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Reply to "Camera Suggestion"

It'll go against the grain some, but I'll share my experience.  If money and time is no object, then discard everything I am about to say.  With a lot of money and time/work, there are good solutions out there.  But if money and time are finite for you, pull your iPhone out and commit to a less than desirable baseball watching experience and record what you want yourself.  You think you'll hate it - and you might - but know you may end up hating it LESS than what it takes to get great video through something other than your phone.

Most people I've interacted end up spending hundreds of dollars and lots of time for something they end up labeling as "better than nothing" once the final product comes out.  I just had a buddy (whose has lots of money) return his brand new GoPro Hero 9 and all it's accessories (total cost was about $500).  Once he quickly realized all that goes into the process of recording and/or streaming games and bounced it up against the end product, back it went.  He streamed one 5-ining game and got the text message from his cell provider that he'd already exceeded his monthly allotment of his fastest bandwidth.  I took a look a his stream.  The quality from his GoPro 9 looked great - for a live streamed high school baseball game.  I could fairly easily tell who the hitter, catcher and umpire were.  But who was playing any other position in the field?  No chance.  And he was streaming at the highest resolution possible.

There are a TON of obstacles that must be accounted for each and every time you want to record and/or stream a game:

Net backstops (vs fence/chainlink) are auto-focus killers.  If you're shooting through one of them, you're hosed without something like the Lynk Spyder.  So finding a great place to mount your camera is always hard.  Every ballpark is different and presents different challenges, so you're showing up early to set up.  Every game.  FOV - are getting every defender even though no one can see what the RF is doing without the help of GameChanger?  Are shaving off the RF and LF from the picture to get a slightly better view if the batters or infield?  Do you have enough battery packs?  How often do they need to be switched out?  What about a double header?   Did you remember to charge all the batteries right after last night's game when you got home at 10:30pm? Do you bring an extension cord?  Can you find an outlet for it?  Are you and your phone close enough to where you mounted the camera?  Is your camera and/or phone overheating in the 96 degree 98% humidity? Do you end up sticking your phone in a cooler with ice in between each inning?  Is the autofocus refocusing on the thing you'd prefer it does?  Do you have a cell plan with enough bandwidth and data limits?  Do you need to lease a wifi hotspot device since your camera is too far away from your phone?  Gonna share the live streaming link with your friends, family and other parents?  Cool, but understand you'll be getting texts from them when the feed goes down/service is interrupted.  People will get very comfortable once you feed them once.  The list of obstacles extends well beyond this list, but for the vast majority of people who choose to do this, you're signing up for a job.  If you're seeking another job, you'll strike gold here.  If you'd prefer games are more laid back and satisfying for you holistically, consider NOT adding this job to your resume.

When Covid killed my 2021's highly-important-for-recruiting spring season last year, I was VERY close to buying a Mevo+, a Lynk Spyder and all the fixings for summer ball.  Thank Jesus I held up and went with shooting everything with my iPhone.  It WAS indeed a job and not easy, but for me, it was a much better alternative to what the start up costs, daily setup, time commitment, responsibility, headaches, streaming, recording, editing, tear down, etc would have been.  In the end, I got ALL the shots I wanted (with the quality I wanted) with the least amount of hassle and headaches.  My advice is to research everything to Nth degree and be sure of what you're signing up for BEFORE you spend a penny.  My wealthy buddy figured throwing money at it would make for a worthwhile and easy experience for himself and others.  There is NO easy path to getting great video.

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