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I have been hoping for a good, off the shelf, filming / photography hide for years. And now, at last, there are some.
To begin with I’ll tell you what I don’t want in a hide. I’m not a big fan of the “pop-up” style of hide (i.e. those that have a semi rigid frame which unfurls from a sprung hoop into a bivvy style tent, and later you tie yourself in knots trying to twist it back into the bag!). I find that the nature of these is pretty unstable, even with good guy roping. Fine in very low wind conditions, but really annoying when it gets breezy. The whole thing wobbles and squeezes into your head and face (and incidentally also wobbles your lens poking through the front). I also find that there is a lot of wasted space with this design, since it usually has an apex where the hoops cross in the centre and which just allows head room, but with a sloping roof that cramps movement inside to a minimum.
Now let’s look at what this super little hide can do.
For starters, rather than “popping up” it unfurls. Built around an integral 2 man seat (I’ll come back to that), the body of the hide rolls down in front of the user, a bit like a fan unfurling . There is some movement in a high wind, but nothing compared to the designs I described earlier. It still has a curved roof, but the metal hoops which run from your right side to your left as you sit in the hide allow ample space over your head for comfort.
The genius is in the seat. The whole hide folds down from the arms of a 2 man seat (which folds up like a brolly inside the hide). This seat does the obvious (gives you somewhere to sit) but also gives the hide stability and rigidity. Once you are inside, the hide is going nowhere, unless you go with it!
There are small lens ports - not the “nurses sleeve” style which I dislike, since you can see nothing besides that which the lens sees and which wobble your lens like crazy in even the slightest breeze. These ports unzip to allow a medium telephoto lens to poke through. The main viewing port can be unzipped to allow almost 180º of view left and right, and a good field of view into the sky. This is perfect for filming and photography. I used this hide to film Ospreys hunting, something that is normally very tricky from a hide, due to the restricted view. When using this main port for sensitive close subjects, I have added plenty of scrim pinned to the top of the window to prevent being seen.
The hide also keeps the worst of the weather at bay, being pretty waterproof and designed to ensure rain runs off and away from the apex.
It is reasonably described as a 2 man hide, but for me (and my gear) I would describe it as a very comfy one-man-and-his-kit hide.
The whole thing packs into a neat bag (complete with tent pegs) that can be carried like a rucksack.
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