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joflaig
12-02-2004, 12:14
For a lot of people a camera is "gear" too. I'm looking at a digital camera as they are so light and of course there's no hassle with film. My main question is the battery. Digital cameras are all advertised as having rechargable batteries. There are no plugs on the trail. What do people do? Carry extra expensive batteries along?

How do you organize digital photos so you know what you were looking at? You can't name the pictures right in the camera.

Digital cameras tend to be small. Does anyone know of a maker of waterproof camera satchels -- something one could lash to the front of their pack straps or waist strap?

I wonder how this has worked out for people on long distance hikes.

MOWGLI
12-02-2004, 12:58
For a lot of people a camera is "gear" too. I'm looking at a digital camera as they are so light and of course there's no hassle with film. My main question is the battery. Digital cameras are all advertised as having rechargable batteries. There are no plugs on the trail. What do people do? Carry extra expensive batteries along?

How do you organize digital photos so you know what you were looking at? You can't name the pictures right in the camera.

Digital cameras tend to be small. Does anyone know of a maker of waterproof camera satchels -- something one could lash to the front of their pack straps or waist strap?

I wonder how this has worked out for people on long distance hikes.

Well, yes, people do carry extra batteries. I hike with one fellow who usually carries an extra. I don't, but on my thru-hike, I carried an analog 35MM, so batteries weren't much of an issue.

Regarding orgnizing photos, I suppose you could get an extra photo card, and send them home to a support team periodically for uploading to a PC. One technique that some folks use is to write in your AT data book whenever you take a photo. Of course, if you take thousands of shots, that might be problematic.

I use a small carrying case made by Eagle something (I forget who exactly). I attach it to my sternum strap. It is not completely waterproof, but my Olympus camera is "weather resisitant" (Stylus 300) and I have not had problems with moisture "yet". It has only accompanied me on two week long trips, and several overnights.

I hope that helps.

Alligator
12-02-2004, 13:27
An extra battery helps (or batteries).

The software that came with my camera allows me to rename the photos at home.

My camera, Pentax Optio S, has a mic and allows voice recording. I could use it as a voice recorder instead of writing a journal if I was so inclined. An especially nice feature is that once I take the picture, I can add a sound file associated with that picture. Thus, I can just say the name of the place. The metadata file will have the time and date.
The camera fits in an Altoids tin, so it fits in a sandwich bag. I keep it in my hip pouch.

My 256 card holds about 120 pictures on best setting. A 512 card would last quite a long time. The battery is the limiting agent, and I intend to buy a new one soon, about $15-20 for odd size.

orangebug
12-02-2004, 13:48
I used a little Pentax digital camera the last 2 weeks. I think it is an Optio WR 4 (Water resistant and 4 megapixels). It uses 2 AA batteries, and a single set of Li batteries persisted for the entire trip, even in the snow and cold. It is only 4 inches square and 1 inch thick, but weighs close to 8 ounces with batteries. I had a 1Gig SD card in it which could hold upwards of 500 photos. I kept it out and available the entire hike, often under my t-shirt to keep it from flopping around.

Most camera places push rechargable batteries because users are home or office based. I think long distance hikers can do better with disposable batteries.

Footslogger
12-02-2004, 13:51
I hiked last year with a little 2.1 Mpixel digital from Panasonic. Worked great and made the trip all the way to Katahdin with me. I may have been able to "name" the pictures right in the camera but I didn't. Rather, I bought 6 media cards (the 32 Mbyte size) and rotated them back and forth from home. I typically had 3 - 4 of them with me at any time. Reason I went with the smaller capacity cards is that I didn't want my entire hike's worth of pics on a single disc, just in case something happened and the disc got corrupted.

During my hike I carried the camera in a pint size freezer strength zip lock and never had a problem. My camera uses the AA sized NiMH batteries. I carried one extra set with me and had a back-up set in my bounce box. I also carried a 4oz rapid charger that would top off my batteries in about an hour, whenever I was close to an electric outlet.

I would send a full disc back home to my wife who would download them to our hard drive and then upload the pics to my on-line journal. She also backed up the pics on a Zip drive.

Once my hike was over and I was back home it was easy to re-name and organize the pics. I have yet to create a CD or better yet, a DVD of my hike but that's the next project.

'Slogger
AT 2003

rgarling
12-02-2004, 13:52
>>> How do you organize digital photos so you know what you were looking at? You can't name the pictures right in the camera.

One thing that can help is to take pictures of the signposts as you walk by. Get close enough so that you can read them. The date/time of the picture can be found in the exif information and you can then use the time of the following pics and the map to help figure out what you are looking at (when you get home). Then you can rename or put a caption on the picture.


>>> Digital cameras tend to be small. Does anyone know of a maker of waterproof camera satchels -- something one could lash to the front of their pack straps or waist strap?

I kept mine inside a ziploc bag in a pouch on the pack's waistbelt. It is very helpful to have the camera readily available.

gravityman
12-02-2004, 16:02
In regards to the battery, I use the rechargeable one that my optio-s requires. We carry an extra battery and the charger, which I modified slightly to use an exceptionally lightweight cord that i made. We never had an issue with the battery getting low, and in fact, never had to use the backup battery during a three week hike on the long trail. Just recharged when we were in town, or doing laundry. Outlets are everywhere, just ask to use them.

Gravity

grrickar
12-02-2004, 19:54
Check out Fuji cameras. I carried a Fuji Finepix A205 on my last section hike. It is 2MP and uses regular AA batteries. My take on that was that I could always carry an extra pair of AAs or pick one up at a town we happened to be in. I had a 256MB card in it, but I could have went with a 512MB. The camera was $60 used on Ebay, and I knew it would take some dings and bumps along the way - hence I did not want an expensive camera. I used Rayovac 15 minute rechargable batteries, and the batts lasted 9.5 days of picture taking. Pretty impressive battery life. I hiked from Hot Springs to the NOC on one set. The batts finally gave out at the NOC, which worked out fine since we were done anyway.

java
12-02-2004, 20:45
On the issue of organizing pictures, a lot of digital cameras can record sound. This allows you to record who/what the picture is of, and later you can review that on a computer. This year I saw many hikers doing that as one of their evening rituals. Personally, I still shoot slide film, and I just shoot pictures of trail signs along the way and since I'm always moving north everything just falls into place.
java
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