UL cameras?

Any of the major brand compact digital cameras will make fine photos. Most of them are very small and light, too, which is great.

Your requirement for using AA batteries will limit your choices somewhat. If you do go this route, I would use AA Lithium cells for significantly more power and better cold weather performance.

However, cameras with rechargeable batteries tend to be smaller and lighter. The small lithium ion rechargeable batteries in modern cameras are great — 300 or more shots per charge. I usually carry a second battery, and can shoot for more than a week on the trail. Even the chargers are fairly light — on longer trips I just carry the charger in my pack, no big deal at all.

If I had to choose one camera to recommend, it would be the Panasonic TS2 waterproof compact. It's waterproof to 10 meters, dustproof, etc., making it really useful for hiking and paddling sports. It uses a rechargeable battery, bit spare batteries are not too expensive.

The Panasonic TS2 is 6.7 oz with batteries, which doesn't seem particularly light to me.

On my most recent trip, I experimented with a 0.7-oz Pinecom 808. It wasn't a success, because apparently the buttons got depressed while it was in my pack, and it drained its battery on the first day.

As far as I can tell, there are several different size/weight classes:
-DSLR
-point and shoot digital
-mini-cameras that are internally based on cell-phone cameras
The problem with the third category is that they're basically sold as toys or novelties.

I like the waterproofness/dust-proofness, but I agree 6.7 oz isn't exactly nano light

my Olympus FE360 (w/ battery) is 4.1 oz (albeit not waterproof)

Waterproofness or weather resistance are less important that you might think. A ziploc bag – or a dedicated camera bag will do the job. Usually, I just leave my camera in its shoulder strap case with no other protection until the rain gets heavy – and sometimes not even then. It's still going strong after an AT thruhike and 3 years of intermittent backpacking, hiking and trail work.

I think waterproofness matters it you want to be able to take pictures in the rain, or you want to feel secure when rafting.

Though the dustproofness and toughness is just as important imo.

Olympus has some similar tough cameas too.

I got a spare battery for my small Canon (SD780 IS) on eBay for something ridiculous like $4 shipped. Using the two batteries I can take 500-600 pictures. I think this is a much better route than paying for disposable AA's regularly and carrying that extra weight.

Thanks for the replies.

Firstly, 6.7oz is quite light when you consider the camera I steal from my parents' house when I go out on the trail weighs about a pound or more. Secondly, maybe rechargables have gotten more reliable now, but if I thru-hike the Long Trail next summer (as is my goal) I want to be able to take pictures for all 272 miles. My parents' camera usually conks out after the first 2-3 days of light use.

However, I'll check in to the camera mentioned above (the 6.7oz one) and maybe it will fill my needs.

I have a little canon that lasts a lot longer than that. One thing u can do to help is to turn of the LCD. That thing drains a ton of life.

Check out some of the newer Panasonic Lumix waterproof models.

Here is a suggestion…
Go to this page :
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp
enter your desired features, and see what you get.
I entered only one selection "weight less than 5.3oz" and got 8 pages of cameras to choose from.
As they are in chronological order you can disregard the models released before 2009 , in this case from page 5 onward.
Unfortunately you cannot enter a price point (cameras change in price about 3 times during their life span, and that is less than 1 year..)
To get the aprox life of a battery, just Google the camera you are interested in and Cipa battery ( IE "Canon SD14000 CIPA battery")
DO NOT BUY any camera that has a built- in (non interchangeable) battery….
Franco

Thanks, Franco, that was a very helpful link!

The Casio Exilim EX-Z80 is pretty light, and seems to get decent reviews. I'm getting contradictory information about its exact weight (3.5 oz? 4 oz?), and about whether that weight includes media and battery. I'm going to put in a lowball bid on one on ebay and see if I can pick it up cheap.

This is the full manual of that camera
http://support.casio.com/pdf/001/EXZ80_e.pdf
as you can see the CIPA rating for the batt is 210 shots (and that sounds about right with a 720mAh rated battery)
Casio gives the weight at 100g without the battery and card. Should be a bit over 4 oz complete.
BTW, DPReview has the weight at 100g/ 4 oz. (100g is 3.53oz)
4 oz is 113g . The batt should be around 15 g….
Franco

Looks like I'm going to have to resign myself to spending more than I wanted if I want light, durable and good quality pictures in the same package. I might go with the Exilim, mostly because I love my Exilim phone. I took some pictures with it on a dayhike recently. For a 5.1MP camera phone it did pretty well. I chalk at least part of that up to the optical vs digital zoom, though.

Hi Stephen,

On battery life, check your potential camera's CIPA standard (# of shots per battery). More than 300 is good, more than 400 is desirable, and I'd avoid anything below 300. You can get a rough gauge about how many spares you'll need based on this and the number of shots you take on a typical day.

Some cameras have a bad habit of draining batteries even while they're shut off. In the unhappy event of acquiring such a camera, the only defense is storing the camera with the battery out. For backpacking that would mean taking the battery out overnight. Luckily, this seems to be pretty rare, but following various camera forums it's more common than it should be.

Happy shopping,

Rick

5.1 oz w/out battery
5.7 oz w/ battery

This caught my eye earlier this year, and intrigued me. I like the features.

-12.1 MP

– H2O proof to 20 feet

– special LED flash for Macro shots. REALLY cool for close up nature shots

– Dust, shock proof

– Some of the built-in special effects seem cool. I wouldn't use all of them, but it's impressive nonetheless: Soft, Black & White, Sepia, Fisheye, Retro, Color Extract, Toy camera, Starburst, High contrast, Ink Rubbing

– More impressive were the shooting programs: Landscape, portrait mode, text, surf & snow, pet, food, fireworks, panorama assist, flower, night scene, underwater, sports mode, candle, night scene with portrait, anti shake, frame composition, kids, report, digital wide, digital microscope, underwater movie

– Shoots video, but not HD. Just typical AVI, Mjpeg.

I've been doing photography for a little while now, and been fortunate enough to travel a bit for it. Currently doing studio photography to pay the bills.

I'd be willing to shave a few ounces off in another area for this camera. It's sort of like the Jeep of little digitals. :) And the little perks it has are pretty fun. That Macro LAD flash, though…wow. Too cool.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1002/10022411pentaxoptiow90.asp

It DOES have HD…1280×720…not bad.

Also, image stabilization, and a remote wireless system you can add. I think if you're trying to get that really cool shot of you standing somewhere and you aren't hiking w/anyone, that would be cool.

Also regarding the video: edting options….

High-quality, HD-proportioned movie recording
movie clips at 16:9 high-definition TV proportions (1280 x 720 pixels)*3 at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. This mode also offers a variety of editing functions: Still images can be extracted from movie clips; title images can be added to the beginning and/or end of a movie clip; and more. The Optio W90 also provides an HDMI micro terminal for audio/video signal output.

Just bought the Nikon Coolpix L22 recently and have only used it on one trip but am very happy with it so far. I agree about the convenience of regular batteries but definitely go with the lithiums. Not only do they last longer, they are also lighter. 14 grams compared to about 23 on my scale. The camera weighs about 6 oz. with the AA batteries included. Cameras that use regular batteries in my experience are a bit heavier because the case is thicker to accomodate the larger battery. 12.1 MP and a 3.6 zoom. Not a great zoom but will still be a definite upgrade from your cell phone camera. Sells for about $100.

I bought one a couple months ago and I like it. I typically hike with it in my shirt pocket, always ready to go.

The camera isn't terrible on battery life, but you should have backups for a week-long trip. I bought a couple spare batteries on Ebay. They are small and light.

FYI, I don't trust any of the waterproof point and shoot cameras for full underwater use, but they sure cover rain, perspiration and dust issues.

If you do buy one, the IR remote from one of the WR90 35mm point and shoot cameras works great. I've bought a couple cameras with remotes for $3-$4 in thrift stores. You can trigger the shutter and zoom the lens too. It needs to be in front of the camera.

Where did you take those pictures? :)

The waterproof Olympus cameras work fine while submerged in streams. I've hiked with a few people who liked shooting underwater images with them that way. I can't say one way or another for other brands' waterproof cameras, and they weren't under a LOT of water, but the shooter's hand was entirely submerged.

The mountain peak is above the ghost town of Monte Christo, off the Mountain Loop Highway in the northish Cascades. Nice day hike. The second shot is near Lake Annette off I-90, about 50 miles from Seattle. It was the 4th of July and cold and wet. The light in the old growth was silvery and cool.

I read through dozens of user reviews on waterproof point and shoot cameras and nearly every one came up with user complaints on leaking. All of these cameras have soft rubber seals on the memory and battery port doors and IMHO, rather weak latches. I have used *real* underwater cameras and there is a world of difference.

I wanted something small, light, very portable and rainproof. I've lugged around everything from 16mm motion picture cameras to 8×10 view cameras, and I wanted something for snapshots, not fine art or commercial quality. This is one I don't have to worry of fuss over– rain, sweat, splashes, dust and bumps are taken in stride. There is no reluctance to dig the camera out of the pack and a protective container in poor conditions– just reach in my pocket and start taking photos.

Stephen, I've had photos published that I took with a $60 digital point and shoot. Even the cheapo cameras seem to have 8+ megapixels these days. The settings and features on more expensive cameras are nice, but you can do just fine with something pretty pedestrian.

I used to shy away from proprietary rechargable batts, but am now a convert. The ones for my newer camera are light, fairly cheap (so easy to have a spare), and last impressively long (especially in the cold). It's also nice to not be chucking batteries in the garbage all the time.

Saturday morning I was on top of the 12,200 foot Mt Adams peak here in Washington State. A climber came up to me with a SD memory card wanting to use my Panasonic Lumix camera. BRILLIANT! His camera for that trip was only the weight of the memory chip. I took my chip out and he put his in. He took his pictures and gave me my camera back. UL CAMERA!….BRILLIANT!

I own the Panasonic Lumix ZS7 and love it. Sure it's 7.5 ounces, but it takes awesome pics, 12 MP, 12X zoom (25 – 300 MM)and HD video.

It's the SanDisk LeachPro 1200.

Awesome camera for the weight, and you never have to replace the batteries, other people do. Brilliant!

At least in China he would have offered you a couple of smokes for the lend of card. Something Hi Class like Lesser Panda. And you would have palmed his card into you pocket and given him a broken SD card that matched his.