Re: Need advice on P&S camera

"John T Haller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Hello all:
>
> I'm a pretty avid amateur photographer.  I'm also an officer in the PA
Army
> National Guard and I'm going to Iraq in January.  I'm looking for a point
> and shoot 35mm camera to document my experience.
>
> requirements:
>
> small and light and can fit in an average pocket.
> ABOVE ALL it must be rugged and able to withstand abuse and sand, etc
> good photo quality
> take AAA or AA batteries?  that would be nice
> it would be nice to have aperature priority
>
> I don't need zoom since it's more to break.
>
> I was thinking of Ricoh GR1 or the Yashica camera.
>
> Please email me direct as well as post if you don't mind.
>
> Thanks!! John Haller
>

I'm familiar with the GR1, and with Iraq.  My GR1v is an excellent camera,
the lens is as good as any 28mm for a 35mm camera, P&S or otherwise,
metering good, plenty of manual control, and it is very solidly built.  It
doesn't, however, take AA batteries so you'll need to take a supply of
lithiums along with you.

The only thing that bothers me a little is dust - Iraq is more dusty than
sandy.  The lens retracts into the body, and extends to shoot, and this
would seem to me a place where dust  _might_  get in and cause problems.
That said, I think there is going to be some area on any camera that has
vulnerabilities to dust, unless you get a waterproof one.

My suggestion would be to keep it in a ziplock bag, and take a blower brush
with you.  Then don't take it out of the bag if there is too much blown dust
in the air.  With the GR1 one thing you could do if you wanted to shoot when
it was a little dusty would be to push the button to turn the camera on
while it was still in the bag, take it out, take the picture, blow the dust
off, put it back in the bag and then retract the lens again.  That way you'd
minimise any dust getting dragged 'inside'.

If you had the room, a cheapie waterproof camera might be a nice extra, as
you could use that if you ever wanted to take pictures in conditions that
you didn't want to get the good one out in.  In much of Iraq, most pictures
from any open moving vehicle could fall into that category.

I hope you have a safe and also an enyoyable time.  Iraq is a fascinating
country, and the  _vast_  majority of the people are great.



Peter


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