[pct-l] Hiking Cameras

[ilja at cs.caltech.edu (Ilja Friedel)]

Hi Switchback,

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 Hiker97@aol.com wrote:
> I would like a 3 megapixel camera, but
> one that weighs in under 4 ounces and uses AA titanium batteries.

I just got a Nikon 2100. It is slightly heavier and 2MP. A 3MP model is
available as 3100. We have used it for 10 days on the southern part of
the JMT. We took about 600 images and used less than 2 CRV-3 lithium
batteries. It is a fine camera, but I'm not perfectly happy with 2 facts:
- color fringing (blue "shadows") around white areas
- sometimes (30 percent) the camera focuses in macro mode not on the
  flower, but on the background

Have a look at the sample images for each camera at
http://www.imaging-resource.com
This is a fine website. Take a look at the Canon A70. It is heavier than
you want, but it seems to have good optics. Also using two CRV-3 batteries
makes it quite heavy. On the other hand I read it is using them less
heavily than the Nikon. And if you have to carry 2 batteries anyways...
(Getting a lightweight digital camera is quite a trade-off. Good optics
are not cheap or lightweight.)

Good news is, that memory is starting to get cheap. The cheapest (per
megabyte) a few weeks ago where 256 MB models for about 50..60 bucks. I
prefered to get 2 of those instead of one 512, because they do fail
sometimes and this way I can hope to keep half the pictures. In any case,
if the camera tells you to change the battery, do not delay it! (My
experience with older cameras, not the Nikon. It seems to be fairly stable
in this regard.)

Ilja.