4 Cameras

When I go hiking, beyond a few essentials, most of the weight is water and cameras. I'm here with four cameras and have been mixing and matching shots from all of them. Each camera has its own strengths and weaknesses that I try to take advantage of in capturing images.

L to R: EOS 20D, Hero 2, Android, R-D1S

So far I can't say that I've taken any stunning photos though I most certainly have experienced plenty of stunning sights with my own eyes. My level of photography skill is elementary, plus I'm emphasizing experiencing the hikes over setting up and capturing great shots (which is a lot more work), not to mention the inherent limitations of capturing the natural beauty of this place in a flat rectangle of pixels. I do plan to repeat some of these hikes targeting some very specific shots later on.

R-D1S

This is my mainstay, a digital rangefinder camera generously on loan to me from a friend who is an aficionado of rangefinders. It's a dream to shoot with for many reasons deriving from the elegant simplicity of the design and controls.

• Rangefinder affords pinpoint accurate manual focusing.
• Direct control of the aperture for precise exposure and depth-of-field control.
• Shutter action is immediate (virtually zero shutter lag, can shoot 1/15 sec hand-held) and quiet.
• Overall compact and lightweight design fits comfortably in one hand for great portability.

All these features inherently create some challenges as well. With prime (non-zoom) lenses, sizing the frame is a matter of moving towards or away from the subject. The shutter is manually cocked for each shot: no rapid-fire multiple exposures. Being full manual, each exposure requires several steps and it's not a great camera to ask someone to take a snapshot of you with unless they know what they are doing. Finally, not being an SLR, you aren't looking through the lens so there are a number of very easy to make mistakes, including leaving the lens cover on.

Nonetheless, well over half the shots you'll see are from the R-D1S. The best way to appreciate the rangefinder design is to contemplate taking the same shot with a DSLR. I would be shooting aperture-priority mode to set the aperture, but wouldn't see the range of distance in focus as the spread of numbers shows me directly on the lens. Further, I would either have to hope that auto-focus worked or eyeball manual focus through the tiny viewing area (the rangefinder shows actual-size view, though not through-the-lens). Finally, I would have to deal with the torquing of the DSLR as the mirror pivots up and out of the way and attending shutter lag involved in taking the exposure.

Canon EOS 20D

With an 18-55mm zoom lens the DSLR has been reliable and versatile. I especially like to shoot with a polarizing filter that dials out haze as well as a lot of reflected light on water making the colors really stand out in the shot. I have add-on wide angle and macro lens giving this camera a lot of range.

Go Pro

The Hero 2 is a lot of fun to use and takes very high quality images under a great range of lighting conditions. Video, stills, multiple-exposure, time-lapsed, it does it all, with just two buttons. With waterproof enclosures it can go just about anywhere so I always take it along. The wide angle view gives images a distinctive look that puts the viewer in the middle of the action. The Go Pro web site always has new and amazing videos up if my stuff gets boring.

Android phone camera

Kind of a freebie but still a respectable camera for quick point and shoot that is always at hand. To be precise, the phone has two cameras (front and rear facing) but let's count it as just one anyway. There are two things this camera does that the others do not:

• GPS location tagged photos - great to show sign or landmarks along a trail.
• Panoramas - point and scan to take a "live" panorama up to 360 degrees.

How did I shoot a photo of my four cameras? Actually I do have one more that I rarely use: my Mac laptop took that. I am fairly certain that's all the cameras I have ...