Tony Brunt Photography

For those of you who read my posts (all 2 of you) you might remember my heart wrenching story (!!) of the drowning of my beloved DSLR on the 2nd day of the 5 day Karhurangi tramp I did in March 2011. This tragic event, (believe me, it’s tragic when you have to carry a tripod for three days without a camera to use on it), caused me to have a rethink about the tramping photographic equipment I carried. Quite frankly I was getting a little tired of carrying multi kilograms of gear and subconsciously I was looking for a way to carry less. A month or so ago I took the plunge and bought myself a small underwater camera as my point and shoot, carry everywhere camera. It’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC TX-3 (FT3 in NZ); you know one of those waterproof, shockproof, drop-proof and idiot proof little numbers.

I am surprised (and a little bit worried considering I own two high end DSLR’s) by how much I am enjoying using it. Sure, it’s not anywhere near DSLR quality, however, considering that most of my pictures are shown on my website and nowhere else, I feel the quality is more than adequate for most of my needs. Click here to see some recent examples! It’s not perfect by a long shot: without an optical viewfinder, composing by the LCD panel is a pain in bright light, there is noticeable shutter lag (especially obvious if you are used to the non existent lag of a DSLR) when taking action shots, it doesn’t take raw files and it uses a very small sensor. These shortfalls are offset though by it being light, robust, waterproof and small enough to easily fit into a pocket, making it a ‘take everywhere’ sort of camera, which is a real bonus when you live in earthquake land, where it pays to have a camera with you at all times, just in case there is a big shake and a building or cliff collapses right in front of you!)

I thought long and hard about what photography gear I would take on my recent Rees Dart tramp (by my standards that’s about 2 minutes): The Canon 5D Mk II with two lenses, 17 – 40 and 100 – 400 or the little point and shoot. In the end I decided that I was unlikely to get many sell-able shots, so settled on the Panasonic. I have tramped with an SLR for nigh on 30 years, so I did fell like I was leaving my best friend behind, but to be honest, once the tramp started I really didn’t miss the big SLR at all. It was great having a light pack, and a camera that was always in my pocket, even when I put the pack down.

So here’s what I learned about getting something decent out of the Panasonic (and this goes with all point and shoots):

• Read the manual, and practise using the different settings on the camera
• Carry a tiny tripod for taking bracketed shots (you can use these for HDR’s later) and shots in the bush.
• In low light, lock the ISO setting to 100 and use the tripod, e.g to get that silky looking water when photographing waterfalls in the bush.
• Use the 2 second self timer function when using the tripod
• Don’t be afraid to use the exposure compensation settings to under or over expose your shots depending on the conditions.
• Alternatively lock the exposure by pointing at the part of the subject you want correctly exposed, holding the shutter release halfway down, then composing the shot.
• Avoid using higher iso’s than 400 if at all possible. This is where you will really notice the difference between a DSLR and a Point and shoot – low light shots. The DSLR looks good up to at least 1600, however the Panasonic (and all small sensor cameras) struggles at anything over 400.
• Experiment with the Scene modes: I found the HDR mode actually worked pretty well, although it does use the iso at 400.
• Use the flash when taking portraits: hint, on a bright day, where no shade is available, shoot into the sun, (subjects back to the sun) but use the flash. This will avoid shadows on your subjects face.
• Carry spare batteries. One battery charge gets around 150 – 200 shots. Not enough for a 5 day tramp. I would recommend a couple of spares. I bought a non Panasonic battery as my spare because the genuine Panasonic batteries are ludicrously expensive in NZ ($105 retail – in the US the same battery is around $37 NZ) For longer battery life, turn off the GPS.
• Learn how to do a bit of post processing in Googles Picasa, Photoshop elements or Lightroom