G10 in Alaska....Tips???
/forum/topic/789208/0

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loggerhead
Registered: Apr 12, 2005
Total Posts: 919
Country: United States

Hi,

I picked up a G10 a couple weeks ago as a replacement to a Nikon P&S. I'm going to Alaska to hike the Chilkoot trail out of Skagway in a couple of weeks. We have planned for 5 nights on the trail before catching the train back to Skagway. After a lot of deliberation, I've decided to leave the Nikon D3 behind and go with just the G10.

I'm looking for advice on what else I might need and best suggestions to optimize the camera on this hike. In addition to the camera, I'll have two additional Adorama batteries, and 1-32Gb, 2-16Gb, and a 4Gb card. Cards are stored in a little waterproof case. I'm not too worried about having enough memory, more concerned about having enough battery life. Camera will be in a Kinesis pouch mounted to my pack on the shoulder strap to be accessible. I will travel to AK with the camera in a Pelican case, that case may stay at the hotel. A friend will have a D80, so I'm not concerned about a back up.

I will probably have the D3 on the trip to shoot from the Maritime Highway on the boat ride from Juneau and for shots in Juneau and Seattle at other points on the trip.

So far I really like this camera, and I'm comfortable it's a good balance between weight and image quality. Any tips



dasrocket
Registered: Jul 13, 2006
Total Posts: 941
Country: Canada

Hey L, not sure what your budget or carrying bulk will be, but I have been out adventure racing with a camera on long durations and wished I had one of these: http://store.sundancesolar.com/sochforcawi51.html

It folds out and is light and thin enough to attach to your back-pack and charge the batteries. I found my G10 required a lot of juice to run long exposures, so charging them in the day is a good idea. I am taking one of these to the Nevada Dessert this August.
One more suggestion I have is to have the extension lens /filter tube set, and a few zip-lock bags handy. I put the tube on my G10, with a clear filter on it and ziplocked the camera by cutting the hole for the filter and rubber-banding around it; it "seals" it for rain shooting.
Other than that, you got a great camera with you. enjoy the trail!!!



loggerhead
Registered: Apr 12, 2005
Total Posts: 919
Country: United States

The solar charger looks cool. I'm reluctant to add much more gear. If I go much more I'll be back to being better off with the D3. I know a couple of those batteries will easily get me through 6 days of shooting. I'll beef up the zip-locs! That's a great idea.

I was pondering the filter tube thing, so that I could strap a singh-ray on, but again, the more I drift that direction, the more I go back to Nikon....so many choices!



anthonygh
Registered: Jan 09, 2006
Total Posts: 357
Country: United Kingdom

Just see below....it posted twice.



anthonygh
Registered: Jan 09, 2006
Total Posts: 357
Country: United Kingdom

There used to be a little gadget available that was basically a short flexible arm with a little rectangular shade on the end...it clipped onto the hotshoe and the idea was the arm could be positioned to shade the lens from the sun to avoid flare.

I will be buying one of these when I see one......

I also find it difficult to see the screen at times so some sort of hood for that would be useful to me.

I have a G10 related thread on here that threw up some useful more general advice.



dasrocket
Registered: Jul 13, 2006
Total Posts: 941
Country: Canada

I did not allways have the tube on the G10 (too bulky for my liking) but I did carry it with me in the bag for when I needed a graduated filter of weatherproofing.

If I remember correctly (I have since sold the camera), the G10 did not have a bulb setting which made long night shots all but impossible -I was thinking of my R-D1 in my previous post about long exposures.



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