where regular tripods are totally out, but pull our your PlatyPod flat tripod and it’s no problem at all. I used to use mine at Gibbs Gardens all the time and they have a strict no tripod policy unless you are doing a authorized photoshoot and have the permits needed. Now over the years I became good friends with Mr. Gibbs and he would allow me to bring a regular tripod on the property and if anyone else complained he would tell them that I shared my content with the Garden’s Social Media accounts and website, which is why I was allowed to have a tripod there. Even with his permission I often times just used my PlatyPod Extreme as it was so much lighter to carry.

This is going to wrap up today’s Episode 396, I want to thank all of you for Subscribing, Rating and Reviewing on whatever Podcast platform you use to listen to the show and please remember to share the show on Social Media and Elsewhere and ask your friends and family to Subscribe as well so we can continue to grow the show!

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You can find my work @ https://www.liamphotography.net and follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @liamphotoatl. If you like abandoned buildings and history, you can find my project @ http://www.forgottenpiecesofgeorgia.com. and http://www.forgottenpiecesofpennsylvania.com.

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