Just curious as to what type of camera, that activators take along to summits with them. A couple of years ago, I picked up a Samsung 10mp camera in a clearance sale, for silly money and it now resides permanently in the rucksack…
By today’s standards, size and function wise, it’s a bit of a dinosaur, however, it takes great shots… Shed loads better than the piece of junk that inhabits my mobile phone.
My only criticism… even though this camera has two different settings for both AA NiMH and alkaline cells, the slightest voltage drop in the NiMH cells and the camera refuses see them. As I don’t use the camera that often, I’ve now taken to using Energizer Lithium batteries which last for ages.
I have used a Fujifilm Finepix A800 8.3Mp camera on several activations & I am quite happy with it. The video quality is not very high but that isn’t what I got it for. It does eat batteries for fun so I only use good Alkaline batteries but even they don’t last too long.
The biggest drawback as far as activating goes is that it is not waterproof, & while in a well known office supplies emporium for a couple of wire binders, I spotted a camera that is.
I now use a Kodak Playsport Zx3 Full HD pocket camcorder that is waterproof to 3m. Obviously the video quality is much better although I prefer to shoot my videos in Wide VGA mode rather than full HD as they are only intended for Youtube. The Li-Ion battery is tiny but lasts for ages & the memory card I have gives up to 3 hours of WVGA video or over 1000 5Mp photos. As I have, on more than one occasion had to use my mobile phone to shoot video for logging purposes after my logsheets became unusable, my new camera fits the bill perfectly.
Here’s a video shot using the Kodak, as you can see, it is definitely waterproof, technically even more so than my VX7-R
There are three pretty good almost waterproof and very tough compact cameras from Canon, Olympus and Fuji Finepix. Not sure of the models and you would need to read the reviews on each one to make up your mind, but they are all shown being dropped, frozen and soaked in the ads so they should be ideal for what we need in SOTA. There seem to be various models with up to 15MP, but I am not convinced that the pictures on a 15MP compact can be much better than a 10MP compact due to the poor lens quality compared to a digital SLR.
I have a digital SLR but rarely carry it up summits and my compact is about ten years old now so I too am looking for something compact and tough that doesn’t let me down when it gets a bit cold. That said on some of the GM summits last August we had five cameras between us and the SLR was still in the car.
There seem to be
various models with up to 15MP, but I am not convinced that the
pictures on a 15MP compact can be much better than a 10MP compact due
to the poor lens quality compared to a digital SLR.
Yup, camera manufacurers seem to try and fool buyers into thinking that cramming pixels into a camera makes up for an inferior lens.
I have a digital SLR but rarely carry it up summits and my compact is
about ten years old now so I too am looking for something compact and
tough that doesn’t let me down when it gets a bit cold. That said on
some of the GM summits last August we had five cameras between us and
the SLR was still in the car.
I don’t have an SLR anymore, not since 35mm days. I have the Panasonic FZ-38 a great camera with the excellent Leica lens, but just too bulky for lugging up summits. Take a look at the Panasonic FZ-45 superzoom, just about all the bells and whistles you could wish for, although once again, not really suitable for SOTA.
I use an old Sony DSC-W80 7.2MP for SOTA - slim and lightweight. Surprisingly the camera has remained in an excellent unscratched condition, but I unguardedly put it down on a rock on a hot day and the screen cracked. I replaced the screen, but since then the shutter doesn’t always open and often needs a little help. It shoots VGA video, but I’m too busy doing radio on a summit to be bothered with that.
Just bought a Sony DSC-HX9V for my work. With full HD video I could be tempted, but will most likely stick to what I have been doing. I think KISS principles apply as far as I am concerned. If the W80 dies, then I’ll probably replace it with a factory recon.
Thanks to you Mark and the other regular 2m chasers, I qualified all 4 summits on 2m (one of my personal challenges). Report probably underway later today, but there’s so much to do post-activation: logs onto the database, main log filled in, add actual times and comments to the itinerary sheet, update the master activation spreadsheet, update Google Earth (the push pins are turned white), photos onto computer and uploaded to Flickr… no wonder I don’t do videos!
I should have been using my 817 + 25W 2m linear yesterday rather than the 857, but with HF very variable, I wanted the extra power on those frequencies… didn’t bargain on problems with the HF antenna though!
I have two cameras, a Fuji FinePix S5700 and a Praktica DCZ 8.2, the latter goes with me when I need to keep the weight down but I prefer the extra facilities of the Fuji. The bag for the Fuji also carries a pair of lightweight folding binoculars that came as a freebee from the NT when we joined…surprisingly good optics for plastic but I wonder how long they will last?
I have two cameras, a Fuji FinePix S5700 and a Praktica DCZ 8.2, the
latter goes with me when I need to keep the weight down but I prefer
the extra facilities of the Fuji. The bag for the Fuji also carries a
pair of lightweight folding binoculars that came as a freebee from the
NT when we joined…surprisingly good optics for plastic but I wonder
how long they will last?
Purchased a pair of these about eight years ago (they were a fiver then) used them almost on a daily basis, for watching the birds on the feeders in my garden. Amazing value really. On sale from tomorrow.
