[pct-l] CAMERA Choices???

[Brian Lewis]

Before I decided that the camera in my smartphone was good enough, I
had planned to bring a Pentax Optio M20 last year.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/optio_m20.html

4.6 ounces, and the important feature of taking standard AA batteries.

No doubt out of date now, but the above web site
(http://www.steves-digicams.com) is IMO a good one for reviewing
cameras.

A site that allows you to search according to features you care about
is great; here's one:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

That one, however, doesn't offer battery type as one of the search
criteria.  It seems to me that a year or two ago I found one such that
did include this as a factor, but I can't recall where it was.

Another type of camera that I like for backpacking is one that
includes a wider angled lense.  I have an earlier version of this
Kodak camera: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/v705.html
It's a lightweight camera that builds in two lenses (one wide angled),
and makes it easy to stitch together large panoramas.   I personally
love to be able to capture a lot more of the overall feel of a scene
by stitching (on camera) together a couple of already wide angled
shots.   I don't know if this model is still for sale, or if there is
anything equivalent among currently offered models.

I don't intend a lot of thread drift with this comment, but FWIW at
the end of the day I was content with the 2 megapixel camera in my
smartphone --- less stuff to have to deal with, less weight of course,
and it did a reasonably good job of scenery & people, the two things I
mostly wanted to take pictures of.


Brian Lewis / Gadget '08
http://postholer.com/brianle