Made out of people

Digital Cameras and Safaris

Just thinking out loud about future travel...

so i've been thinking about cameras, and looking at my trip itinerary.

1) I will be camping and staying in "local" (read: primitive) housing for three weeks straight in Tanzania. I don't expect to run into camera recharge stations very often.

2) My camera runs something like 100 shots ( = 1 days' shooting ) on a battery, and something like 250 shots on a memory card, give or take.

3) Few digital cameras run on AA batteries, which means that if the batteries run out, I'm just plain SOL.

But going to a 35 point'n'click means losing a lot of the stuff tha I've grown to like: (some) exposure control and focus control. Going to any 35 mm means that I lose that little preview window.

So I'm contemplating the merits of ...

A) Buying a pile of batteries as long as my arm, and keeping track of which are and aren't charged. (I'll probably do something like that anyway; I just found a bunch for $10 each).

or

B) Buying a 35 mm SLR & a decent zoom lense, and then going completely nuts in the next week (huntington gardens, anyone?) with print photography practice to see if I can get enough skills going to feel fairly confident.

(The same goes for film: do I buy a bunch more CF cards, or a digital
wallet?)

Your thoughts?

(It should be noted that higher-end cameras often take AA batteries as an in-a-pinch substitute, and that this tool actually solar-charges batteries!)