Sensory: BBC Wildlife Director John Downer & the technology of 'spy-cam' filmmaking from Getty Images on Vimeo.

Small Cameras, Big Stories

Exciting developments in camera technology have levelled out of the playing field between the professional and the amateur and so the battle now for programme makers like award-winning wildlife filmmaker John Downer is having to produce something better than the average person.

The difference comes from investing into understanding the behaviour of the animal and devising a way to capture those unique moments, using a huge amount of research, inventiveness and dedication. This has resulted in exceptional and unique technical solutions that tell a story in an new and compelling way.

This is a fascinating behind the scenes look into the R&D that goes into getting amazing shots for documenaries. The 'turtle cam' and 'penguin cam' at the end remind me of the cheetah robot that Blair Costello shared in our #tech4wildlife photo challenge on Twitter.

I wonder if and how the innovations that are driven by the entertainment/documentary film-maker industries might be better fed into wildlife monitoring efforts? Or is this happening already?