travelling photography practicalities. (1 Viewer)

[sarah]

To my well traveled fellow thumpedelings,

I'll be purchasing a sweeter camera in the next while ( post x-mas ) and want to know how you guys cope, with battery life etc..
if you're going on a prolonged trip in far flung places, what cameras have stood you in good stead? would manual cameras be the best given the fact that digital die so quickly?

I've found mine dying at awkward moments plus being pretty heavy, which are your favourite travel cameras?

 

[Donkey OJ]

buy at least 2 batteries for whatever camera you're carrying. may sound expensive but if you dont have access to a wall socket for upto a week you'll end up not being able to use your camera.

invest in a decent camera bag. padding, good zips, loadsa pockets, dust proofness and splash proofness are pre-requisites.

zip lock bags are great for carrying memory and batteries when you know you're gonna get wet.

i bought a 400d before i went travelling and was very scared it would be damaged or stolen. but i took good care of it and it survived without a scrape (see good camera bag advice above).

if you're gonna be travelling for a long time look into external disk storage. i had a shitty laptop with me which ended up dying but served its purpose for dumping loads of photos, thus freeing up memory cards and acting as a backup.

 

[Donkey OJ]

oh.. regarding heaviness, there are certain places you just cant bring an SLR - down into a mine or on a hardcore downhill bike ride for example. a lot of travellers i bumped into had a credit card size digital camera in their shirt pockets for when they were doing crazy stuff or when they were out for the night and didnt want to be lugging around camera equipment. its a bit of a luxury but maybe you have a small portable camera already?

 

[sarah]

don't have a small camera but think i'll splash out or hint at certain obliged relatives given that the christ time is coming.

my camera takes rechargeable batteries which are a pain in the wazoo.

have one of those soft lowepro bags at the mo which seems grand.

so much choice.

 

[La La]

i've always just used my cybershot and it's been fine, just brought the charger and adaptor with me. always found teh battery went on the blink if i was snowboarding though as the cold seems to affect it...hmm...

 

[Space]

I've stuck with just the one lens(something like a 28-135 if your using an slr) rather than downgrading cameras, I've always used a lowepro case and kept camera as hand luggage. Other than that what donkey oj said.

I think most decent cameras are stronger than to you'd expect.

 

[hugh]

Yeah don't go bringing a whole pile of lenses .... you'll just end up spending all your time switching them and missing shots, being pissed off lugging them around etc etc ...

One camera ... one lens ..... that's the way to go. Something sturdy ...

I have this deadly Bronica medium format rangefinder film camera that's great for travel stuff. Incredible lens, great results. It's a bit heavy though, but you could probably drop it off the side of a cliff and it'd survive.

Only problem is I don't get to go anywhere anymore ..

 

[RSJ]

something like a 28-135 if your using an slr

My main lens broke there a while ago so i'm hoping to pick up a replacement. The lens was a 17-25mm with a nice f/2.8 aperateure, planning on picking up something nice in NYC. 28-135 eh? I'd be worried that anything with that range in my price range might be a little soft. Hmmm....

 

[JohnnyRaz]

To my well traveled fellow thumpedelings,

I'll be purchasing a sweeter camera in the next while ( post x-mas ) and want to know how you guys cope, with battery life etc..
if you're going on a prolonged trip in far flung places, what cameras have stood you in good stead? would manual cameras be the best given the fact that digital die so quickly?

I've found mine dying at awkward moments plus being pretty heavy, which are your favourite travel cameras?

an old pentax film slr with 50mm and 28mm lens for normal stuff, and a little old pocketsized(and cheap) canon rangefinder for wet days/markets/night/dodgy area stuff.
total value of all my kit would be about 300e on ebay, and its all fairly small and unobtrusive, and Ive always gotten good results. Id be shitting it bringing my digital on holidays. Also having semi- gone digital for the past while, ive decided decided that for a lot of stuff (both b/w and colour) I prefer to use film, but I guess thats a whole other ball game.

 

[sarah]

I've stuck with just the one lens(something like a 28-135 if your using an slr) rather than downgrading cameras, I've always used a lowepro case and kept camera as hand luggage. Other than that what donkey oj said.

I think most decent cameras are stronger than to you'd expect.

hhhm I must also purchase a decent lense, are they pretty standard sizes
from make to make? can you use the same lenses on different cameras if you wanted to upgrade that is?

 

[magicbastarder]

I have this deadly Bronica medium format rangefinder film camera that's great for travel stuff.

is that the RF645? a mate has one, lovely piece of kit.

 

[hugh]

is that the RF645? a mate has one, lovely piece of kit.

Yeah that's the one. I love it. They don't make them anymore though ...

 

[Space]

My main lens broke there a while ago so i'm hoping to pick up a replacement. The lens was a 17-25mm with a nice f/2.8 aperateure, planning on picking up something nice in NYC. 28-135 eh? I'd be worried that anything with that range in my price range might be a little soft. Hmmm....

Well I doubt you'll get a 2.8. I know you use nikon but the Canon 3.5-5.6 28-135mm is $400 in NY at the moment. I've used a Canon 4-5.6 35-135mm pretty much exclusively and been happy with it(yous have seen the results ). Would love to afford something faster but them's is the breaks.

hhhm I must also purchase a decent lense, are they pretty standard sizes
from make to make? can you use the same lenses on different cameras if you wanted to upgrade that is?

Not really, most are brand specific but compatible throughout the brand's range.

 

[sarah]

just got an ipod camera adapter for crimbo of the bit o'fluff. means I can just use the ipod to throw all excess photos onto if/when run outta memory card space. haven't tried it yet but seems deadly. too lazy to post a linky.