[pct-l] Digital Cameras

[kdpo at gottawalk.com (Ken Powers)]

My thoughts on digital vs film cameras on long hikes.

We carried both digital and film cameras on the AT last year. Marcia carried
her film camera and I carried a digital. I know - this is overkill, but we
both wanted to take pictures :). Nothing worse that seeing what I thought
was a good shot and Marcia having the camera 200 feet ahead of me on the
trail. Marcia carries an Olympus point-and-shoot that is weather proof
(resistant?). I carry an old Olympus 2 megapixel point-and-shoot digital.

I found that a digital camera allowed me to take more pictures because I
knew if it didn't turn out I would just delete it and it cost zero. I took
pictures of things I would never waste film on. Some of those shots turned
out to be good photos. I bought several memory cards to I didn't have all my
shots on 1 big card. I mailed them to my son. He unloaded them onto his
computer and mailed the cards to our next re-supply drop.

I also hate the digital lag, but since most of my shots are scenery or
people (who I can tell to pose) it doesn't seem to be a big issue. I hate
the occasional picture of a blurred animal going behind a tree, but I have
accepted it. A more annoying lag for us is the startup time for a digital. I
cannot tell you how many elk, pronghorn, deer, bear, ... we have tried to
photograph only to have them disappear while the digital camera boots.

On the number of pictures - we took over 1000 PCT photos, 1300 CDT photos,
600 AT film photos and 650 AT digital photos. As Eric says, each person will
take different number of pictures. We had the PCT and CDT pictures put on
CDs. We decided it was to expensive and stopped. We found we could scan the
negatives and have more control over the digital images. It took longer, but
we liked the results better.

Oh, remember to carry an extra camera battery. And put another in your
bounce box or in a re-supply box.

Ken
www.gottawalk.com