Extreme Photo Trips

[John]

Just a thought for a discussion. You are going on an arduous six month trip, well away from civilisation much of the time. There will be no chance for buying batteries or other accessories that we might take for granted. It will be cold in the extreme at the start of this trip and hot and humid towards the end, so all forms of extreme conditions. Electricity for charging may well be limited to car chargers, but possible.

Now you have to buy a camera that will see you through this. What will you buy that you will be confident in?

[Tracey McGovern]

Blimey, that's hard. I think I would play it completely safe and use disposable cameras, I've just found some Kodak ones on Amazon with 100 exposures for £89.99. I'd probably buy 3 and work hard to get my settings right before pressing the shutter - infact, do they even have settings....????

Tracey

[DaveSouthern]

Not 100% sure but for those who have used film camera`s there are some out there that don`t rely on batteries even for metering and that are all mechanical, possibly some TLR`s.
I would possibly buy a Yashica TLR as I used to use a Yashica 124G and a Yashica 635 (which utilises 120mm and 35mm film formats), but there are other Yashica models you can still get, some rare, some in very good condition.
You can still get 120 film,12 exposure and 24 exposure, colour negative, black and white and even slide.
You will also need an exposure meter as well which may take small batteries.
The only drawbacks are that if you shoot flash you will need batteries and of course the weight factor comes in.

Correct me if I am wrong please,anyone.

Dave

[Paul Jones]

There will be no chance for buying batteries or other accessories
Electricity for charging may well be limited to car chargers, but possible.

I'd take all the photos on my phone.
Take a couple of extra memory cards.

[mikeaspinall]

This is quite amusing.
Given that it would be a 6 months long trip away from civilisation I'm wondering where we would get the petrol to power our vehicle from because
if we are supposed to charge our phone/camera from a car charger we are going to need fuel unless of course we can walk back to the car when we need
to do the charging. If there are petrol stations then they just might have batteries so we should get a camera with AA batteries.
However, if we are going by 'Shank's Pony' then I would go along with Dave and go back to film cameras. My choice would be a Nikon F with a
35mm F2.8 lens as standard (can always crop the image later) and a Weston V light meter plus as much film as I could carry in a 'coolbag'. Could always
use the camera to knock in tent pegs.
Actually, the better bet would be the Nikon F2 Photomic as the batteries were only used when using the lightmeter so should last at least 12 moths plus
a spare set wouldn't take up any space.

LONG LIVE FILM

Michael

[John]

I asked because I wondered how much confidence we might have in our digital SLRs, and it seems not much! Yes, I'd envisaged remote shacks with petrol supplied in cans, but not pumps as such. AA batteries? Not sure I'd rely on them being reliable, so just maybe film would be the way to go.

It's tempting to think of the waterproof/shockproof compacts, but we need to be sure we can recharge those Lithium batteries.

I think this is one ADAPS trip that we won't be pursuing.....

[mikeaspinall]

Cheers John

If you do go on a trip like this one please send me a postcard if you can find somewhere to post it LOL.
joking apart I still think that the Nikon F2A was the best camera I ever owned with that lovely shutter sound but the most attractive
would have been a Leica M2/3/4 which were just gorgeous but outlandishly expensive.

Michael

[Alan Duckworth]

I had my Bronica ETRS for about 15 years or so. I never changed the battery, (it worked the shutter) and it still worked when I sold it. It did not have a built in meter so I always used a weston meter. (no battery involved). I had multiple backs viz 120 & 35mm so something of this order may be worth a look. The only drawback was that it was heavy. If you started with a new battery at the start of the trip, it should last, going off my experiences.

[melbarnes]

I'd take my Canon 6D, a dozen 32Gb memory cards, and a solar panel charger (assuming you are not going to one of the Poles during the 24 hour darkness months).

[PhilipHowe]

Canon 5D with my 50mm f1.4, I have 12 batteries, could get a grip so that it'll take AA batteries as well, as backup.
I've got a car charger for the batteries.
I've got 8 good memory cards, so about 48Gb, should be enough, shooting RAW and removing the bad ones.

I have a ski and surf camera, but, as you've said, you'd need loads of batteries for one of them.

[John]

I've had a thought about this myself. There's a video somewhere on YouTube showing a Pentax K-5 in a freezer, the temperature being slowly reduced. It's supposed to be OK to -10C, but it actually keeps firing (it's on interval timer for this purpose) till beyond -30C. So the camera body should be OK. As for lenses, I'll take a weather resistant AF lens, but also a couple of manual focus lenses, just in case the cold makes the motors seize up. Belt and braces always.

Batteries will be the bugbear as they don't like cold, but kept in an inside pocket and changed as required. In the heat there won't be a problem. I've used SLRs at the Aswan Dam at 50C so I can't stand hotter than that, never mind the camera....

Plus a backup waterproof/shockproof compact I think, and lots and lots of batteries......