New Digital Camera – Canon S95

Posted March 31, 2012 By Kevin and has no comments yet.  Leave a comment.

My almost 4 year old Panasonic DMC-TZ5 has served me very well. It went with me to the John Muir Trail, the West Coast Trail and a few other shorter trips. It is OK for hiking since I don’t have to keep it in my pants pocket, otherwise its size would make it uncomfortable. For city travel, I would need something smaller. The DMC-TZ5 is also a fully automatic camera, and I’m at a point where I would like to dig a little deeper into photography with more manual controls.

After doing a good amount of research, the new Canon S100 was considered by many the best pocketable “semi-manual” camera out there. It had a few new features over it’s older brother, the S95. The ones that interested me the most was the 1080p vs 720p video, and 5x zoom vs 3.8x zoom. My intention was to wait until the S100 went on sale sometime this year, and buy it then. It’s retail price is $430, not cheap at all for a non-DSLR camera.

One of the things that concern me the most about bringing electronics to a long trip is that I have to be mentally prepared for the possibility that everything can get lost or stolen. I once had a backpack with almost $2,000 worth of stuff in it stolen at the Peru/Bolivia border, and while I don’t intend to have it happen again, the chances are not small in a multi-year trip. The more expensive the stuff, the more it hurts when you lose them. So when the Canon S95 went on sale on Amazon for $229 at the end of last year, I thought about it for like 30 minutes, and came to the conclusion that the extra features of the S100 was not worth an extra $200.

I’m very happy with the S95. There is a Aperture Priority Mode (where shutter speed is adjusted for you), a Shutter Priority Mode (where aperture is adjusted for you), and a Manual Mode you can can freely adjust both. I had read in photography books about shutter speed and aperture size, but having not had prior chance to manually control them, I could never really fully understand them. After playing the S95 for about 15 minutes, I totally understood the relationship between the two. I like the ability to save pictures in RAW format, which allows for more post-processing options (something I know nothing about, but want to learn). I also like how simple, clean, and elegant it looks. I added an $8 GGS Glass Screen Protector which fit perfectly.

Canon S95

Canon S95 with GGS Glass Screen Protector

Things I wish were a bit better is the video recording. Even in 720p mode, it doesn’t look very crisp compared to my old Panasonic, which also recorded in 720p. The 3.8x zoom could also be a bit limiting in some situations but I guess I can always crop the picture later.

Here are 2 pictures I took using Aperture Priority Mode. You can see the different in the blurring of the bottle in the background.

Canon S95 - Aperture Priority Mode Set To f2.0

Canon S95 - Aperture Priority Mode Set To f8.0

Categories: Photography, Pre-Trip, Round The World Trip, Travel

The Departure Year Is Finally Here

Posted February 3, 2012 By Kevin and has no comments yet.  Leave a comment.

I usually try to not make a big deal out of new years. It’s nice to see how people around the world get together to celebrate it, but as far as our personal lives are concerned, it doesn’t make a huge different. I mean, you go to sleep on a Saturday in 2011, and wake up on a Sunday in 2012. Except for the festivities, it’s really like any other Saturday -> Sunday transition. Having new year resolutions are nice and all, but if a resolution is important enough and we are serious about pursuing it, we really don’t have to wait until January 1 to get started. It could easily start on December 29 for example. A lot of us also look back at the ending year and see what we have experienced and accomplished. It is always good to get perspective on our lives, but again, why wait until the new year to do it, when it can be done at anytime, and more frequently than once a year?

Having said all that, when the calendar turned to 2012, it made me realize that the trip is right around the corner. I still have a lot of things to do before departure. It feels like moving to a new city, but worse. At least when you are just moving, you can just dump all the junk into boxes and sort later. I’m trying to minimize my possessions so they won’t take up too much space while I’m gone for 3+ years. I also feel that I haven’t researched enough about possible destinations. In the internet age, this can always be done once on the road, but I think the pre-trip research is a very fun process. It gives me the chills sometimes when I discover a new place through a video or a picture, and say to myself “I want to, and will be there”.

My departure date should be around the beginning of November, and the first destination will most certainly be New Zealand. That leaves me 9 more months at home. Aside from the many hours I spend working, the planning for the trip which I’m not doing nearly enough, I also want to enjoy the comforts of home that I know I will miss once on the road. I’m a big sports fan and I will miss following my teams on TV. I will also miss my room, my bed, my computer with dual monitors, my car, etc. All pretty superficial things, but I got used to them. There are also a few places I would like to see around here (like the Grand Canyon) before I leave. Going on a long trip like this is not all 100% positive. I actually enjoy my life back home and I’m not leaving to try to escape from something.

To help better manage my time and tasks, I started making a list of all things I need to do before departure. The list includes tasks like donating old clothes, booking the plane ticket, updating the theme on this blog, etc. There are about 150 items on the list. I put the travel related tasks on this post, and will be updating it regularly. I will hopefully finish these tasks with time to spare, so I can enjoy the last days before departure without stress.

Categories: Pre-Trip, Round The World Trip, Travel