The must have travel gadget : The digital camera

 

Digital SLR (DSLR) Pros & Cons

 

• The DSLR is for someone whom has a growing interest in photography. It's for the hobbyist or for someone whom might put photography on their CV.

• To really get the most out of a DSLR you should practise with it before you go.

• The DSLR will give a photographer more freedom, allowing them to escape automatic settings and go manual.

• To the trained eye and in the right hands a DSLR will take a "better" photo .

• DSLR's are larger than a standard compact. This can attract thieves, especially if worn around the neck, as this is the common way to carry one.

• A DSLR with accessories can be heavy to carry around.

• The file size of images produced on a DSLR can be very large. You can of course make them smaller, but that defeats the point of having a DSLR.

• Combining the stunning scenery you'll witness with a DSLR can produce truly professional shots, that will be amazing. So amazing that when you return you'll be framing them and giving them pride of place in your home.

 

Digital Compact Pros & Cons.

 

• Easier to use than a DSLR.

• Smaller, lighter and more discreet than a DSLR. Should fit in a jean pocket or attach to your belt.

• Point and shoot can still produce great results.

• Less manual settings to customise the shot.

• File size of images is more manageable.

• The quality of compacts just keeps getting better, they'll never be a DSLR, but shots can still be amazing.

If you're serious about photography and the content here is all too basic for you, then I suspect you already know that you are going to take both a DSLR and a compact camera with you.  And why not, as most photographers will agree :  there is a time and a place for both.

So you know which camera(s) to take , now you need to decide which model to get.  Digital cameras are improving at an alarming rate so it's usually better to get the latest model. There's a plethora of sites and magazines to help you pick a camera so I won't go into detail here, however, to get you started,  a great site to help you pick a camera is  http://www.dpreview.com/ .

Whilst searching for that new camera, you should also be aware that some digital cameras offer features that are a travellers dream. Just look at the following features available to the budding travel photographer:

 

Perfect for a RTW trip : A digital camera with a world travel guide!
Images show the World Tour Guide application available on the Samsung i7 Camera.

Travel Guide

Yes, you read that right. Samsung (model i7 and others) have produced a camera complete with a "World Tour Guide" function. Images and explanations of famous attractions in 29 countries are provided for you to peruse via the camera's touch screen. Wow!

Waterproof & Sandproof 

The Pentax Optio range offer cameras that are waterproof and sand proof, great for use by the beach.

'Travel Zoom'

Aiming straight for the travel market, Panasonic have a TZ (Travel Zoom) range of cameras that provide a whopping optical zoom (10X last time I checked)  on a compact camera. Ideal for spotting wildlife.

Shockproof

Olympus have a μ (mju) range of cameras that can withstand a drop of 1.5 meters. No need to worry about that in the bottom of your rucksack.

Wi-Fi

Some companies, Canon, Kodak, and Nikon to name a few, are shipping cameras with built in Wi-Fi. So once you've taken that amazing photo you can connect direct to the Internet (courtesy of  a hostel, a Starbucks or some other wireless network) and upload it for your friends to see.

GPS

Although not a common feature (yet),  a couple of digital cameras are appearing with GPS : GE (http://www.general-imaging.com/)  have the model E1050 with GPS built in and Sony have the Cyber-shot model SO905iCS which as well as  GPS is also a phone (the product's primary function is anybody's guess?).  Offering a similar convergence of technologies is the Apple iPhone 3G,  with Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS. Nice, but it only supports a 2 MP camera, but of course, that will grow with time.

And if you already have a camera and want GPS then Sony have the GPS-CS1, a GPS receiver that's designed to accompany digital cameras (not just Sony cameras). And finally, if you have a high end DSLR from Nikon, then the Solmeta N1 GPS plugs straight into your camera to store the GPS data. 

OK, I've got my camera, is there anything else?

The main problem that you have to manage is what to do when your memory card is full. You're obviously going to be taking 1000's of photos on a round the world trip, so where do you keep all those photos whilst on the move? Your technological solutions are as follows :

1. Take a laptop

   Now don't dismiss this option, I've met many a traveller with a laptop and the benefits are often very useful. See the tab on Taking A Laptop as to why you should take a laptop for reasons other than photo storage, but regardless of those,  this one really does solve our photo storage problem. You can upload all your photos to your laptop, view them on a big screen, delete the ones you don't want - it's very handy indeed. The main drawback is that a laptop can be big and heavy to carry around, and for most laptops this is true, but with the advent and increased popularity of mini-laptops or "net books", this is no longer the case. As such, a dinky laptop is less hassle to travel with and an excellent solution to storing photos.

2. Take an iPod

    

   Turn your iPod into a
   photo storage device.

   With the purchase of a $30 USD add-on (see image) you can plug your digital camera directly into your iPod.  Once connected you can copy full resolution photos to the iPod for safe storage. If you have a good sized iPod (80GB or above) then this is a great option to consider. 

   I have found one minor issue with this option though, and that's because copying photos to an iPod can be quite intensive on the iPod and it's battery. As such, the iPods battery can reach empty very quickly. I have found on occasion, when copying a few hundred photos, that the previously fully charged iPod battery would actually die before the job had finished copying. This was most frustrating, but once I was aware of it I began uploading smaller quantities of photos at any one time.

    

3. Take a portable photo storage device.

   These devises are designed specifically for the problem we have.  It's a compact sized box with a small (typically 3 ") screen and slots for memory cards along one side. You simply place your memory card into the device, click copy and voilà : all you photos are stored on the device.

4. Back up to DVD

   If you know you are going to be passing through major cities then there will probably be kiosk's and other shops that, for a small cost, will take a memory card and place it's contents on a CD or DVD. This of course means that you now have a CD to carry, and it's not that laptops or iPods aren't fragile devices, it's just that CD's tend to get forgotten about, and then get crushed. You put them in a book, they slide to the bottom of your bag, and then snap - your last 500 photos are gone...for good.

5. Back up online

   I find this option great as a way to back up your back up! In theory this solution should be perfect, however,  where the solution fails is with its dependency on Internet cafés. Yes, they are everywhere, however, the speeds offered to upload your photos can be very slow indeed. They cater for the download, browse the web market, so have super speeds to handle downloads, but unfortunately the upload speed isn't of the same calibre. Consequently, if you have hundreds of full sized photos to upload, then you may find yourself spending more time looking at a computer screen than actual sight seeing.

   Online photo storage services usually charge an annual subscription once you have reached your maximum free upload limit. And as part of their upload service you usually get options to upload the photo at a reduced size.  Now, if you resize your images then you can reduce the file size quite dramatically and this then allows you to upload your photos  considerably quicker, but that reduced photo comes at a cost, as you have reduced the photo quality too. So if you had nothing, but the uploaded copy and wanted to print it at A4 size then the image will probably look poor and pixelated on paper.

   But I say back up your photos to this, because at least this way you'll have something if your laptop\iPod\storage device fails. It won't be as good quality as hoped for, but its considerable better than nothing at all.

   If you are looking for online photo storage or sharing then a couple of the big players are listed below. I personally wouldn't trust my photos with any company that wasn't a recognised name, but there are also lots of other smaller firms our there.

   http://picasaweb.google.com (owned by Google)

   http://www.flickr.com/ (owned by Yahoo)

   http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/

With all these backup options, what are the best steps to take?

"Save, Save, Save" is the IT motto, so with that in mind I recommend the following steps to looking after photos whilst travelling:

1. Take the photos off your memory card and store them on either a laptop, an iPod or a photo storage device.

2. Back the photos up. Put them on alternate device to the device used in step 1. 
   Either a  different iPod, a different laptop, or a different photo storage device, or a DVD (take a protective DVD wallet to put these in) or (if you have a fast Internet café) upload non-reduced, full quality copies to an online service.  Note : If you are travelling with a friend then back up to their gadgets and they can always back up to yours.

3. Back up your back ups and place reduced sized, low quality copies of the photos online.

Three copies of your photos: 1 on your main device, 1 on your friends device and 1 online (reduced in size) may seem a little over the top, but to most travellers there will be nothing more important once the trip has ended, so do you really want to risk losing them?

For an abridged printer friendly list of all the core gadgets please visit The Check Lists.

 

Laptop & Travel : A good mix?

"A laptop!" I here you cry.  Are you thinking, "Chunky heavy things that say 'steal me'.  Why would I take a laptop?" - Well things have changed, so read on.

The mini laptop is here (sometimes called a web book), it comes with a good sized hard disk (60GB plus) , wireless and a small but capable screen that is ideal for surfing. It's all the tricks you need in a small box to go travelling with.

This smaller breed of laptop means it's not such a hassle to carry, so once we've decided we can carry it, what else is it good for? Check out the below advantages for having a laptop on tour:

Photo Storage

If you have a laptop, then you have somewhere to store your digital photos when your memory card is full. Not only this, but it gives you something better to view them on, because even the smallest laptop screen is going to be larger than the one on the back of a camera.

Free Wi-Fi Everywhere

Well not everywhere, but lots of hostels and café's do now offer free wireless connectivity to the Internet. And if it's not free, then there are lots more places offering it for a small cost. So with your laptop you could be sat in the comfort of your hostel room, booking your next hostel bed or reading about that ancient temple you are visiting tomorrow.

Online Banking

Don't want to use those nasty, virus ridden computers in the Internet café, then don't worry as you can use your own super clean laptop. You can now safely budget and manage your finances online and not worry about security.

Journal \ Blog

As you trek from continent to continent you can type your journal straight into your laptop.  Then at the next wi-fi hotspot you could even uploaded it to your blog. Check out the below links for some great places to keep your travel blog :

http://www.travelpod.com/

http://www.blogger.com/

http://www.travelblog.org

http://mapness.net

http://www.mylifeoftravel.com/

Keep in touch with Skype & Email.

Once online you can email and Skype your friends to let them know you are fine and dandy.

Watch A Movie

Stuck on a bus? Early night? Then use your laptop to watch a movie. Not to condone illegal copies, but places to buy  pirate downloads \ DVD movies do tend to pop up from place to place whilst travelling. So if you've seen enough of the legal TV web resources, such as YouTube, iTunes or BBCi then you might be tempted with your local pirate movie seller.

Tempted now? Yes, having a computer with you whilst travelling can make things easier and may even enhance your trip. It's also becoming more and more common to see a tour guides with a laptop, and who can blame them as laptops are much more affordable than they used to be.

However, maybe the reason your doing a trip is to get away from spending too much time glued to a screen, and if that's the case, then perhaps you should stay true to yourself and leave the computer at home.

For an abridged printer friendly list of all the core gadgets please visit The Check Lists.

 

The mobile phone : quite handy and provides
peace of mind to those back home.  

A mobile phone is no longer just a phone. Camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, web browser are just some of the technologies available on a handset today. And there are huge benefits to some of these technologies, just look at the Taking A Laptop  and  Taking A Digital Camera sections for more details, but do you just want a phone?

You are on a round the world trip, so your phone may get dropped, wet, scratched etc. Unlike a laptop, a phone may well be with you most of the time and because of this I'd be tempted to avoid getting the latest phone and get one that is well, just a phone.

Very few phones come without cameras, so I'd perhaps at least advise on getting one with a camera. If you are travelling with a Digital SLR, then having a 3MP (or above) camera phone is great for those off-the-cuff moments. Of course, I wouldn't recommend a camera phone to be used as your primary camera, but as a backup it'll do nicely.

Another function worth looking for on your phone is a currency converter. Again, this is usually standard on most models and even if they don't have that, they all have a calculator so you can work out your own conversions.

Now the most important point of having a phone is that you can keep in touch with friends and family back home. This can of course be expensive if you are thinking about making calls, but text messaging provides a inexpensive medium for : "Got charged by wild elephants. Ate spider for lunch. Having a ball. "  texts back home. And as you meet fellow travellers, then sharing numbers and keeping in touch is also easier with a phone : "Arrive in Bangkok tomorrow. You still there? Where did you stay?" type texts will give you a real heads up when you land somewhere new.

SIM Options

Having a phone is one thing, but then you need to consider your SIM options. If you aren't planning to be away for too long then you are probably just as well using your existing SIM. Remember to contact your provider though to ensure that you do not have an overseas lock in place and that it will actually work in the countries you are going to.

However, if you are planning on stopping in a particular country for several months, then it's probably cheaper to get a pay-as-you-go SIM from that country. To use this your handset will need to be unlocked. For advice on getting your phone unlocked see this excellent site www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/unlock-mobile-phone .

World SIMs

On a round the world trip a good alternative to taking your normal SIM is to take a world SIM instead. These SIMS are designed to connect to local networks which are usually cheaper than using a home SIM and can often provide better coverage. You have a single number that's maintained across all countries too. You will need an unlocked handset for this though.

In addition to a phone that is unlocked, GSM networks operate  differently depending on which country you are in. For the greatest world wide coverage you require a phone that is quad-band, as this works across all four GSM frequencies. Tri-band phones will work in most situations, but there are a few exceptions, so if you can, stick with a quad band phone. 

World Sims work by having a company negotiate with the various mobile network providers in the world. Because of this, what you don't want is a small unheard of company providing your world SIM. If relations between your world SIM provider and one of the network providers breaks down (as happened with me) then you can quite simply lose coverage across a continent.  To prevent this, avoid the bargain world SIM's on the market and try to  pick one from a larger company, one that appears more reputable. One UK focused company worth a look into is http://www.0044.co.uk/ .

For an abridged printer friendly list of all the core gadgets please visit The Check Lists.

Got room in your bag for more gadgetry? If so then consider the following :

The iPod (or other MP3 player)

Travelling the world can feel like a movie, and an iPod can provide the sound track to that movie.  With a simple adaptor it can also provide a great place to back  up your photos (see Taking A Digital Camera above).This really is one piece of pocket wizardry that is a must have in any rucksack.

A top of the range iPod can be a bit pricey, so you might have concerns about taking one. As a beacon to thieves you wouldn't wear a flash gold chain, so why should an iPod be any different? To help counter this I'd simply replace those trademark white iPod headphones. So simply get some regular black headphone and it'll draw less attention to the type of MP3 player you have stashed in your pocket.

Nintendo DS Lite

It's small and is designed to keep you amused for hours. Perfect for planes, trains and automobiles taking you across continents. If you don't like reading, this could be the perfect substitute to a good book. It might seem a pain to take all those game cartridges too, but fortunately this can be avoided. It's not legal, and I don't condone piracy of software, but you can purchase  a single cartridge that supports memory cards and on these memory cards you can place your games. A 2GB memory card plugged into a "special" cartridge could hold approximately 40 games - a quantity that would keep even the most serious gamer busy. If you are interested in implementing this then Google terms such as "DSTT" , "R4" and "M3",  as these are the names of the cartridges on the market, but please remember it is illegal to use it for pirated games.

Note : A newer version, the DSi is now available. This has a built in camera and other benefits.

Sony PSP Slim & Lite

The PSP (Playstation Portable) offers much of the same as the DS Lite. Clearly both are excellent for gaming, but if you're interested in more, then you can also watch movies, play music  and even browse the web on both hand-helds. The PSP seems to cater for the movie and music options straight out of the box and is also more than happy to store your photos. But regardless of which you choose, if gaming is your favourite pastime then having either to accompany you would undoubtedly help pass the time whilst in transit.

Wrist Watch

If you have a nice, expensive watch then leave it at home.  Get yourself something simple and practical : an alarmed, water resistant digital watch with a built in compass perhaps? But if that's just not your style, then you can always get yourself a fake Rolex en route.

Travelling the world can feel like a movie, and an iPod can provide the sound track to that movie.

And Finally...

Gadgets are great, but remember the more your take the more chargers and cables you'll have to carry and then there's the bundle of travel adaptors you'll have to keep in your bag too.  A couple of choice picks will enhance your trip, but too many will hinder and make you feel like you never left the office. 

So pick whats you,  if you love music don't leave without your iPod, if you are mad on texting take your phone and if you are a games freak then take a hand-held player. But regardless of what you take, they are all sure to help pass the time whilst on that slow boat to China, just don't forget to take in the views too.

For an abridged printer friendly list of all the core gadgets please visit The Check Lists.