On Aug 24, 2005, at 4:58 PM, David Oswald wrote:
I'll be leaving on my trip to Hong Kong and the Philippines in
about three weeks. I've stocked up on memory cards ( Three 1GB
cards, one 512mb card ), but I'm dissatisfied with how NiMH
batteries seem to hold up in my *ist-DS. I get a day's worth of
shooting out of them if I don't use the flash. I guess that's ok;
I can bring a portable charger with me. But it would be nice if I
could just bring some long lasting CR-V3's with me. I may still
have to lug a little charger around but at least I can get
(hopefully) a few days use out of one charge.
I went with AA and CRV3 lithium disposables. No recharging, no
charger to bother with, light weight, etc. I brought five sets, took
three thousand pictures, still had 500 or so exposures to go on the
third set when I got home (about 1100-1300 exposures per set).
Are the rechargeable CR-V3 batteries lithium? Are they as long
lasting (or nearly so) as the non-rechargeable type? I noticed
that they're specifically not recommended in the manual for the
*ist-DS. Has anyone out there tried them, and to what level of
success?
I don't know, but they're expensive and not recommended. I stay away
from them.
Now I'll have to figure out which lenses and gear to lug around
with me too:
SMC Pentax-DA 16-45mm f/4 AL: Can't do without it.
SMC Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4: Won't leave home without it.
SMC Pentax-FA 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5: Shouldn't leave home without it.
SMC Pentax-FA 135mm f/2.8: Too nice to leave home.
SMC Pentax-FA 80-320mm f/4.5-5.6: Never know when I'll need it.
What you have right there is a good kit, similar to what I carried:
DA14, A24, A50/1.4, FA28-105, FA135, and F100-300
Were I doing the same trip tomorrow, I'd change things just a little
bit:
DA14, FA20-35, FA28-105, FA35/2, F50/1.7, FA135.
Might not even carry the 28-105. Maybe I'd add the Zenitar 16. I'd
not carry the F100-300 and the full size tripod as I didn't use them
enough to matter; I'd carry just a light table top tripod with a
decent head on it.
Oh yeah: I carried 6x 1Gbyte storage cards and an Epson P2000 storage
device. Well worth it.
And of course I'll be stuck lugging around the AF330FTZ too, since
I never bothered to send my *ist-DS in for service to its flash yet
(It consistantly fires full-throttle, burning out the shots). I'll
send it in under warranty when I get back, but so far, I've been
too busy using the camera to be able to live without it long enough
to get it serviced.
I don't think I even used the built-in flash once during my entire
trip. I didn't carry an external flash unit at all.
Simplify, simplify. I found the less I carried, the better my
pictures were. I never carried more than two/three lenses at a time,
now I'd carry only two at a time.
Godfrey
