Poll on Digital or 35mm Cameras

[partinj]

Ok Here one for the 2008 class how many of you will take a digital or 35mm camera.And the reason you made your choice.Also will you take a backup if one or the other fail :-?

[rafe]

Digital. No backup needed. I'd recommend a camera that takes standard batteries (eg., AA or AAA.)

[AT-HITMAN2005]

i used an olympus stylus 3.2 megapixel. and plan on using it again. they are water resistant. and it worked awesome the whole time. least til i dropped it in the water on a ford attempt. but then it still worked great once it dried out.

carried 2 memory card. would take pics with one and when in town download them to a CD and send it home, then switch to the blank card and repeat the process once i knew the previous cd made it home. plenty of drug stores with photo centers in them on the trail to where i never had a problem. i carried the battery charger along with an extra battery but you could easily bounce box it.

IMO much more cost effective to go digital.

[Survivor Dave]

I will be taking a digital camera. I bought the Canon PowerShot 530 1 1/2 years ago and it works great. It has 5.0 megapixels and 4X zoom. Target has the 7 megapixel version now for the same price....oh well.
On the largest setting I can get 695 pic on a 1 Gb memory card. More if I go to a 5x7 or 4x6 setting. Probably take a 256 Mb card for backup as well.

SD

[partinj]

Hey Dave quick note if anyone want a good digital camera Kmart has the Canons on sale till sat. The A530 is 69.00 just though l let you guys know. I got the Canon A540 on tueday really great camera. It was on sale to 104.00 can beat that 530 is 5megpix 540 is 6megpix

[Pedaling Fool]

I took a Panasonic DMC-LZ2 because it was cheaper than most and had the best zoom capability of all the cameras, excluding the supper-expensive.

Check out the picture quality in my gallery.

[Kerosene]

You've got to go digital, regardless of whether you're a thru-hiker or section hiker. You'll also want to go lightweight, as you don't want to lug even an extra quarter pound for 6 months and 2175 miles. Plus, the AT is usually pretty wet, so if I was out for that amount of time I'd want something that is water-resistant. I'd recommend the Pentax Optio W20 (http://www.digital.pentax.co.jp/en/compact/optio-w20/feature.html) with a 512 MB or even 1 GB memory card, shipping the recharger ahead in your bounce box along with a replacement memory card.

[rafe]

FWIW, a 2 gig card (under $25) might just be enough for a whole thru hike.

[Wise Old Owl]

Digital cameras are the way to go unless you are thinking disposable 35 mm. Here is why, I have just destroyed 2 digitals over seven trips, as careful as I am, The canoe swamped and a digital cam was inside a “waterproof quality box” It was crap, never tested before the trip. One and done. Ok, that is what I am talking about. A 35 mm Waterproof “disposable would have been better. Walking the green white blaze? finish one and mail it home at the next town. Most places will convert the 35mm back to disk for a few extra bucks so you can go home with both. Hey this is really old school, for a good digital get the waterproof $300 dollar digital and avoid constantly replacing.

Mark

[bigcranky]

Digital. You'll be able to shoot hundreds or thousands more photos than film. Memory cards are ridiculously inexpensive; carry several. Send them home for download, if you like, or just buy more. Film has its advantages (I still shoot some at work on occasion), but it's much heavier and bulkier than a memory card.

[bigcranky]

To follow up, here is a quick back of the envelope calculation of the cost of film versus digital imaging on a thru-hike:

Let's assume you hike for 25 weeks (about 6 months), and that we are comparing compact point-and-shoot cameras that cost about the same price. Let's also ignore the cost of prints, and just look at the cost of film and processing (only processing the film -- no prints), versus the cost of buying memory cards.

If film costs $4 a roll and then $3 per roll for processing, that's $7 for every 36 exposures. A Sandisk 2-gigabyte Ultra II memory card is about $20.

So, if you want to shoot 36 pictures per day, that's 6300 pictures over the course of a thru-hike. That would be 175 rolls of film, or $1225.00. If you can get 800 pictures on a 2-gig card, you'll need 8 cards at a total cost of $160.00. Remember, this doesn't include any prints (same cost for either system).

If you want to shoot 10 pictures a day, it'll cost $340 in film, or $60 for memory cards. (Hint -- shoot more than 10 pictures per day. Please.)

For 100 pictures a day, $3400 in film and processing versus $440 in memory cards.

Of course, if you can send the cards home to be downloaded and sent back, you'll save even more with the digital system.

[hopefulhiker]

I used a cheap digital camera that used AAA disposable batteries and a 1 gig SD card.. weight was 6.6 oz.. plus the weight of batteries.. batteries could be used as back ups for mp3 player too...

[Tennessee Viking]

I would use digital. Just get 1 or 2 large capacity memory cards. A camera on the middle or low end. Something that wouldn't be too hard to replace, that uses AA/AAA rechargeable batteries.

Make a couple accounts on a online photo album service.

[EWS]

Pentax Optio W30; it is waterproof and compact.