John, my brother-in-law (who spent some quality time in South Vietnam in
the late 60's as a forward artillery observer), is preparing for a
return trip to Vietnam in November with a group of his army buddies.
November is nearing the end of the rainy season in the south. The trip
will be two weeks long split roughly 50/50 between north and south. It
will be a typically tourist regimen except for some custom jaunts off to
Loc Ninh and other areas near the Cambodian border where they all spent
much time in the boonies in the 60's. I'm not sure what the
accommodations might be in and around Loc Ninh but most of the trip
should find them in (hopefully) air conditioned tourist hotels in the
evening.
The question is: What to take for photo gear?
John is a true photo novice. He still has a Mamiya-Sekor SLR with 50mm
that he bought in Saigon not long before he shipped back to the states
but he never really learned to use it. He also has an SLR with several
lenses inherited from his brother. It may actually be an OM but he
doesn't remember and has never used it in the 15 years he's had it.
I'll probably find out later today what it is. Could even be an OM-1n
if my memory serves me well.
He also has a Canon A70 which I bought for him used for about $100 from
KEH or B&H about a year ago. I bought it since both he and his sister
live where we now live in upstate NY and they were scouting houses for
us before we moved from Boston. The A70 proved to be a good choice for
him since he adapted to it fairly quickly. It has built-in flash and a
3X zoom. In conjunction with the FastStone image viewer he was able to
use the camera to take interior and exterior shots of prospective houses
and send images to me via email. The camera also has a lot of manual
control features and a pano assist feature that I can probably teach him
to use now that I'm here.
I initially rejected the notion of him taking a digital camera on a two
week trip to anywhere. I was concerned about the battery and backup
requirements. But after a bit more reflection I realized this is only a
3MP, JPEG-only camera which will fit at least 150 images on a 256MB CF
card. 2GB of CF card capacity, which can be had for less than $40, will
allow him to take and store 1200 images. That's about 85 shots/day
which seems a lot for someone not attuned to taking lots of photos. The
A70 also uses 4 AA batteries. According to dpreview's tests they got
515 shots on a set of 1600 mah NiMH batteries. I would guess 3 sets of
pre-charged 2300 mah (or better) NiMH batteries should see him through
the duration without even worrying about taking a charger.
I was fortunate to be out of the Air Force in 1965 before anyone could
think about sending me for a jaunt in South Vietnam. So I don't know
the jungle or the weather and was also a little worried about the rain
and humidity. But he thinks November in the south is not likely to be
much worse than South Florida in the summer which I know very well.
Even so, a wet digital camera is quite likely to turn into a dead
digital camera. So, after thinking about this a bit I checked oboy this
morning and discovered that a spare A70 in good condition can be had for
only $50-85.
So, my current thinking is to equip him with the A70 he already owns and
is reasonably familiar with. We'll get a small fanny pack to carry
camera and spare batteries and cards. We'll add a second A70 which can
be stored and protected from the wet in a resealable baggie in the event
it's needed. We'll add about 2GB of CF cards, maybe in 256 or 512 KB
increments. We'll buy 3 or 4 sets of high capacity NiMH batteries and
pre-charge them so no charger or voltage adapters will be required.
Perhaps we can get the newer (Sanyo Eneloop?) NiMH batteries which
supposedly have a very low self-discharge rate. Don't want to lose half
the battery capacity over two weeks without ever using them. We can
probably do all of this for less than $150. Maybe less than $125.
OK, comments please. Is this a good plan or should he be equipped with
an indestructible OM-1, a modest zoom, a Vivitar 550-FD and a bunch of
film... and a whole lot of instruction from me before he leaves in about
8 months?
Chuck Norcutt
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