new camera

Here’s that other link. Obviously I’m a big Pentax Optio WP fan because it is so bulletproof. I really think it takes great pictures on its snow setting… You can see examples in a bunch of different lighting conditions at this TR if you are interested. My friend has the Canon and I think it has a lot more buttons and stuff if you like buttons and stuff.

I have a Canon PowerShot A510. It’s a good little point and shoot camera, and doesn’t seem to mind the cold. This one stood out among the other ones in it’s price range (about $200) because it has a 4x optical zoom, rather than the 3x optical zoom that is sort of standard. There’s plenty of cameras out there with digital zooms that go far beoyond the 4x, but you lose resolution really fast using that. It takes 3.2 megapixel shots, which is high enough quality to print an 8 x 10 (for my eye anyway).

My friend had a bushnell expedition or something digital camera on our Rainier trip, it stopped working about 2000 ft from the summit, which was a bummer. Not sure if that was a cold or altitude issue. It worked fine once we got back down to 9500 ft.

I find the s400 absolutely great too. only other feature I wish it had is a wide angle lens (28mm) like some more recent cameras now offer. not too many manual controls, but quite good for a camera to take in the bc…

here is a shot taken with it. rercognize anyone? 😉

I love the manual controls on my PowerShot A75. The snow setting is nice as well as the fast movement setting. I have learned to use the lighting control to achieve better color contrast. Lots of buttons, but it’s really pretty simple. Once I learned how to work it (about 1 day experimenting in the backyard), when the day is too bright to see the screen, I just go by instinct and it usually turns out pretty good.
Pretty cheap too.

You can also take 30 second to 3 minute movie clips with it. Way cool!
The memory on the stock chip provides enough space to store months of weekly trips and several movies.

Wide angle lenses and telephoto lenses are optional to buy – the stock lense just pops out. I need to get the waterproof diving case so I can take pics of some of the kayaking that I do.

That other link SF posted has some good info. I use a Canon Powershot SD450, and I love it. I’ve used that for all my TR pics this year (and the originals look way better since they’re compressed a lot on biglines). It’s got a nice big screen, and it’s tiny – you can put it just about anywhere and always have easy access to it. Lately I’ve been using one of the color presets called “vivid color” which seems to work well for outdoor photos, but even on the normal auto settings it takes great pics. It does have pretty decent manual control as well. For pics with lots of snow, sometimes the exposure can get screwed up, so you can either set it manually, or focus on a different area with less snow (like the sky), push the shutter button halfway to lock in the exposure, and repoint at the original target.

The only downsides I’ve found:

– The screen can get scratched pretty easily. You can get protective covers, but those tend to reflect a lot more light making it difficult to use in the sun. The screen is also pretty fragile, it’s easy to crack it or otherwise mess it up if you hit it on something (this is true of all LCD’s though). A good case is a good idea.

– It’s not waterproof. I’ve dropped it in the snow a few times, and it still works fine. You can get a waterproof overcase for it, but that is mainly intended for underwater shooting. It adds a lot to the size so you probably wouldn’t want to use it in the bc.

I also finally rigged up something to keep from losing it in the snow. You know those ski ticket holders with the retractable cord that you tie to the ticket? I attached one of those to the pack hip belt, and tied in the camera wrist strap to the end of the retractable cord. That way, you can still lift the camera wherever you need to because of the retractable cord, but if you drop it, it won’t go tumbling down to the bottom of the hill.