 BetterPhoto Member |
My Perfect Travel / Backpacking Camera I am looking for a small, sturdy camera with excellent optics and a SLR viewfinder for composition and some zoom capabilities for on the spot flexibility. Quick to use, unobtrusive, lightweight...yet still have some control and get high quality. Also I am tempted by digital, but worried about sturdiness, battery life, and other problems that could be encountered in a backpacking environment. Opinions?
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John A. Lind |
IMO a manual focus, mechanical shutter SLR offers some advantages for backpacking. Even though a battery is required for the TTL metering, you can continue shooting without any batteries by estimating exposure. All of the following are sturdy, well-made workhorses with systems that have excellent lenses. If you want macro capability you can use a set of extension tubes on, although they tend to work better on prime lenses, not zooms (focusing is harder). I've listed the OEM zoom lenses for them that span a modest wide-angle to a modest telephoto. I recommend looking at the 35-105mm and the 35-135mm (if one was made for it) zooms. My one zoom is a 35-105mm and have found it more versatile than a 35-70mm even though it's a little bigger and heavier. Many of these camera bodies use the old PX-625 1.35 volt mercury cell for the metering. Using the 1.5 volt alkaline replacement is not recommended. There is a zinc-air version of the PX-625 specifically made by Wein for cameras and light meters. There are also adapters for using smaller zinc-air hearing aid cells, and an adapter that drops the voltage of a 1.5 volt #357, SR44 or MS76 silver cell to 1.35 volts. If you need more information about these workarounds, just ask. I have two camera bodies that were made for the mercury cell and they are running just fine on silver cells in the voltage-dropping adapter. Using the wrong voltage can throw metering accuracy off, sometimes by quite a bit. Hope the following list helps you out some. -- John --- Nikon (AIS) --- --- Olympus (OM) --- --- Canon (FD) --- --- Pentax (K) ---
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doug Nelson |
As a photographer and backpacker, I can only enthusiastically agree with John L. Too many times I have seen photographers in the damp, cold mountain air with their all-electronic cameras shut down. I tried the plastic very lightweight Canon T-60 SLR, only to find I had to remove the batteries and wipe them off for each shot. It now sits on the mantel for when the grandkids do something cute. I use an Olympus XA, a backpacker cult classic, pre-autofocus, because the sharpness is OK, I can forego tele capability, and it's no bigger than a tiny digital.
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John A. Lind |
Bought one 35mm SLR body in particular because it has a mechanical shutter and uses the same lenses for which I have bodies with electronic shutters. Reason? Doug brought up a good point about batteries, albeit with condensation. Having done some Winter landscape and architectural shooting (including at night), electronic cameras die quickly in severe cold even if the batteries are dry. Battery voltage drops when temperatures drop below about freezing (water). At about +10F to +20F the voltage drops enough that electronic shutters won't fire, motor winders bog down failing to wind on completely to the next frame, and AF lens focus motors can become intermittent. It will recover when brought back to room temperature, but that doesn't help out in the wilderness. BTW, batteries can last up to several years in most cameras that use them only for the metering. They're also very small compared to the Lithium monsters required to drive some current AF/AE bodies with integral motorized winders. I never go anywhere without spare cells. -- John
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Jon Close |
John L., great advice as always. Your list of suitable Olympus cameras excludes the OM-2000, a current model that is very inexpensive, but has metal body, mechanical shutter that can shoot at all speeds (1 to 1/2000 sec.) w/o batteries, DOF preview, and spot metering. Just an oversight, or is there a problem with this model?
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John A. Lind |
I thought about the OM-2000, the Nikon FM-10, and a Canon FD mount equivalent (T-60 ??). There *may* be a Pentax version also (P30T ??). Decided to leave them off the lists because the question mentioned backpacking and the need for sturdiness. The ones listed in my first reply are hardier bodies, albeit perhaps a little heavier. The OM-2000 its cousins under the other names are all made by Cosina for the major big-name badges. The bodies are decent for their pricing, but not as hardy as an FM-2n, OM-1[n], or Pentax K-1000. IMO: If hardiness for backpacking was not one of the criteria, and they would reside in a more sheltered environment, they could be an alternative. -- John
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