I wasn't shooting RAW. I know, I know... but these are vacation snaps,
not contest submissions. ;) I fit 340 on each 1G card, and used about
half of the 512meg card. I figured that if I really started to run out
I would just pick up another SD card on the road.
For the price of a portable hard drive and reader I could buy another
lens. ;)
Jens Bladt wrote:
I would have used up the 2.5 GB in a single day or two.
How did you manage without a portable harddrive/cardreader?
Regards
Jens Bladt
Arkitekt MAA
http://hjem.get2net.dk/bladt
-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: David Oswald [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sendt: 2. oktober 2005 06:57
Til: [email protected]
Emne: Back from vacation: Lessons learned
I just got back from two weeks of vacation in Hong Kong and Philippines.
I brought with me the following camera equipment:
Pentax *ist-DS
SMC Pentax-DA 16-45mm f/4 AL
SMC Pentax-FA 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 (IF)AL
SMC Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4
SMC Pentax-FA 135mm f/2.8 (IF)
AF330FTZ
2.5 gigs of SD cards.
110V quick charger
Two sets of NiMH batteries (one in the flash, one in the camera).
Waist / shoulder bag large enough for all of the above, yet small enough
to carry everywhere.
Things I discovered:
Lenses: I've renewed my appreciation for the 16-45 lens. Around my
home town it doesn't get as much use for some reason, but on vacation,
especially travelling with my wife's family, it's just so convenient,
and a great working focal length range. Image quality leaves nothing to
be desired. And its build quality is solid. Since I don't have a lot
of time to devote to each shot when I'm on vacation with a group, the
convenience of this zoom lens really shines. Its wide angle capability
is also really useful. I liked the lens before this trip; I love it now.
The primes, while good for low light use and extremely sharp, are just a
little too much hastle to use on an on-the-go type of vacation. At the
beach I was reluctant to change lenses a lot, and when with the rest of
my wife's family I just didn't want to slow down enough to mess around
with these lenses. This is a complete 180 from how I am around my home
town. Near home, I take the time to get the most out of these nice
lenses. It really surprised me to find how little I used them on
vacation though.
The 28-105 continues to be a great companion to the 16-45. What can I
say... I loved this lens on my ZX-5n, and still like using it on the
*ist-DS. Again, the convenience of a zoom on vacation outweighed the
performance gains of the primes. Maybe I just got lazy huh?
Flash: The AF330FTZ has got to go. It's obnoxious to have to dive into
the camera's menu again and again until I get the right level of flash
for the picture. In general, it overexposes my shots, but individual
results are so varied that I can't just set it and forget it. I'm going
to have to get an AF360FGZ and step into the 21st century. It was a
complete disappointment when I tried to use it to punch up the
foreground in a near-dusk shot. I had to fiddle several times to get it
right. On my ZX-5n, it just worked, every time. The *ist-DS is too
sensitiveto overexposure, I suppose. Whatever the reason, I think I need
a flash more dedicated to the *ist-DS's needs.
Batteries: I should have carried one additional set of NiMH's, or at
least a multi-voltage charger so that I could charge in my hotel room in
the Philippines. I never missed a shot due to depleated batteries, but
at one point I did find myself running my charger across the street to
an Internet cafe where the attendant allowed me to plug it into one of
his 110V power supplies. I tipped him. I should have carried a
multinational charger.
At my rate of shooting, I was able to get about three to four days out
of a charge. To accomplish this I had to keep the LCD viewing to a minimum.
Bag: The Tamrac bag finally gave out. It came unstitched along one
seam, and one of its die-cast buckles shattered. ...strange, the same
thing happened to me on another Tamrac bag a couple months ago. Anyway,
I'll have to start looking for a replacement.
Dave
