Travel Equipment- Part 2

By Chuck Hajdu

Phablets
Criteria: This was a vital piece of equipment for me because I use a Phablet every day of my life. There were three sizes in competition, phone size, 7" and 10". All of my devices use different versions of Android so that makes the OS a wash.

I was already carrying two phones so that gave them an initial lead. But both use Android 2.3 and have useless keypads. That's strike one and two. Strike three is screen size. You can't enjoy digital pics on their small screens.

That gets us down to medium and large units. I wrestled with this down to the last minute, literally. I switched back and forth between the Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia Tab 10.1 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7. In the end I chose the 7" Samsung because it was it's turn to be number one.

Here's how things worked out: I have happily used the Galaxy Tab every day with no regrets. I probably would have felt the same about the other two also.

Grade: A

Digital SLRs
Criteria: There is no doubt that this was the most important equipment decision that had to be made, period. This was a once in a lifetime trip and I wanted the best possible pictures to remember it with.

I had two families of dSLRs to choose from, Pentax and Olympus.  Both families had comparable sensors and lots of lenses. The Olympus cameras included several of their PEN mirrorless interchangeable lens camera bodies and a slew of lenses which I'll discuss later. The Pentax cameras included both mirror and mirrorless K-mount bodies and another slew of lenses.

Here's how things worked out: Over the summer I used all of the candidates extensively. For a long time there were two strong leaders, the Olympus PEN E-P3 with the 14-42mm zoom lens and the Pentax K-5 with a Sigma 50-200mm zoom. I had eliminated most of the other cameras for one reason or another and thought this combo would work the best. However, the thought of carrying two different systems just didn't appeal to me.

In the end I chose to go with the compact Olympus system and I brought the PEN E-P3 and an E-PL1. Both use the same batteries and charger and the same lenses and external viewfinder. It was an ideal combination.

Grade: A+ The PEN cameras worked perfectly and never let me down, not even once. And they took great pictures every time!