Travel Equipment- Part 3

By Chuck Hajdu

Interchangeable lenses
Criteria: As I said in the section on dSLR bodies, this was a trip where I didn't want to compromise on picture quality. For "normal" use I chose to go with a wide-short telephoto rather than multiple lenses. Newer zoom lenses are just as good as single focal length lenses and much more convenient.

Since I had decided to use the Olympus PEN E-P3 as my primary body, I tested the four different 14-42mm lenses that were available to me. All four were different in that they had different internal construction and/or different materials used to build them. The silver version that we had proved to be slightly better than the other three and that's what I chose to use.

Telephoto lenses took a different path. I actually made the decision to take a Sigma 50-200mm zoom lens in Pentax K-mount as the telephoto fairly early on. It's a great lens and fairly compact for it's zoom range. The one big problem was that I would have to carry two different makes of camera bodies. Then I discovered a great lens adapter on Amazon.com that would give me full focus, zoom and aperture control of the lens on an Olympus PEN body!! I bought one immediately and it worked without any problems.

Here's how things worked out: Both lenses worked perfectly. I carried the 14-42mm lens on the E-P3 all the time and kept the 50-200mm on the E-PL1 handy in the camera bag for when it was needed. I was able to take every shot I wanted problem free.

Grade: A

Tough camera
Criteria: This started out as a slam dunk, I knew what tough camera I'd be bringing. From the beginning I knew what water-proof, dust-proof, crush-proof camera I would bring for bad weather or hazardous situations: a Pentax W-90. I'd used it a lot and it was great.

But this summer I found out it wasn't Alex-proof. It may have been able to stand up to rain, snow, sleet and hail. It may have been drop proof and dust proof. But it couldn't stand up to a six year old boy! Alex managed to kill it one afternoon in Chattanooga.

That left me back at square one. I evaluated various tough cameras and decided that the toughest one seemed to be the Olympus Tough TG-820. It had all of the features I needed including a retractable lens cover.

Here's how things worked out: The TG-820 turned out to be an outstanding choice. Performance was excellent and it had the easiest to use controls of any camera of it's type that I've ever used. I couldn't ask for any improvements.

Grade: A+