To Antarctica and back with Elenko Kasaliyski and video recording equipment from Dynaphos

It took about two months for a GoPro HERO9 Black Action Camera and three SmallRig VB99 mini V Mount Batteries to travel from the Dynaphos showroom to Antarctica, shoot several terabytes of video, and return home. If they could speak, they would certainly tell their incredible story of working at minus 20 degrees Celsius. However, director and cinematographer Elenko Kasaliyski, part of Bulgaria's 31st Antarctic expedition to the Ice Continent, explains that the cold was just one of the challenges facing the equipment he took to film the polar explorers:

"The problem is the wind and humidity. You are constantly wet. The wind carries some dispersion, water droplets that gradually get into the lens, and you have to wipe them constantly."

Elenko began preparing for this trip about a year before the expedition.

"I had to prepare with equipment for this year. Because none of us start filming without a finished script, without a clear concept, title, and a script written from... to. It always changes. But you have to be ready."

To be ready, Dynaphos fully supported his project with a GoPro HERO9 Black Action Camera and three SmallRig VB99 mini V Mount Batteries.

"Endless gratitude to Dynaphos – they are one of the few companies that stood behind this project, and they did so very seriously," admits the director, summarizing the results of his work with the equipment, which largely documented the journey itself. "I got great shots with the GoPro 9. The batteries ran out very quickly, but again with the colleagues from Dynaphos, we came up with a solution to supply external V-LOCK power to the camera. It performed flawlessly!"

Elenko Kasaliyski filmed with the action camera while traveling in boats.

"When a boat moves at a certain speed on waves up to 3-4 meters, they create large amplitudes, another camera certainly cannot withstand it. But this camera maintains a straight horizon. In Pimpirev Glacier, where the boat moves between large detached pieces of the glacier – colleagues call it a soup of ice blocks – again, only with the GoPro can you manage."

Beyond the equipment provided by Dynaphos, he also carried a large Sony camera. He used it to film on board the Bulgarian military ship "St. St. Cyril and Methodius", with which our polar explorers traveled for the first time. However, in moments of rougher waters, he again worked with the GoPro.

"There were times when you stood in the corridor, and the amplitude - I don't know exactly, maybe about 60 degrees. And then I watch the footage in Sofia - that corridor doesn't shake."

When you step on solid ground, the challenge for the equipment is different – the cold, which drains batteries quickly. Dynaphos suggested Elenko trust three SmallRig VB99 mini V Mount Batteries. He powered both his cameras with them.

"They performed very well. I'll give you a comparison. My large camera has a big chip and consumes a lot of power. If in Sofia, filming with it and these external V-LOCK power banks lasted an hour and a half, there it lasted 45 minutes. We're talking about shooting time. With 3 batteries, you have no problem for the whole day. The batteries saved me from having to worry about it being cold, wet, windy, and that after half an hour there would be something to film that I wouldn't be able to."

His conclusion:

"It was thought through before we left. I probably have some experience, but at the same time, it was thought through with the colleagues from Dynaphos. It doesn't happen by itself." And that, for Elenko Kasaliyski, is one of the great lessons of the trip to Antarctica - that results are achieved when working as a team. The other lesson - how in 7 years we have lost things created millennia ago. According to him, you can still see beautiful animals, but the snow that falls does not turn into ice. And the high hills covered with eternal glaciers a decade ago are now large rocks.

At Dynaphos, we are proud to have helped with the filming process. We eagerly await Elenko Kasaliyski's full film.