Thanks for bringing this up Elliot. I am a spry 76. My kids Son and Daughter keep challenging me with
are you alright. Don't do that Dad.

A couple of weeks ago a good friend and business partner at times had a 3.5 min. music video and industrial company wanted to do with it's employees. And they were a good client with 32 plants across the US. So we went on a monday. Scouted main office in PA for places to shoot this skit with a song and he
told me they didnt want a crew etc. 20 scenes of employee's in different places in an office building.
Singing a pop song to be somewhat synched for a National Sales Meeting. Monday we scouted and shot
on Tues. I was moving 2 lights. Improvising shots in boring spots. and directing the action. Oh and I was the DP told them it would be run and gun hand held which I do a lot of running and sports events.
I use a PXW X70 10 bit sony camcorder rigged. Sony makes some excellent doc cameras.

It was not easy as a director/camera I let it happen the way they wanted. Then gave them a rough
cut by the end of the shoot week. And then the corporate set in and they liked my approach but
politics and nitpicking of a bunch of reviewers made the edit intense for 8 rounds of changes.
This is not the way to do this. But today is cheap and fast and good. We don't have a big budget.
The video is a success. Their were still a few changes to titles etc.

Why wouldn't a 76 year old not be able to do this. My wife worries. My daughter worries.
My son in FL continually says to me shooting my star soccer player from the sidelines
sit down Dad. Are you alright. Are you too warm. Drink some water.

You can do what you do as long as you can do it.

Now a too heavy camera like my Sony mirrorless a7sII video rig with a cage monitor and audio is too heavy to hand hold for a long time. I prefer the small pro camcorder which is really great for busy work.

My former Nikons and DSLR's loved them are way to heavy loaded with a good lens.

If I am shooting run & gun of a triathlon or running event I use a monopod to shoot live action.
For interesting angles I hand hold. And quick interviews the monopod hiked up to my eye level
so I can see the shot and ask a question. You can hike the monopod with a camera in the air
for high shots of the action. Yes i have a drone. Get someone to shoot aerials for jobs.

I was at a multi camera shoot of a TV chef lady making 13 shows for public TV. I am the
consultant for them for years. their were 4 cameras on sticks. And the only guy who got
tired was the guy with the hand held jib rig that he said was heavy but some of the best shots.
Yes I do stills and rip screen grabs off of high quality HD video too.

Weight depends on what you are doing and where you are going.
It appears today that our society is writing off some of the best talent and intelligent
business and creative people because it is a young coder internet world.

My apologies for this being long but wanted to share experiences and approaches.

I'm posting this under "photography" since the weight of a camera seriously comes up far more often with the advent of mirrorless DSLR. And I understand that. But here's a point I'd like to make.

Ten years ago, when I taught and also broadcasted at a local radio station, on one day, I arrived an hour early. The station was on the campus of a local college, with silk smooth private street. So I brought my roller blades, and enjoyed myself before going into the building. I carried them into the studio, to a shocked announcer, 15 years younger, who ask "were you really skating on those?" Yes, was my response. He replied with "I know I'm too old to be skating on roller blades, and you certainly are too old to do that!"

To him I asked: "Did you buy a book on AGES, where each chapter tells you what you can do and can no longer do? And you believe what you read?"

As we grow older, we should not be in a super hurry to stop doing what we enjoy doing, from skating and from carrying a DSLR that we've carried for years earlier. Yes, I've stopped climbing a 20 foot ladder to clean gutters. But instead of using a snow shovel, I now use a snow blower. I'm in no hurry to give into "Mother Nature", only because others might suggest we should. Keep doing what you enjoy. My doctor reminds me that us "older folks" naturally grow weaker with our upper body muscles, and we should actually use those muscles more than before. I think of that every time I pick up my 5DII with it's battery back.

Let's exercise more, not less.

I'm posting this under "photography" since the weight of a camera seriously comes up far more often with the advent of mirrorless DSLR. And I understand that. But here's a point I'd like to make.

Ten years ago, when I taught and also broadcasted at a local radio station, on one day, I arrived an hour early. The station was on the campus of a local college, with silk smooth private street. So I brought my roller blades, and enjoyed myself before going into the building. I carried them into the studio, to a shocked announcer, 15 years younger, who ask "were you really skating on those?" Yes, was my response. He replied with "I know I'm too old to be skating on roller blades, and you certainly are too old to do that!"

To him I asked: "Did you buy a book on AGES, where each chapter tells you what you can do and can no longer do? And you believe what you read?"

As we grow older, we should not be in a super hurry to stop doing what we enjoy doing, from skating and from carrying a DSLR that we've carried for years earlier. Yes, I've stopped climbing a 20 foot ladder to clean gutters. But instead of using a snow shovel, I now use a snow blower. I'm in no hurry to give into "Mother Nature", only because others might suggest we should. Keep doing what you enjoy. My doctor reminds me that us "older folks" naturally grow weaker with our upper body muscles, and we should actually use those muscles more than before. I think of that every time I pick up my 5DII with it's battery back.

Let's exercise more, not less.

I'm posting this under "photography" since the weight of a camera seriously comes up far more often with the advent of mirrorless DSLR. And I understand that. But here's a point I'd like to make.

Ten years ago, when I taught and also broadcasted at a local radio station, on one day, I arrived an hour early. The station was on the campus of a local college, with silk smooth private street. So I brought my roller blades, and enjoyed myself before going into the building. I carried them into the studio, to a shocked announcer, 15 years younger, who ask "were you really skating on those?" Yes, was my response. He replied with "I know I'm too old to be skating on roller blades, and you certainly are too old to do that!"

To him I asked: "Did you buy a book on AGES, where each chapter tells you what you can do and can no longer do? And you believe what you read?"

As we grow older, we should not be in a super hurry to stop doing what we enjoy doing, from skating and from carrying a DSLR that we've carried for years earlier. Yes, I've stopped climbing a 20 foot ladder to clean gutters. But instead of using a snow shovel, I now use a snow blower. I'm in no hurry to give into "Mother Nature", only because others might suggest we should. Keep doing what you enjoy. My doctor reminds me that us "older folks" naturally grow weaker with our upper body muscles, and we should actually use those muscles more than before. I think of that every time I pick up my 5DII with it's battery back.

Let's exercise more, not less.

I'm posting this under "photography" since the weight of a camera seriously comes up far more often with the advent of mirrorless DSLR. And I understand that. But here's a point I'd like to make.

Ten years ago, when I taught and also broadcasted at a local radio station, on one day, I arrived an hour early. The station was on the campus of a local college, with silk smooth private street. So I brought my roller blades, and enjoyed myself before going into the building. I carried them into the studio, to a shocked announcer, 15 years younger, who ask "were you really skating on those?" Yes, was my response. He replied with "I know I'm too old to be skating on roller blades, and you certainly are too old to do that!"

To him I asked: "Did you buy a book on AGES, where each chapter tells you what you can do and can no longer do? And you believe what you read?"

As we grow older, we should not be in a super hurry to stop doing what we enjoy doing, from skating and from carrying a DSLR that we've carried for years earlier. Yes, I've stopped climbing a 20 foot ladder to clean gutters. But instead of using a snow shovel, I now use a snow blower. I'm in no hurry to give into "Mother Nature", only because others might suggest we should. Keep doing what you enjoy. My doctor reminds me that us "older folks" naturally grow weaker with our upper body muscles, and we should actually use those muscles more than before. I think of that every time I pick up my 5DII with it's battery back.

Let's exercise more, not less.