For a firearms reviewer, cameras are essential. They’re part of our lifeblood. However, getting good images is not only the concern of reviewers. A camera, even a simple one, can show you things about yourself that you’d otherwise never know. It can show you if you are anticipating recoil when firing a weapon, as you can slow down the video and notice small movements of the barrel.If your barrel dips before the shot, you’re probably flinching as you squeeze the trigger. Knowing this, you can work to eliminate the bad habit.

Before I get into the meat of this article, I must give credit where credit is due. Andrew Tuhoy of Vuurwapen Blog originally published a video about using a camera when you shoot. It was quite inspiring, and convinced me to re-examine the photo equipment I had and how I used it.

Old Favorites

I carried the 770SW every day in Iraq for 2 years. It survived being smashed inside my body armor as I dove into concrete bunkers in Baghdad (to avoid incoming rockets). I took it with me as I crawled through the tunnels underneath an old aircraft bunker in FOB Delta. I used the 770SW to shoot video from an airborne Blackhawk helicopter. It was dropped on the dry ground, dropped in mud, dropped onto the concrete helipad, kicked, thrown at a coworker, and generally thoroughly abused.

In fact, I had to do a bit of research for this article in order to find out what the exact model of the camera was; almost all identifying marks have long ago been scratched off by hard use.

Upon my return to the States, I let my parents take it with them when they went snorkeling in Cozumel, Mexico. I then took it on a trip to Nepal, where I was none too gentle with it.

It kept running like a champ.

A while back, it finally gave up the ghost. Simply died quietly of old age, I guess. what amazed me was that two years later, it magically came back to life. The undead Olympus provided two of the photographs featured in the Surplus European Camouflage article. Then, as mysteriously an inexplicably as it had returned to the land of the living, it slipped back into the electronic afterlife

I’m a practical man who throws away, broken electronics. That said, I cannot find it in my heart to throw away such an old, trusted friend. The Olympus 770 resides in a box with some of my old war mementos.

By Allen Cosby

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53gr

53GR is an avid shooter, hiker and tinkerer. Introduced to guns at an early age, the hobby became a passion in his early twenties. After two years in Iraq as a contractor for a defense company, he developed an unhealthy addiction to military surplus gear. Though he's currently in treatment, the prognosis is that the condition is chronic.

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