The Happy Camper: Filming in Algonquin (Part One)



Kevin Callan shares the first in his series of videos on his paddle-and-portage around Algonquin Provincial Park: The Meanest Link.

I finished editing my Once Around Algonquin film and I just released the first of five videos on my YouTube Channel.

The other videos will be released throughout the next couple of weeks. The editing process took quite a few late nights, and a couple bottles of sambuca (my liquor of choice while editing film). The project was well worth it, however. The trip around Algonquin park was awesome and reliving it through the film clips was amazing.

A big thanks to my sponsors who made it possible to place the film on my site for free, rather than as a digital download, including Explore Magazine.

For you camera connoisseurs out there, I used a Sony Nex 5r to film everything, with the Sony attachable microphone and a separate H1 Zoom mic for audio.

It was perfect for the trip. The Nex 5r is a mirrorless camera and is extremely lightweight. The camera literally fits in the palm of your hand. It shot full HD 1080p video and captured amazing still images at 16.1 megapixels. It also has a lens adapter so I could mount my old lens, as well and the ability to control shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation during recording. The auto-focus was amazing, as was its low light sensitivity (ISO ranges from 100 to 25,600). The best part was that the price was under $700. That’s amazing considering my original options were either a much-larger video camera that shot video only or a DSLR, both priced over $5,000.

The only negative was that the camera ate battery juice. I was lucky if I got a full day of shooting for each battery; and the trip was 16 days in length. My Goal Zero Guide 10 Kit saved me on that issue. I carried three batteries and used the sun to charge them.There were a few days when the lack of sunlight made me slightly paranoid about running out of battery life, but I was able to end the trip without ever running out of power.

Check out the first segment. The second video will be up soon — and it’s my favourite of the five.

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