I have filmed five BJJ competitions for my team so far. I find it more rewarding and much simpler than taking photos. I have used a smartphone as a camera and a tripod for smooth panning. For the tripod, I have used either two-way fluid head (video head) or three-way pan head.
I have thought about filming with DSLR but I would need expensive and 28-70 mm light lens which I do not have and the complexity of the whole filming process would also increase.
With iPhone SE3 I have started using digital zoom more than I used before. iPhone 3x digital zoom is basically 28-70mm equivalent which I have found sufficient in both ends. I would like to try a smartphone with optical zoom for filming BJJ but there are currently only a few models available at the higher price range.
Videos
Akadeemia Open III (02.03.2024, iPhone SE3)
AJP Tour Tallinn ’23 (03.12.2023, iPhone SE3)
Estonian Nogi Championships 2023 (11.11.23, iPhone SE3)
AJP Tour Estonia Championship ’23 (04.06.2023, A5 2017)
Akadeemia Open II (28.01.2023, A5 2017)
The video quality is not as high as Flograppling‘s best production but absolutely comparable with their streaming and the quality on IBJJF Youtube channel.
Post-production
I join all the videos in the command line using ffmpeg without any editing. The result I upload to youtube and add timestamps for convenient watching. All the data that I need for timestamps I usually find from Smoothcomp.
