Camera for hiking?

[Eghama]

I'm new to the digital scene. Been shooting a Canon AE-1 for the last 25 years and am finally coming to my senses. I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for a point and shoot to take on a hike of the Appalachian Trail. Size and weight are issues. So is long battery life. Charger also needs to be compact and light. Will be exposed to the elements at times. Any other issues I need to consider, please feel free to toss into the mix. Thoughts?

[Rhys]

I'm new to the digital scene. Been shooting a Canon AE-1 for the last 25 years and am finally coming to my senses. I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for a point and shoot to take on a hike of the Appalachian Trail. Size and weight are issues. So is long battery life. Charger also needs to be compact and light. Will be exposed to the elements at times. Any other issues I need to consider, please feel free to toss into the mix. Thoughts?

If you're prepared to use a camera as big as your AE-1 setup then I suggest the Canon XT or XTi plus some lenses - for example a Tamron 11-18, 17-35, 28-75 and a Sigma 70-200.

If you want something compact then one of the Olympus wide zoom cameras or something with a lot of reach such as the Canon S3 IS.

Canon's charger is small and light as are the batteries. You can carry several Canon batteries.

The others take standard AA batteries so you could use rechargables or lithium disposables.

[David Metsky]

Are you planning a thru-hike? If so, you'll probably want to restrict yourself to cameras that use AA batteries for the times when you'll be away from power for many days (like 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine) and can use regular AA batteries. For the rest of the time 2 sets of NiMH rechargables should keep you going. You can buy a variety of charges, some are quite small.

I'd also avoid cameras with too many parts that can break. This would eliminate something like the Canon A630 which would otherwise be an excellent choice. The rotating LCD is just a bit fragile for this type of use, IMO. The Canon A700 or A710 would be my first choice. It takes 2 AAs, gives reasonable battery life (will last much longer if you don't use the flash or preview too much), a nice 6x lens with IS, and a great movie mode. The latter uses up a lot of card space so you'd probably want to use that sparingly. But memory cards are cheap and don't weigh much. The manual controls will allow you take more than just snapshots if you like learning some of the features of the camera. The A530/540 would be a lower cost alternative.

An alternative would be to get one of the weatherproof Olympus cameras. They stand a good chance of surviving rainy days and nights or an occasional dunk, but they tradeoff image quality and features. Frankly, I've abused my cameras on the trail for a few years and I think the weatherproof feature is overrated. If you take care and keep your camera in a good case that you place in a ziplock bag in bad weather, it'll be fine.

There are other good models out there with AA batteries. I'm less familiar with other brands so I'll let others chime in. For a thru-hike I'd stay away from an ultrazoom because of weight and complexity. I always have my camera in a small case clipped to my sternum strap. That way it's always handy and I shoot lots of things that appear quickly (like wildlife). Big cameras make that impractical on the trail.

-dave-

[Eghama]

Yes, I'm planning on doing the thru-hike this coming spring. I think a DSLR may be too much to carry over the long haul, and I don't want to fuss with the dust and moisture issues that come with changing lenses on the trail. I really want something small and light and can handle a tumble or two. The AA batteries are a good idea. I'll look into the Canon A530 as suggested. Any other thoughts would be welcomed.

[raven15]

When I got the A710, one of the considerations was that it should be able to endure unsupported (no electricity) backpacking trips of up to a week, while only changing batteries once. I haven't tested it yet, but expect it to do so. I like the little extra zoom (in case I see a mountain goat). I don't know about hiking conditions back east, maybe there are too many trees for that to be useful? The A530 is very similar, except obviously no IS and 4x zoom, and in my experience slightly slower responses. It should work just as well except the above notes, and is cheaper.