Hi all. New to the forum, and new to ultralight backpacking.
I had an idea while I was trying to cut weight for an upcoming trip. My trail guide weighs over 400g (14 ounces), so instead of taking it I photographed each page with my phone and got double-sided photocopies of the maps. It cut the weight down to around 35g of paper (1.3 ounces or so). Since I'll be taking my phone anyway, I photographed other books I might want to refer to as well, like edible plant foods in the region I'm travelling to. I just make a folder with the book title and save all the photos from that book into it.
Even if the print is small my picture gallery gives the option of magnifying them and I can read everything so far photographed with perfect clarity. You have to make sure your focus is good and the page is flat and there is no shine from light sources, but otherwise it works well. Probably people have thought of this before, but I thought I'd share it anyway.
Don't think I'd want to do it this way with a novel or anything I intended to read for a while. Only with things I might need to refer to here and there. I'm going to look into whether there is a downloadable phone kindle app for taking a novel – if I'm taking a phone anyway I may as well pack it full of weightless information.
There's always the issue of battery life though, which is why I photocopied the maps. But you can keep your phone turned off until you need it, use flight mode or battery saver mode, take a spare battery or two…
Anyways, thanks for reading.
