The death of a Nikon and the birth of a Canon

It had to happen, I dropped my Nikon Coolpix 2500 onto concrete in Bridgenorth in September of 2007 and it died. It was only a 2MP camera but it served me well from 2003, providing myself and the rest of the crew with tons of trip photos from all of our travels. The only gripe I ever had was with the paper thin recgargable battery and I soon found I had to buy a spare so that I would still be snapping well into my trip. But no matter how cautious I would be with my snapping I would always run out of juice and without a mains supply at hand I was stuffed !

So when it came to finding a replacement I opted for a camera that took AA batteries (always available in all stores) and my three other criteria were it had to have a viewfinder and the option of being able to turn off the screen, thus stretching the life of my batteries. It also had to do great video and have a good optical zooooooom.

Well the Canon Powershot A720is does the trick for me, it runs on AAs, takes great pictures, has all the modes that my Nikon had plus lots more, and it captures video with sound at the same framerate as my Sony Handycam (30fps) and is only limited to that size of card that you put in. I've been useing the Canon with a 4GB SDHC Card since June 2008 and have to say it's the dogs gonads, no more having to carry a digital camera and my Handycam for the video side of things.

So my advice to fellow hikers thinking of a new camera is get one with a viewfinder so you can turn off that fancy juice hungry screen, get a good optical zoom (6x or more) for captureing wildlife, and one that does unlimited video with sound at 30fps.

I know lots of people are trying out solar chargers with mixed results, but I've not ventured down that route due to living in the UK and not being blessed with copious ammounts of sunshine, which to be honest suits me because I'm one that likes to walk on a crisp frosty trail and not be boiled by the sun, biten by bugs and annoyed by fair weather hikers, I use the word hikers tongue in cheek ;-)
And lets not forget the dog walking brigade, not all of them because I love dogs, It's the owners that don't bag the poop, and the ones that bag the poop and leave at the base of trees !!!, and the ones that can't control the dog as he runs at you like a missile, knocking you over like a skittle, then if your packs down on the floor, he's in head first and slobbers all over your lunch and gear, while the owner shouts "It's ok he won't hurt you, he just wants to be friends".

Ok I've lost the plot now and started on those dog walkers with the brand spanking new 4x4s that have never been, or ever will go offroad, you know the type with all the fancy branded gear that they put on just for walking the dog ;-)