DSLR disadvantages

[JMo (& piglet)]

Personally speaking, I find an SLR (and associated gubbins) a liability when travelling on a bike... not just the physical size, but the worry of theft or damage of expensive equipment really doesn't make sense unless you are on a commercial commission.

I use a Canon DSLR professionally, but ended up leaving it in my suitcase at a friends house when I went to the States for 3 months last year - bought a Fiji Finepix A900 (9megapix) from a local camera shop and found that was more than adequate for the sort of pictures you can take when on your own - typically landscape and posed/candid shots of people and places. Ultimately it's your composition that matters more than the equpiment, you can get good results with pretty much any digital compact these days - hell, I still use a Sony U20 on a lanyard around my neck - great for moving shots and bike to bike stuff - you don't always get the result you wanted, but more often you do... and if you're taking 6000 pictures a month (!) - you'll have more then enough usable stuff there for sure?

As others have said above - it depends what you want to do with the pictures when you get back - if you want to print posters, then it might be worth humping the DSLR kit with you (but you'll need a selection of lenses to make the effort truly worthwhile), but for personal albums, web-blogs and even magazine repro up to A4, you really don't need a DSLR for the sort of pictures you seem to be taking - an SLR only really comes into it's own for action stuff, the rest you can capture on a (quality) compact.

Hope that helps..

xxx

[furious]

Originally Posted by pecha72

So far I havent seen a device that could handle the simple copying of files from the cards straight to a USB-stick, so you need a laptop in between, but maybe its not far away at all, when such a device exists (or maybe I just havent stumbled across one, yet??)

Thank you a lot for your answers! I am still on the road and I am happy with my compact Canon G6.

pecha72, of course there is the device you want and I have it! It's on the size of 2.5'' HDD, it copies straight from a lot of different types of memory cards and it stores them to an 80 GB HDD. You can also use it like a portable HDD. So, I use it to store some files there and I access them in any internet shop. It connects to PC through USB. My device is made by Trekstor (http://www.trekstor.de) and it's called USB-Photobox 2.0.

[pecha72]

furious, I think you misunderstood me.

I do have a HDD digital image bank with me as well.

But what I would want to do is leave that at home (because its expensive and might get broken or stolen) and have just a simple, thumb-sized, very very small "box", which has some wonderful electronic gadgets inside, and 2 USB-ports.

Into one USB-port you would put your card reader, which has your card(s), and into the other you´d put your big capacity 16 or 32 gig flash memory stick. You would then press a button and *BANG* it would copy all data from the memory card to the memory stick. There could be like a red light, which tells you its busy, and a green light, telling you now its done with copying.

It is flash memory sticks that I want to use as a back-up these days, because they are small enough to hide from thieves, and not too expensive, either.

I dont think that would be too hard to build these days, or maybe something like that even exists already.

[grizzly7]

i have a nikon d50, with an 18-200 lens which covers most things, and a 12-24 which produces lovely pics, especially in low light. the 18-200 also has some kind of anti vibration thing which runs off the camera battery, allowing longer zoom/slower exposure etc. the camera battery is amazingly long lasting anyway.
i looked around for something to back up my memory cards, and bought an archos on the basis of a dixons salesman. no card slot as promised, and wont read slr files. refund please
however i now have this
Jobo Giga Vu Pro Extreme 160GB ('5362) - Warehouse Express
which has a lovely screen, you can either connect the camera to it via usb, or put the card in its reader slot. it can also shunt what youre putting into it straight into a pc or another similar storage device. it also can verify the copy has no errors.
slightly pricey, but seems durable, and less obvious than a laptop (maybe 5"*3 1/2")
cheaper jobo devices just dont have a colour screen but do the same thing.
could replace the ipod for tunes?
also on the warehouse express site is a pro photographers review of how he uses it. they are a cool shop, mail order only

the new top spec nikon d3 has twin card slots to record in tandem if you want, slightly pricey tho

[teflon]

Originally Posted by furious

Thank you a lot for your answers! I am still on the road and I am happy with my compact Canon G6...

You always knew it was the right camera for the job.

[jljones]

Originally Posted by grizzly7

the new top spec nikon d3 has twin card slots to record in tandem if you want, slightly pricey tho

I have a D3 and yes it has twin CF card slots and you can configure how the camera uses them. I shoot RAW always with a jpeg backup and have the cards set to over flow - once slot 1 is full it moves on automatically to slot 2. You can put RAW on 1 and jpeg on 2 and so on. The camera is expensive but wonderful. If you go to the website below, look in galleries, then music then Youssou N'Dour you'll see the wonders of the D3 with an 80-200mm lens and 24-70mm lens with ISO ranging from 400 to 6,400. I've also shot at 12,000 with very little noise. Not really an issue in the desert I know but useful in the medina of Fez...

[Phatman]

The main reason to use a DSLR is the image quality is far superior to a compact especially in RAW file format. Some DSLR's do video, not just poxy VGA movies, the Nikon D90 and D300 and Sony A700 do HD video although you're better off using a camera designed for the job really. After lugging an SLR around for years I went lightweight and used my little Olympus XA range finder for a while but there were times when I kicked myself for not having my Nikon with me. So I compromised instead of taking my new (at the time) F90X I took my battered FA, if it got nicked so be it!

[colebatch]

Originally Posted by teflon

You always knew it was the right camera for the job.

yep, that about sums it up. If you already "know" the answer you want, why ask the question?:confused1:

[Mombassa]

Originally Posted by jljones

I have a D3 and yes it has twin CF card slots and you can configure how the camera uses them. I shoot RAW always with a jpeg backup and have the cards set to over flow - once slot 1 is full it moves on automatically to slot 2. You can put RAW on 1 and jpeg on 2 and so on. The camera is expensive but wonderful. If you go to the website below, look in galleries, then music then Youssou N'Dour you'll see the wonders of the D3 with an 80-200mm lens and 24-70mm lens with ISO ranging from 400 to 6,400. I've also shot at 12,000 with very little noise. Not really an issue in the desert I know but useful in the medina of Fez...

jljones,

Did you only take the 24-70 when traveling? I have a D700 and am debating only taking the 24-70. I sometimes wonder about the 70-200, but it's such a beast and the 14-24 is too fragile. I'm planning to be riding for a year or two to start... Love your website by the way. Spent a good half hour there..

[_CY_]

going with Nikon D2H with 50mm F1.4 and 18-70mm F3.5
trying to pare down by leaving the 70-300mm at home.

what about a flash? do you folks bring along a flash?

[Mombassa]

No flash. I'm taking the following:
- D700
- 24-70 2.8G
- 2 batteries
- Charger 110/240/12V
- 2 CF 32GB
- ThinkTank 20 V2 bag
- Bulb blower
- Microfibre cloth (in a dust sealed Ziplock)
- CF reader

That's it I think ...