Camera Choice: Cycle Touring Documentary?

[Tulpa]

Dear Eoshd members,

I've been a long time lurker and it's clear that there are some with an exceptional wealth of experience here.

I used to be quite up to speed with the latest camera tech but completely fell off a cliff about 3 years ago. I'm not so sure a lot has happened since then, but I would be curious to have your insights on what would make a solid camera choice for an upcoming project that I'm moving towards.

The project involves cycling around the world for several years under all kinds of conditions and producing a cinematic documentary about it.

I know that many use things like GoPro, Insta 360 etc with decent results. But I'm wondering what you folks would use to obtain your results if you were to embark on such an adventure and why?

I'd be grateful for any insights or observations any of you may have!

[eatstoomuchjam]

If it's being mounted to the bike, then yes, any of the current crop of decent action cameras would be a good choice, especially assuming that some parts of the tour would be in the rain or dusty areas, etc.  Even better yet if they can pair directly with the manufacturer's wireless microphone system (DJI and Insta360 both do this).  This can also be augmented with any halfway decent modern phone.

Otherwise, if you wouldn't want to go the action camera+phone route, I'd find the smallest and lightest camera on the market with decent weatherproofing and go with that, making sure that all of the lenses are similarly weather-sealed.  There are lots of used options, especially that are M43 mount, that would be good fits for small and light and can give better results than an action camera.  Better than 1080p is nice, but as far as I know, any festival will still accept it as a resolution.  More than 4K is realistically unnecessary unless you plan to crop/reframe in post.

[Tulpa]

5 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

If it's being mounted to the bike, then yes, any of the current crop of decent action cameras would be a good choice, especially assuming that some parts of the tour would be in the rain or dusty areas, etc.  Even better yet if they can pair directly with the manufacturer's wireless microphone system (DJI and Insta360 both do this).  This can also be augmented with any halfway decent modern phone.

Otherwise, if you wouldn't want to go the action camera+phone route, I'd find the smallest and lightest camera on the market with decent weatherproofing and go with that, making sure that all of the lenses are similarly weather-sealed.  There are lots of used options, especially that are M43 mount, that would be good fits for small and light and can give better results than an action camera.  Better than 1080p is nice, but as far as I know, any festival will still accept it as a resolution.  More than 4K is realistically unnecessary unless you plan to crop/reframe in post.

Thank you for this eatstoomuchjam.
And if you you could have your pick of camera and lens, do you know what that would be? 10bit and 4k as a minimum with good low light capabilities?
I'm not only considering shooting from the bicycle, but collecting stories from the situations with people along the way.
Any thoughts?

[eatstoomuchjam]

I'd be apt to leave that to the micro 4/3 enthusiasts like @kye and @John Matthews. 

My guess, and please do take this with a huge grain of salt, as I haven't owned a real micro 4/3 camera in years, is that the camera body suggestion will look something like a GX85 or OM-3/OM-5 II for small/light/sealed, but I don't follow m43 enough to know off the top of my head which have 10 bit.  If the Panasonic 14/2.5 or 20/1.7 are weather sealed, they could be alright.  Otherwise, the humble Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens is not bad.  The Olympus equivalent might be alright too.  You'd probably want one of the primes for low light.

[kye]

@Tulpa

Maybe John is best placed to talk about camera bodies, but here's a few thoughts:

• you absolutely want weather proofing, and should read the manual to see what this can cope with (and what it cannot)
• IBIS is great but the mechanisms are fragile and I'd imagine that if there are any constant vibrations from cycling you could easily break them (e.g. will there be hours and hours of off-road or riding on rough roads?)
• consider what you'll be doing for audio - if you want an audio input then you'll need the G or GH line of cameras, not the GX line which lacks audio inputs
• docos are about getting the shot, not having a setup that looks incredible but isn't flexible or fast enough to use in the field.  for this I recommend simple setups and zoom lenses.  if you go MFT the 12-35mm F2.8 is a great lens because it's got some flexibility and also enough low-light for most situations.  

You need to think about the whole ecosystem involved.  
You will have the camera, lenses, filters, batteries and chargers, media, potentially separate microphones (and therefore all their battery and charging needs), etc.  You might want a cage and maybe external monitors. You'll need camera mounts, definitely for mounting things to the bikes, but also a tripod is probably a must-have too.  If you're shooting interviews you might want some small lights, which come with their own battery and charging requirements too.
Then there's media management.  How will you offload cards, and where will you store the data?  Will you be able to backup to the cloud as you go?  Can you buy drives along the way and mail them home as you go?  Having three copies of something is great but if they're all in your bag when it gets stolen then the footage is still lost.

This ecosystem is something you need to assemble and then use a few times to work out the kinks and get everything optimised.

The reason I say all that is that by the end of that process you might decide that you don't have space or the weight capacity for the camera after you pack a wireless mic and a laptop and some hard drives.

[MrSMW]

Olympus/OM System OM-1 + 12-35mm f2.8 

[John Matthews]

4 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

I'd be apt to leave that to the micro 4/3 enthusiasts like @kye and @John Matthews. 

My guess, and please do take this with a huge grain of salt, as I haven't owned a real micro 4/3 camera in years, is that the camera body suggestion will look something like a GX85 or OM-3/OM-5 II for small/light/sealed, but I don't follow m43 enough to know off the top of my head which have 10 bit.  If the Panasonic 14/2.5 or 20/1.7 are weather sealed, they could be alright.  Otherwise, the humble Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens is not bad.  The Olympus equivalent might be alright too.  You'd probably want one of the primes for low light.

10-bit and weather sealing. There's the rub.

Panasonic: GH5, GH5 ii, GH5S, G9, G9ii, GH6, GH7

Olympus: OM-1, OM-1ii, OM-3

Anything smaller, you'll need to forgo 10-bit.

For lenses, there are many options from flagship zooms (all are great, new and old) to small primes. However with the latter, there aren't necessarily that many that are weather-sealed.

Panasonic: All the new versions of the Leica-branded primes, minus the Leica 15mm f/1.7

Olympus: All the Pro versions and the new versions of the 17mm and 25mm f/1.8.

For run and gun in 2025 (AF in video), I'd choose the G9ii (lighter) or the GH7.

For lenses, I'd go with two- one all-purpose, do everything lens like the 14-150 (Olympus), 14-140 (Panasonic), or 12-100 (Olympus, heavy!). After, I'd go for the Leica 25mm prime (new version) if weather-sealing is necessary; if not, the old version of the Leica 15mm f/1.7, Olympus 17mm f/1.8 or Panasonic 25mm f/1.7.

If 10-bit isn't the issue, I'd go for the smallest camera with the best output. I'd go go a GX85 and an audio recorder, the E-M5 iii, OM5, OM5ii (all of these have decent audio and AF).

It's sad that Panasonic cannot offer us anything under 500g with 10-bit, decent audio, and decent IBIS in MFT. For that, they can only offer the S9 in FF with NO pancake lenses- a CRAZY situation that is costing them dearly every single day!

 

[tbonne]

@Tulpa sound like a cool project. Haven't done anything like it but have brought a bunch of different cameras on training rides filming my wife (a mountainbike pro) for the last decade. 

I would strongly consider a combination of an action cam and a mirrorless. The Osmo Action paired with their mic mini is a brilliant combo. The camera alone can be used in a bunch of conditions without risk (rain etc.)

I have no experience with M 4/3 but used to bring a Samsung NX500 in my back pocket. It was brilliant at that. Has now been replaced with a Fuji X-M5. Same size. 

[kye]

Great info from John and definitely agree on the zoom + fast prime combo.

 I have the 14-140mm and love it.  I was tossing up between it and the 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 because I wasn't sure how often I'd use the 60-140mm part of the lens, but since getting it I was really surprised at how often it really comes in handy.  Essentially, it means you can shoot whatever you can see, which really helps when you're trying to give a sense of a place.

It's slower than the 12-60mm but neither is a low-light lens and the DOF differences aren't relevant in a doco situation.

Here's a video I did showing the stabilisation, but it should show you the versatility of the lens.

I shoot travel videos and have found that AF zooms best allow you to document the places and experience you're in, as they support the approach I've developed to shooting:

• Shoot a good variety of shots so you have lots of options in the edit
• Shoot the wide so you have an establishing shot, shoot the people, shoot the buildings, shoot the motion, shoot the colour
• Shoot the space (especially if it's large), shoot the details, look down at the ground and look up at the buildings / trees and the sky
• Think about what makes this place special and shoot that
• Think about what makes this place feel the way it does and shoot that

In general, the faster you can shoot the more you will capture and the more authentic it will be because it will be more spontaneous and more based around your initial impressions rather than shooting slowly and having too much time to think about it.  Plus, sometimes things happen very quickly and often they're the most important things to capture.

I'd also second @tbonnes idea of combining the action cam and mirrorless.

The action cam can be mounted on the bike ready to grab footage at a moments notice and doesn't need to be put away even in torrential rain or a dust storm.  Then, once you've stopped you can pull out the mirrorless and get some shots.  If you're a masochist then you can even go ahead, setup the mirrorless and hit record, go back again and ride through the frame, then go back and retrieve the camera.  It seems like a great way to shoot a film and a spectacular way to remove as much pleasure from the experience as possible.

This raises the other option - a drone.  It's the fastest way to get shots of you without having to ride the same section of road three times.  The laws for flying drones seem to have stabilised in a lot of places allowing drones under a certain weight, but it's something that would require an incredible amount of research beforehand to make sure it wouldn't get confiscated or get you into hot water just for having it.

[Ilkka Nissila]

I can't imagine this working out without traveling as a pair or a group who take on different responsibilities (such as riding ahead and placing the camera for a shot, in case it's a static position), the amount of gear needed for interviews could also be problematic for a single biker. Camera, backup camera, microphones, lighting, tripod, stands for the lights, storage, laptop, sets of clothing for different weather conditions and spares in case cleaning on the road is not possible, camping gear, sleeping bag, tent, food, drink, tools for repairing the bike and the cameras, etc. I just can't imagine this amount of gear (considering the timespan of years) to be feasible to take when biking long distances etc. If a group of 2-3 bikers go and are all trained to use the equipment, then it could work. Stuff is going to break, what are the contingency plans, how is repair accomplished etc. 

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, Ilkka Nissila said:

I can't imagine this working out without traveling as a pair or a group who take on different responsibilities

I can, especially as a one man band photographer filmmaker/videographer who always works solo.

I currently use 2x photo dedicated cameras, 2x video, 1x monopod, 2x tripods, 2x lightstands, 2x lights, up to 6 pieces of audio gear, 1x drone, multiple camera angles at the same time, photo and video at the same time...

There are parts of every job where I use every single one of the above at the same time except 2x photo cameras.

I can have 3 video units rolling, with an audio feed to each, shooting stills with the drone up shooting video straight down statically.

OK, with the drone, it's a frikkin nightmare doing that and last time out I crashed it into a tree landing it 200 metres away...but it can be done.

And that's with single attempt no second chance scenarios.

Now carry all that on a bike plus all the other gear?

Obviously not, but a single robust dedicated camera and either 1 or 2 max lenses, carbon travel tripod, super-lightweight collapsible lightstand and small LED plus audio gear takes up near zero space and battery life is excellent. Tiny compliant drone.

Yes, I can see one person handling this just fine, especially if you are taking your time.

I think all of us to a degree can overthink these things and volume of kit creeps up.

I'm on a reduction mission myself right now in this regard having allowed my own volume of gear to creep up.

I had a kit rationale recently and asked myself, "do you really need 6 lights and when have you ever used 6?" Err, never.

Do I really need that 3rd camera angle for video or is it just overkill and one more thing that actually risks screwing the entire scenario up because you are now juggling too many pieces of kit that all need to be focused, or not focused and rely on AF and is the transmitter for the audio switched on and is the receiver also and...

Sometimes, often even, less can end up being more.

[tbonne]

I guess it all depends on what you're aiming for @tulpa

Something like Harmen Hoeks Silent Hiking is beautiful but like @kye hints at a lot of work 

 

Another option is the action cam style of Itchy Boots. Maybe a combination of both. But I would really look into small pocketable options that are easy to get in and out quickly. And for sure consider one of the very small drones as Kye suggested

 

[Ilkka Nissila]

3 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Now carry all that on a bike plus all the other gear?

If I understood correctly, the OP plans on being several years on the road on a bike around the world, so any equipment or other items needed during that period of time would presumably need to be carried on the bike, unless there is a support crew. Those videography-related items may sound like they are small and lightweight but after everything else that one needs in a life on the road to survive several years in different countries, I believe most people would agree there is no space for anything absolutely not needed. 

 

Are we talking about a bicycle, or a motorcycle? I assumed bicycle.

[Clark Nikolai]

4 hours ago, Ilkka Nissila said:

I can't imagine this working out without traveling as a pair or a group

It's more work but can be done.

This guy cycled from China back to England and shot video along the way. Quite an adventure.

https://www.instagram.com/joshreids/

Now, he would be someone to ask for advice from.

[eatstoomuchjam]

An OM-3 with a 14-140mm and a small M43 prime barely takes up any space.  An action camera barely takes up any space.  A phone is probably coming anyway.  That's a primary camera and two backup cameras.

For lights, if they're needed at all for the style of documentary being done, a small pop-up reflector weighs almost nothing and can do a lot.  Combine that with one or two Aputure MC's and maybe an ultra-portable light stand and you've got a workable lighting setup.  Don't want the reflector?  Include a white t-shirt or hoodie in the package and use it as a bounce.  It'll look ridiculous on set, but I've made it work with worse.  The MC's are also nice because they have a magnet built-in so with some creativity, you can find a place to put them without necessarily needing a light stand (if it were me, I'd bring at least one small one, though.

For mics, a DJI mic 2 kit and one of the tiny Deity or R0de on-camera shotguns?  The Mic will pair with an Action 4 and can also record internally.

Total weight of that entire kit?  <2kg
Not bad for a setup that can record fantastic-looking video (in the right hands) and capture acceptable audio!

Need a tripod?  If it were me, I'd skip a traditional tripod and go with something like a Cobra 3 monopod with the little "tripod" that folds out at the bottom and a foot pedal to unlock the top.  With such a small and light camera, it'd be stable enough (I'd set a bag on the feet on a windy day) and with a fluid head or ball head on top, you can also fake a slider, a dolly, and to some extent, a steadicam.  That's another 1kg or so.

Don't want to offload media using the phone (this is doable with a modern iPhone and a USB-C hub these days) or want to edit on the go?  Add an M4 Macbook Air which adds just about 1kg more.  It'll be plenty for just about any editing OM3/action camera/phone video.

The rest of the stuff mentioned that's needed (sleeping bags, etc) is all a sunk cost in terms of weight for a long biking trip.

[John Matthews]

Here's one of the issues with M43:

Granted, the OM-3 is quite possibly a more functional setup with a better build, but the S9 could be all you need and will beat the OM-3 in price, low-light, and video output. Personally, I'd rather go with the S9 even though I've bad-mouthed it quite a bit. 

[eatstoomuchjam]

The S9 isn't weather sealed, though, is it?  It's not the only consideration, but I'd definitely consider that a "would be nice" for a multi-year bike tour which will probably include a lot of camping.

 

[MrSMW]

49 minutes ago, John Matthews said:

Personally, I'd rather go with the S9 even though I've bad-mouthed it quite a bit

I wouldn’t and I think it’s a great bit of kit.

But no weather sealing to speak of and it’s build I’d say is OK, but it’s not built like an OM-1. Or even close, that thing is built like a tank. 

Despite being a full-frame guy for photo and video, bike packing around the world, M4/3 for sure.

I can’t see past Olympus/OM Systems for this kind of thing.

[Tulpa]

Wow folks, this is exactly the kind of extra insights and support I was hoping for here. Thank you so much and hats off to all of you! Really 🙂

It's clear that some of you @kyereally understand the actual logistics of trying to pull something like this off while maintaining focus on the basics. @John Matthews Big thank you for getting right to the heart of which bodies and lens choices you would employ, this says a lot! @MrSMW for questioning those choices. And of course eatstoomuchjam for helping to get this party started. Clark, Tbonne and IIka for your insights as well.

I need a little time to go through the various camera bodies and lens combinations now and respond further, but please feel free to add anything extra if you feel that it will benefit. I'm super grateful for anything you guys can add beyond what has already been started.

With the logistics of the bicycle, bicycle equipment, route and camera/ laptop and actual story, you can see that this is a lot of balls in the air... so another huge thanks for your wise insights here folks! 🙏

[BTM_Pix]

On 8/6/2025 at 9:36 AM, tbonne said:

Has now been replaced with a Fuji X-M5.

@Tulpa

If you are buying from scratch and don't have a lot of lenses etc in a particular format that you want/need to use then I'd be looking at this camera too.

It is smaller and lighter than even the very compact GX-80/85.

Compared to the bigger MFT offerings in the G and GH series then it is even more of a stark difference in form factor but it is also dramatically cheaper.

Video specs, it shoots 4:2:2 10-Bit and has the open gate mode which for this sort of expedition might well be beneficial to you as you can more easily reformat the footage in different aspect ratios for social media etc.

It has the colour profiles for ease of use but it also shoots in both flavours of F-Log so you can roll your own look.

Lens wise, it has not only got a huge back catalogue of native lenses (a lot of which have stabilisation) and are plentiful on the used market but it also has a lot of fast compact 3rd party lenses like Viltrox which are available at the sort of prices we all remember MFT lenses being back in the day !

Obviously, it has the larger sensor too....

The "downsides" would be considered to be the lack of IBIS and having what appears to be a vague degree of weather resistance - I couldn't find any definitive answers on that one.

The lack of IBIS may well actually prove to be a blessing in disguise if the camera is going to spend any amount of time on the handlebars while you traverse over what for large chunks of the journey will be less than smooth surfaces. Wear and tear over three years will be bad enough without throwing the fragile mechanisms into the mix.

There is a reason why shows such as Top Gear went with the IBIS-less GH5s (although I'm not sure if the story of show wanting to use the GH5 minus it was actually the trigger for Panasonic to make that version is apocryphal or not).

Whatever way you go, I'd spend some research time on the best shock mounting options as it will be a point of failure for any camera that you go with over that period of time.

As for the weather sealing...

Back in the dark distant past when I was a professional sports photographer using battleships like the D3/D4/D5 etc they could take a hammering but as soon as the rain/sleet/snow became a bit too much none of us were taking that chance that they were immune to it so out would come the covers for both the bodies and the lenses.

Think Tank make good ones but they are all designed for bigger cameras rather than the X-M5 so on a more prosaic level, these are cheap and cheerful at less than £11 for a pack of four and won't take up much space.

On a trip like this when you are likely going to encounter very real weather, I wouldn't take any chances with the weather sealing rating vague or otherwise of smaller cameras.