(no subject)

[ewx]

PowerShot S40 with its clothes off. I couldn't find anything to tighten or re-seat, and the unreliable connection to the LCD leaves it barely usable. (I don't seem to have made it worse though.)

The failure isn't particularly surprising, since the camera lives in my bike panniers, and so spends half an hour or so being vigorously bumped around each day.

My options for a goes-everywhere camera seem to be...

• Put up with the current broken one.
• Find another cheap second-hand camera (or the cheapest new compact on the market) and bounce it around in my bike panniers for six months and then go through the whole process again.
• Bounce my 350D (and an expensive lens or two) around in bike panniers for six months until I have to replace that.
• Get a ruggedized camera such as the Olympus μ850SW. £140-180 depending where you get it, but closely associated with a rather odious bit of vendor lock-in. I don't care about the availability of the on-camera feature much, and if I did there are web pages which describe how to hack the cards, but I don't much like the principle.
• Other advertized-as-droppable options would be the Ricoh 500G or G600. In excess of £300.

Any other possibilities I've missed? None of them feel particularly attractive...

Comments

[pizza.maircrosoft.com (from livejournal.com)]

I bounce my camera around in my purse. Possibly your requirements for a camera are rather larger than mine though.

Is there not some way to make your camera's ride less bouncy? Wrap it in a tshirt?

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

The C1050 lives pretty happily on my belt without getting in the way or bothering me too much. Doesn't bounce around that much either.

[reddragdiva]

An older Canon PowerShot or Ixus of similar vintage is similarly robust (the steel-shelled models) and can put up with remarkable amounts of abuse.

Fujifilms are notoriously able to put up with having the crap beaten out of them as well, anecdotally.

[tienelle.livejournal.com]

I've found a belt pouch doesn't damage the camera too much, unless you do something stupid like storing the batteries pressed against the screen then falling over dramatically. Not that I'd ever do that.

[emperor]

Get a smaller, lighter compact, and attach it to yourself / the top of your pannier so it doesn't get so much abuse?

[aldabra]

My Powershot A85 lasted two years of handbag/backpack/pocket. I think the problem may be the panniers.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

What do you want from a goes-everywhere camera? Is an iPhone inadequate?

Get trousers with bigger pockets and carry the camera in the pocket - that's what I do on holiday, though it does mean I look even less elegantly tailored than the average backpacker.

Repeatedly eBaying minimally-acceptable cameras might well be the best solution in the medium run if you really want to keep the camera in bike panniers.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

The S40 has something approaching DSLR levels of semi-auto/manual exposure control (albeit with a less convenient interface) which is pretty attractive since full auto modes are rather less than 100% reliable. While the point is recording interesting things I saw rather than producing beautiful images, I'd like them not to be completely grotty!

The shock-resistant cameras listed above do really badly on this point actually, a couple of stops of EC is the only flexibility they offer; their only benefit is their robustness.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Get a decent camera bag (e.g. crumpler) to absorb some of the bumping? Though I agree with Aldabra too, I've had one last ages in my rucksack.