Bicycle Touring 101: Selecting a camera for a bicycle touring adventure

A favourite river view from the last day of my Round Lake Huron tour.
Click to enlarge.

I began the search for a more permanent camera that would be used for bicycle touring and other similar activities (like riding through the woods or icebiking in the winter) once I realized how often I was looking back at my Round Lake Erie tour pictures.

Important because I wanted something that I could easily carry with me on a regular basis. I felt that the larger cameras that required bulkier carrying cases would be more likely to not be with me when I found the picture I wanted to take.

Of course from a touring perspective a smaller camera is significantly easier to pack and smaller size often translates to lighter weight as well.

This one comes down to feeling comfortable taking the camera with me on the bike as well as with me when I persue some of my other leisure-time activities like landkiting and dirt surfing.

To me one of the best things about going digital is that you can take lots of pictures and then just choose the ones that you like later without incurring a huge photo processing cost.

Tawas Point Lighthouse in Michigan.
Click to enlarge.

The last thing I wanted was to be on tour and have no way to take additional pictures because the memory in the camera was full. For me the solution was to have a camera with swappable memory so that I could just insert another memory chip when one gets filled up.

I knew from my Round Lake Erie trip that at least a couple times each week I would ride through heavy rainfall. I wanted a camera that could handle some water so that I wouldn't be worried about the camera during a downpour.

Power is another problem that needs to be considered in the touring context. There are some touring areas where it will be inconvenient to have to stop to recharge camera batteries.

I believed that a better solution was to use a camera that allowed normal AA or AAA batteries as well as rechargeables.

Once the pictures made it to the camera I wanted a simple way to put them on my computer so that I could edit them or copy them to a recordable compact disk.

Peaceful and calm water developing to a raging torrent.
Click to enlarge.

On tour I would rarely see animals up close long enough to take out my camera and snap a picture. I wanted a camera with some sort of mechanical zoom so that I could attempt to bring them closer.

Many cameras also feature a digital zoom. This was not of interest to me since most photo editing software can apparently do a better job of digitally zooming the picture anyway.

Seldom am I visible in my tour pictures. The only time I am visible during my Lake Erie trip happened when someone else was kind enough to take the picture for me.

I believed that a tripod setup of some kind would allow me to be in more of the pictures.

Ocassionally I like to attempt to take low-light shots. For these to be successful it is important to have a very steady hand OR to use a tripod to get rid of the shakes.

The camera that worked for me is the Pentax Optio 33WR. This camera is water resistant, takes standard and rechargeable AA batteries, and uses a standard USB connection to transfer photos to the computer.

Additionally it uses external SD memory, is smaller then a CD, contains a 3X mechanical zoom , has an attachment for a tripod and comes with some photo editing software.

All of my Round Lake Huron tour pictures were taken using this camera so you can judge the picture quality by looking over the pictures from that tour yourself.

Trying out a kayak during a bicycle touring adventure around Lake Huron.
Click to enlarge.

I've taken more then 8500 pictures since purchasing it just under a year ago! I wouldn't have been able to do this or learned as much about photography using a film camera without incurring a much greater expense.

As time has passed I have also discovered that I like doing the processing of my own pictures rather then have someone else do it. While the original ACD software is quite good there were extra features in Jasc PaintShop Pro that moved me towards a software purchase.

Surprisingly the water resistant feature has paid off in unanticipated ways. While going around Lake Huron I discovered a kayak rental operation in Sauble Falls. Since the camera has water resistant properties I didn't hesitate to take the camera with me on the kayaking side trip. I captured a number of interesting pictures due to the flexibility.

I also like to ride my bike along technical single track trails that wind through the woods near my home. These paths tend to closely hug the river. On one occassion I took an unanticipated swim with the camera and the bike. Everything came out wet but fine!

One of the best features of the camera is it's small size. This translates into me having the camera with me and being able to capture unexpected photos without problem. If I had to lug a huge camera around with me I would likely not have the pictures!

On tour I average around 30 pictures a day while on the road. I now have four 256 MB SD cards for my current camera giving me the ability to take hundreds of pictures at full resolution. I like having multiple chips since it gives me some protection against the number of pictures I would lose should a chip go missing or bad.

I rarely use the flash feature. I take over 99 percent of my pictures using whatever natural light is available. This extends the battery life and seems to work fine in most cases.

Another beautiful picture from my Round Lake Huron tour.
Click to enlarge.

I also haven't used the tripod feature as much as I would like. Apparently I am still somewhat camera shy while on tour since I only have three or four pictures with me in them during my Round Lake Huron trip and most of those were taken by others holding my camera. I do have a device called an ClamperPodII that makes almost anything into a tripod.

I discovered a few unexpected side effects of taking a camera along with me too.

It was nice to be able to show a couple of pictures to other people at camp sometimes when trying to describe the things you had seen or accomplished. This was especially true for those people who had no comprehension of what touring was all about.

Occassionally it was nice to look over the daily pictures especially after a day filled with headwinds. It gave a different perspective to the day through enjoyment of the pictures.

For me every tour from now on will contain a camera. The photos are a joy to look over again and again.

I like everything about my current camera. If I could have more without loses any features I would go for the following extras:

Left image shows the front view of the Pentax Optio 33WR as well as it's relative size when compared to a standard compact disk.
Middle image shows the battery compartment, batteries and memory chip.
Right image shows the rear of the camera encased within a protective neoprene cover. The cover acts as another layer of shock protection.
Click to enlarge.

This is something I only want for night pictures when I am trying to capture the look of the moon or stars in the sky. My camera has many ways to customize the view including some easy to use wizards but it doesn't allow for direct control of how long the shutter should stay open.

The camera I have now takes great pictures at 3.2 megapixels. This allows me to capture photos sized 2048 X 1536. For all of my current needs this is more then enough!

Although I haven't done this, I often think about blowing up some of my favourite pictures into posters. In this case having more megapixels would be an advantage.

Oh yes, it's time to give the necessary warnings. For me a camera has gone from being the least important accessory on a tour to one of the most important. When I worry about theft the camera is high on the list of things I am concerned about.

The funny thing is that as much as I like the camera it's not the camera that I am worried about losing since it's replaceable.

I worry far more about losing the actual pictures since to me they represent tour memories and our priceless at that point!

The Clamperpod tripod with the optional ball head.
Click to enlarge.

I filled my memory cards twice during my Round Lake Huron tour. This has prompted me to put an item on the purchase list to obtain a couple more memory chips before my next long tour. Even so I will likely fill the cards on that tour too!

What I did during my Round Lake Huron tour was try to find a camera shop as I was starting on my last memory chip. At the camera shop I had the pictures copied to cd twice (meaning two cd's). After testing the cd's using the shop computer or picture kiosk I sent one cd back home via postal mail and carried the other cd with me on the bike.

The cost of doing this worked out to be quite inexpensive but you have to be careful! The camera shop I used charged me $17.00 CDN total while a Walmart wanted to charge me around $70 per cd.

Apparently some Internet Cafe's have the capability to transfer pictures too so they are also worth considering.

An alternative trick that some people use is to take several memory cards with them and as they fill up mails them individually back to a supporter back home who transfers the pictures off the card. Once the images are transferred then the card is mailed back to the tourists at a post office ahead of their current location.

By the way, all of the scenery pictures shown on this page were taken using my Pentax Option 33WR. The camera pictures were actually taken with someone else's camera.

I actually edit my pictures when the tour is finished. So what I do is take the picture and then copy it in it's unaltered form from the camera to the cd when I reach a camera store and the cards are almost full. I actually have a small 16MB card that came with the camera. It can only hold 7 full size pictures but if I reduce the camera resolution to the lowest setting I can capture at least 30 pictures as an emergency, need to find a camera place now, idea.

a) Conserves battery power since I do all my editing using computer software (currently Jasc PaintShop Pro 8). The camera battery power is used strictly for taking pictures.

b) Computer photo editing software can usually do many more things then can be done natively on most cameras (see my article called "The Tour is over. Should I edit my photos").

c) Photo editing can take some time depending on the number of days of pictures you have to go through. In my case it took me about a week of effort to photo edit my Lake Huron pictures. It's nice for that time to be relatively free and unencumbered with no huge sleep requirement like you have on tour.

How much storage space do you have and do the memory cards use up power to preserve the pictures?

I currently own four 256 MB SD memory cards. Each card can hold over 150 pictures at my camera's highest resolution setting (2048 X 1536 or 3.2 Megapixels). If I drop to my lowest resolution then I can hold more then 1000 pictures per memory card.

The resolution makes the biggest difference if you plan to print them later or do a lot of cropping of the pictures effectively performing a zoom operation on parts of the picture.

I took four sets of rechargeable batteries with me on tour. After 21 days on the road and 30 pictures per day I was on my last set of batteries when I returned home. I could have easily used normal, store-bought batteries instead.

There are several tricks that you can perform to keep your battery consumption down.

a) Set the auto-focus etc to off and do the focusing manually. This is usually easy since it comes down to "Are you within four feet of the subject or more then four feet away?".

b) Turn the flash off and only use it when absolutely necessary. On those occassions when it is needed turn it on manually.

c) Turn off your LCD display. Although my camera supports this ability I did not do this. The LCD is apparently one of the largest users of energy in the camera.

I carried enough batteries with me that I didn't need to recharge so I didn't bother bringing a charger. However there are a few strategies that I've heard others use.

a) Bring a charger with you into a restaurant and ask to plug in the charger while you eat. This may extend the battery life somewhat.

b) Choose a camera that can use normal batteries. This gives you lots of options for replenishment.

c) Consider recharging your batteries using a solar cell on the back rack of one of the bikes. Check out the battery charger section on this website in the Other chargers section for a few examples ( http://www.steves-digicams.com/digi_accessories.html )

I am thinking about purchasing a camera. Any thoughts about <insert camera name here> camera?

My recommendation for you is to buy most of your memory cards just before you go on your tour. The reason for this is that memory card prices seem to be dropping quickly right now. Back in January I purchased my first 256 MB card for about $125 cdn. By July the same card was $89.99 and I was able to pick up three more at that price. Additionally there was another brand available for $69.99 as well). Recently I saw my memory cards available in the $49.99 to 69.99 range. Even cheaper options were available.

I guess my point is that the cards seem to be dropping in price at the 256 MB size. I recommend having several cards to protect against loss of all of your pictures through damage, product defect or theft.

Is there any way to copy the images from my camera to a cd without needing a camera shop, internet cafe or carry a notebook?

Another option for you might be to bring a cd-burner with you on the trip so that you can burn your pictures to cd whenever you want. Here's a link to at least one page that discusses these. I haven't used one myself yet although I am seriously considering it!

Unfortunately I am having trouble finding them with my search techniques today. Here's an example but I know there are more.

"Copy to a CD - Apacer make the Disc Steno CP100 and CP200, where the 200 will span a card that's bigger than a single CD over multiple CDs. I have the 200 and it's great. Very reliable, burns about 4 CDs off the rechargeable battery (including verifying the CDs). There are a couple of other brands, and soon there will be DVD burning models (which are really only needed by compact flash users).