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mission
Social climber
boulder,co
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 5, 2010 - 11:11pm PT
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I'm needing to replace my 1st generation digital camera and am looking for a small, rugged camera that works well in cold conditions. It would be nice if it shot decent videos, but I don't want to spend more than $250 after watching Donini's camera fall 800 feet or so....
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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Why did he throw it away?
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mission
Social climber
boulder,co
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 5, 2010 - 11:15pm PT
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He accidentally dropped it on out new route attempt on Fitzroy in 2006. We found the camera, but the memory chip ejected and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Fortunately we still had my Contax TVS III, but a lot of cool photos were lost. Ever seen a grown man cry?
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Strider
Trad climber
one of god's mountain temples.... ಠ_ಠ
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Which brings up the point I never thought of...
When taking your camera climbing, you should place a piece of tape around the area of the camera where the memory card is. That way, if you do (God forbid) drop your camera, at least the memory card will be secure so you can recover your pictures and it isn't a complete loss... Thanks for that tidbit of info!
-n
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mission
Social climber
boulder,co
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 5, 2010 - 11:28pm PT
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Malcom- that looks like the ticket. A little expensive, but I could keep it clipped in.
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mission
Social climber
boulder,co
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 5, 2010 - 11:33pm PT
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Even better- I have a friend who works for Olympus.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Hands down, the Canon S95
Hmmm. Doesn't appear to have an optical viewfinder. Which means the 3-inch LCD is on whenever the camera is on, which means it probably goes through batteries a whole lot faster than a camera which allows you to lock out the LCD.
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Strider
Trad climber
one of god's mountain temples.... ಠ_ಠ
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I like the traditional viewfinder, too.
Really? I find, when I am taking pictures for climbing, it is MUCH easier and faster to hold the camera at half or full arms length and use the LCD screen to frame the picture. You are so peripherally-blinded and generally slower when using a traditional view-finder that I don't like it.
I also tend to take very fast pictures, in awkward situations (on belay, on lead, looking over an edge, etc...). If I were more of a traditional photographer trying to properly frame and check exposure then...
I guess I do more "spray and pray" with my photo's...it's digital. Why not take 1000 pictures?
-n
edit:
which means it probably goes through batteries a whole lot faster than a camera which allows you to lock out the LCD.
I do not have a S95, but Canon in general do NOT go through batteries quickly. Mine easily made it through a 5 day wall trip with 300+ pictures and multiple video's (filled (2) 2gb sd cards) with no low battery warning...
edit 2: still carried a back-up battery though. Common sense.
-n
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mission
Social climber
boulder,co
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 5, 2010 - 11:42pm PT
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Ghost, you are correct. I was looking at the wrong side of the camera. Still, I worry about breaking the screen and sometimes they are hard to see in the daylight, or if you are farsighted.
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mission
Social climber
boulder,co
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 5, 2010 - 11:47pm PT
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Locker, That looks like a good idea but it's hard to find film anymore
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C4/1971
Trad climber
Depends on the day...
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Canon G11. Pricey but worth it. And it shoots raw...
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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I do not have a S95, but Canon in general do NOT go through batteries quickly
Nothing against Canon. I have a Canon myself, and love it. But it (the A640 model) has a bunch of features that are important to me.
1) The option of turning off the LCD and using just the optical viewfinder
2) The LCD is a fold-out thing, and can be twisted in any direction. Allows the camera to be pointed at something you can't see from your cramped belay stance, while you are still able to view it on the screen.
3) It's got a bulge on one side for perfect handgrip, while allowing all the controls to be manipulated. So I can take pictures of your radical lead while still keeping you on belay.
YMMV
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mission
Social climber
boulder,co
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 6, 2010 - 12:03am PT
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Donini will belay with both hands on the camera, because the photos are more important than the leader.
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!
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Sorry, mission. It's a BigWall joke.
Great little cameras these days. I'll just keep a grip on my Canon A620.
And I don't need yet another battery.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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What about waterproof models? Last time I looked, it seemed like they all had pretty poor shutter lags, which is a show stopper for the spontaneous quick shot. Any new word on weatherproof models?
Hi Tom!
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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This is a pretty good resource for doing your camera research:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/
I'm running this camera at the moment. I love it.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ZS5/ZS5A.HTM
It doesn't have the optical viewfinder, as pointed out by Ghost on the other camera, but I've used it to take hundreds of photos over several days without recharging and have yet to get stiffed by a battery out of juice.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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The S95 is pretty much the ticket for a small camera/ Very good image quality and lots of options. But not much zoom.
A little bigger are that Panasonic mentioned above, or the Panasonic FZ35, which is what I'm looking at. Both have very good Leica lenses and much larger zooms.
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