In reviewing the pictures from our two previous trips one thing stands out and that’s the fact that there’s simply too few pictures of Cynthia and I together.
Sure, she has her camera and I have my camera so we’ve got some pictures of each other, but the thought of handing hundreds of dollars worth of technology to a complete stranger causes one to pause. For the sake of a romantic shot of the two of us in front of (insert cool landmark here) we are risking them dropping, or even worse, stealing the camera.
And holding a full SLR at arms length doesn’t work very well either.
Then I had a brainstorm.
I came up with the idea of purchasing a used and inexpensive point and shoot camera. The idea being that it’s something that can easily be held at arm’s length so we can get the self portraits of ourselves and it’s cheap enough so that if we do decide to let someone take our picture and they drop it or run away we’re not out that much.
It occurred to me that the secondary camera market must be huge and that by being willing to sacrifice a few mega-pixels and some features, a few year old used point and shoot digital camera should be pretty inexpensive and readily available.
We headed over to The Camera Exchange and I was able to pick up a used Nikon Coolpix 4100 with a 1 gig memory card for a song (as in well under a $100 song)!
I’m sure I could have gotten even cheaper on Ebay or from Craigslist or even the Chronicle Classifieds but this was better for me as I like to put my hands on technology before I buy it, even if it’s cheap cheap cheap.
The camera weighs next to nothing, runs on AA batteries so there’s no charger which makes it a breeze to transport. 4 mega-pixels, 3X zoom, super easy to use.
It’s PERFECT!
Tags: Travel
We have the same problem. Additionally, the pictures that the strangers take tend to be poorly framed and out of focus. I’ve got a little travel-sized tripod and a remote for the camera. That way I can just set it down and take the pictures myself. It’s a little risky in densly populated areas, but works well when you’re off the beaten path.
Check out the XShot. I heard about it on The Digital Photography Show podcast.
http://xshotpix.com/
back up cameras rule!
I still have my old but trusty Canon Elph S410 w/ a 1GB card and carry that in the evenings instead of my DSLR. Takes great nights shots too…
I’ve used an old jumper cable clamp with the mount welded on before – as you can usally find a branch/post etc. t clip to. That is until I discoverd that Lowel Tota Tatch and didn’t need my brother to get the welding gear out…
[...] As I mentioned earlier, getting the good self portraits while on vacation was a concern. That lead us to purchase a compact digital point and shoot camera. [...]