Whats up everyone, this might hit closer with the M&A crowd but basically I've compiled a list of what i think were the most popular video cameras used by the average NS'er over the past few years. Now i know some of you probably used other models but i think its safe to say each of these were a big hit in the forums and amongst the average filmer. Also i apologize in advance if you don't get all the jokes or the sarcasm, this is meant to be read with a slightly comedic tone.

We'll start things of with the infamous "HANDLE" cameras!

Canon GL1-GL2

Photo by Slickohio

The GL1-2 series was released around 2002 and quickly became very popular amongst skate crews and slowly it's popularity leaked over into snowboarding and skiing. Made extremely cool with the famous HANDLE that gave all filmers absolute precedence in the park. Chances are if a dude cut in front of you with a HANDLE'd camera back in 2005 it was allll good, he's probably workin on his homie's sponsor tape. Oh and if you remember those edits back in 2004-07 with serious vignette'ing, chances are they were shot on one of these with a bad wide angle lens. I forget what they retailed for when released but i bought mine back in 2006 for 1900 off ebay and sold it 18 months later for 1500. You can now buy this camera for roughly 300$ on craigslist or better yet right here on NS. Times are a changin'

fun fact: Newschoolers member Landis of Hungry Sloth productions used this for his short film Neon which amassed some serious hype 6-7 years ago. Where you at buddy?

Sony VX1000 - VX2000

photo submitted by: LJ

These two models were great cameras that rivalled the canon gl2 pretty closely. The vx1000 didn't have a lcd screen making it impossible to tell if you're gettin the shot which is why most people coupled this camera with a death lens, yes there was once a lens called death. They later added a viewfinder for the vx2000. You can now find one of these for 400 bucks when they used to sell for 2200+. Although the trend didn't catch on in the ski realm -thank god, this camera has a huge following of skaters who still to this day swear by its awesomeness and "film" look. You can find these dudes on skateperception.com or in eheath's F-you list.

Fun fact: The infamous EastAr5 used to be all about this camera and used it to make all his crochet tutorial videos back in the day.

Panasonic HVX100 / HVX200

Photo by Trent_Palmer

This one is a bit more high end and not everyone went through this upgrade because it was a) significantly more expensive and b) encorporated p2 memory cards which became obsolete almost a year after the camera came out (or did they?). Its the last of a dying breed of 3ccd chip cameras (like the two models above) and was widely used for many amateur ski productions at the time. Shout out to to trent from stonebroke films who made some sick edits back in the day, best of luck with copter kids.

Fun fact: This was Eheath's camera of choice for many years until he upgraded and got the fs700 not too long ago.

Hv30

Photo by da_chronic

This camera came out and put an end to the reign of HANDLE'd cameras simply because they were half the price and had such "awesome HD image quality". Finally a camera under 1000$ that could "outshine" most of the cameras mentioned above - mind you our friend SLandis would probably debate me on that one and rightly so. It came out in 2008 and quickly became an NS favourite thanks to Horner's test footage edits. Its success on NS lasted for at least a year or two with its unchanged upgraded versions hv40 and hv50. It can now be found online now for under 300$.

Fun fact: The handle format never died, many diehards refused to let it go and just had to keep with it.

GoPro

Oh the GoPro. the camera that separated the video hobbiests from the people who just wanna shoot their friends in the park. It gave birth to a large volume of POV runs, allowing Backcountry skiers to record their runs without having to befriend a filmer. This product does not need any introduction as its still very relevant among video enthusiasts today. Came out in 2009 and somehow keeps putting out better models every year.

Fun fact: For those into trading stocks, GoPro announced a month or two ago that they plan on going public and filed their confidential IPO docs. If it comes out and the price is low enough, might be a good time to hop on a product we are familiar with and know is only gaining market share. They consecutively outdue their pevious years sales and have become a household name for action sports recording. When the CEO accepted an emmy for the gopro hero 3+ he said and i quote " if you liked what we did with gopro hero3+ you havnt seen anything yet!"

Canon t2i - 60d - 7d

This list would be nowhere near complete without mentioning the canon rebel t2i, the camera that started the whole DSLR video movement. It came out in 2010 and quickly took over the game with its ability to "interchange lens''' and produce that look that everyone goes for. Although to the surprise of many, it takes more than just a camera body to produce "good quality" video. The result of this was a flood of threads being created titled "what's the best lens to shoot skiing". Well Ns took care of that one for ya. The two "best" lens' are the tokina 11-16 f2.8 and the nifty Tamron 17-50 NON-vc. These two lens became synonymous with t2i purchases and quick realizations that shooting skiing with a dslr is not easy nor convenient, but worth it. This camera is still very popular on NS, along with its successors t3i and t4i all of which can be purchased for record low prices in the sell / trade forum right here on NS.

fun fact: This might be the most popular of them all (after the gopro), and is being sold for 50% lower than what it used to cost right here on NS!!

the future?

Who will be the next person to drop a ridiculous edit with a new camera and start a whole new wave of followers? Will people hop on the sony fs100/700 train or make the upgrade to full frame 5d mkII or III? Will we start seeing black magic cameras rolling through the park or will the new age of mirrorless cameras like the sony a7s take over? Time will tell.

Hope this brought some of you back to some older days or at least made you laugh.

Happy spring skiing!

Peter Matlashewski