Two Beers and a Pretzel

The Olympus camrea tried hard, but refused to die.  So, the first technological victim of my travels is the Solio solar charger…

The USB connector that charges the external devices broke before I got to my Uncle’s on Dec 22nd, but I haven’t had time to have it looked at.  Today I took the Solio to a repair shop in Buenos Aires, and after opening it he said he could not fix it.  From what I saw, he’s right.  It appears the the USB adapter broke off from the motherboard (including fragments of silicon), and it’s essentially impossible to re-solder it.

Everything else is fine, but the charger is now completely useless to me (after using it only 3 times).  I’m really disappointed that the USB connector was only held to the board by 2 small solder points.  This was the Magnesium version of the charger which is supposed to be lighter and stronger than the normal version.  Clearly not stronger.  In retrospect, the USB plug is an obvious point of stress and wear.  It looks like there are side tabs to solder it to the board, but they were not soldered.  I would have gladly paid a little more for a heavy duty version of the charger than have to go thru this problem.

$100 down the drain, and I obviously cannot recommend this product to anyone who might actually depend on it for power.

Bummer.

is may not be interesting update for most people, but don’t fret, on Thursday my uncle and I are likely going to Gramado (gra-ma-do), a Bavarian (as in German) village in the coastal mountains of Southern Brazil, plus some surrounding areas for hiking, wine tasting, and possibly river rafting.

Originally, my return flight to Buenos Aires was scheduled for the 22nd.  That’s not happening.  I checked the airline, and they said to try the place I booked it.  So, I called Expedia and they said the airline will not modiify the data because I bought a round trip, and the 1st leg was already done ($180 down the drain).  They said I can buy another fare for $250.  Nope… I’ll probably take an overnight bus to Montevideo, Uruguay for $70, see the town, and then catch the $10 ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires.

Today I went to an Arabian restaurant for lunch, then basically watched Obama-palooza today on CNN while playing with my cameras a bit.  So for the camera buffs out there, I did a comparison at sunset in the preset scene modes of both of my cameras…

Olympus 1080SW in “Sunset” mode - auto everything

GOOD = decent color and a fair amount of shadow detail in the city.

BAD = Hard to Focus and a lot of overexposure around the sun (well, it is the sun)

Canon G9 in Landscape Scene mode with ISO set to Auto

GOOD = Focus, color, exposure of the sun, decent shadow detail

BAD = Lens flare (green circles in he clouds to the right of the sun), some vertical banding in the blue sky - I think due to the auto ISO.

Next time I’ll set the ISO to 80 or 100 and experiment with full manual control of the white balance, aperture and shutter speed.  Shooting farther off center should eliminate the lens flare.

Finally, a really nice shot with the Canon a few moments later… again, in landscape mode with auto ISO.

Sunset Verdict…  The Canon G9 wins on pure photo-geek criteria.

The problems visible in the Canon images are correctable with better technique and utilizing the manual controls.  The Olympus works fairly well for sunset snapshots, but for a printable image, it’s hard to compete with Canon’s top of the line Point & Shoot that has many SLR like controls.

Still, even the G9 pales in comparison to what you can do with even a 3 year old Digital SLR…  like say, the picture I used for the website banner (taken July 2007 in King’s Canyon, California with a Canon 20D).

The biggest limitation on the G9 versus an SLR is that you can only stop it down to f/8 where many SLR’s will go down to f/22.  I think that’s more related to the smaller sensor size on the G9 and optical diffraction becoming an issues with small apertures.

Right now, the combination of the G9 and the Olympus is perfect for me.  I can get all the snaps I need with the highly portable / nearly indestructible Olympus regardless of weather, and the underwater capability has proven to be priceless.  The G9 satisfies my desire to take artsy and large print size images.  It’s not as nice as my SLR rig, but has 90% of the functionality, weighs about 15 pounds less and still fits in my pocket (barely).

If I had to take just one camera on this trip, it would be the Olympus.   It’s decent enough at everything to get by, and incredible when you go snorkeling or playing in the pool.  My only complaint is the paint peeling off.

Last night I was invited to go out with multiple groups, but that soccer game drained all the energy from me.  I overheard a few guys talking about cocaine and figured “Aha!  That’s how they have the energy.”  I slept from about midnight until 1:30 pm this afternoon.  I feel much better.

Aside from blogging and recharging my computer, I’ll probably just catch up on some reading.  I bought Henry Kissinger’s book Diplomacy back in Copan, Honduras, and have been reading it on the long bus trips.  It’s pretty good, but I haven’t gotten to the part where he was actually active in government yet.  I’m up to the Suez crisis right now.

After my previous post about my steak experience, my Uncle scolded me that I did not go to a real Argentine Steakhouse.  So tonight I will try the “real” thing with a couple of Brits.

I did go out for a while looking for new, cheap headphones for my iPod.  No luck there, but I found a pretty cool mall that had an entire level dedicated to an art exhibit.  Some of the art was pretty cool.  A big theme was industrialization destroying the environment.

And, for everyone back at my old job, they have a GAP in Buenos Aires - just a perfume kiosk, but it’s there…

Then, on the way home I finally snapped a pic of the “Open 25 Hrs” shops that are on every block.  Essentially a convenience store that doesn’t really have anything convenient unless you want candy or soda pop.

Tomorrow I fly to Brazil to meet up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin for the holidays.

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Camera News.

The Olympus 1030SW is holding up very well, minus the paint chipping off.  It’s a little limiting for the artsy photos I like to take, but it’s nearly indestructible and makes a decent weapon in a pinch.  That, and Ingrid & Erinn helped prove the value of a submersible camera to me at Tabacon!!  Those water-slide videos are priceless.

My Canon G9 made it to my Uncle without the $200 tariff I might have had to pay.  Tomorrow I’ll have a manually controllable camera (exposure, shutter speed, aperture, etc) that can capture RAW files, has optical image stabilization, 35-210mm equivalent zoom range (6x), wider aperture (f/2.8-4.8) but still highly portable.  It actually has auxiliary wide and telephoto lenses that you can add on, but I’ll try to resist temptation…  I will need to get a spare battery and a car charger - possibly a spare memory card, but that’s all minor stuff.

The best news is that my monster 15 pound bag of SLR gear made it home without incident.  It was all fully insured, but I  was still dreading the prospect of explaining the loss of $4000 of camera gear to my insurance agent.  I’m very glad that I did not opt for the latest and greatest of everything before I left (Canon 50D with L quality lenses).  It’s way too easy to get into the consumer mindset back home where you want the ‘best’ of everything.  Yes, the SLR takes much nicer photos, and I loved having it in Europe and California, but it’s a whole different atmosphere here in Central and South America.

Every time I see anyone toting all that camera gear, I think “boy am I glad I sent it all back home”.  Aside from looking like an obvious tourist and target, they also seem detached from the moment they’re living in.  Perhaps I’m just realizing that a snapshot and having fun with new friends is more important to me than spending 50% of my time trying to get the perfect photo.  Don’t get me wrong…  I’m not knocking anyone who really enjoys taking pro-quality photos.  It’s just not practical for me on an around the world trip.

I just need to see another active volcano with the G9 to get ‘that’ picture, then I will not regret any of this camera indecision.

Being an amateur photography buff, a lot of my co-workers and friends end up asking me questions about camera gear. I bought a Canon 20D back in 2005… not because I’m opposed to the Canon Digital Rebel, Nikon or any other brand, but simply because I liked the way the 20D felt and really liked the user controls, and wanted 8 megapixels.

I started with the 18-55mm kit lens (3x zoom) and quickly upgraded to the 17-85mm (5x) image stabilization lens, added the 100mm macro, 50mm, 10-22mm superwide, and 70-300mm tele-zoom with image stabilization. Of all the lenses, I think the 17-85 is the only one I currently want to upgrade, but for an around the world trip, I’ll stick with it.

I thought about upgrading the camera for this trip to either the 10 megapixel Canon 40D, or the new 15 megapixel Canon 50D. I decided against both. I don’t like the button layout of the 40D, but the anti-dust features would be nice. The 50D… well, I shoot RAW whenever possible, and I’d eat up a lot of memory on those large images. Considering the max full frame equivalent focal length of my rig is 480mm (300×1.6) I really don’t need the ability to crop.

My photography related goal for this trip is to get better at framing a shot through the viewfinder. A new camera is always fun, but I’d rather improve my technique and take better pictures than rely on the newest technology.

With that in mind, I did splurge a little bit and bought a used Canon 10D (6 MP) and sent it to LifePixel.com to have it converted to Infra-red. It’ll be specifically for landscapes, but I’ll try some artsy shots, and some astrophotography. I can’t wait to get this thing back in a week!!

The one thing I’ll be leaving behind will be my 15″ MacBook Pro. I really like the Aperture 2.0 application for categorizing and editing photos. Nothing against Adobe Lightroom, but I just preferred the layout of Aperture. Either way, I won’t have it with me on my trip, so I’ll rely on a cheapo Ultra Mobile PC loaded with PhotoShop Elements and some portable USB hard drives. I think I’ll miss the multitouch trackpad the most.

Oh yeah… to keep it all safe, I got the LowePro Flipside 400 AW (all weather). It has a very comfortable waist belt and waterproof cover. You spin the pack around your waist to your chest, then it lays like a table attached to your belly. You open up the side that was formerly against your back, so it’s very secure (at least from pickpockets). it also looks more like a backpack or large daypack than a camera back, so you hopefully don’t look like a typical tourist carrying expensive camera gear.

I just ordered the “Free Pack” deal from Telestial.

It’s a Motorolla v600i with their “Passport Plus SIM card”, and includes about 300 minutes of airtime.

When I get the number, anyone will be able to send me a free text message, and I get in-country call rates pretty close to a local SIM card. The best part is that I have one consistent phone number for people in the states to get ahold of me when necessary. And, it’s a log cheaper than my $50/month + $2/minute from AT&T. It’s a pay-as-you-go global phone.

I looked into Iridium Satellite phones, but $1,000 for the phone + $35/month + $1.50/minute seemed a little steep.

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I also ordered a “Find Me SPOT” from my REI Store link for $149.00.

This should be pretty cool, as it will GEO-Tag my travels and automatically update a Google Map that I’ll put on my website. It also has some decent emergency response functionality of I get into trouble. Not quite as foolproof as a real emergency beacon, but a decent backup plan for casual travel.