Wednesday, July 09, 2014

The Replacement

Olympus TOUGH TG-3
I finally killed my Fuji point and shoot back in April at the Renegade Gents Race. I lost the battery in a freakish drop on pavement somehow, and while I could have tracked down another one, I just decided that it was time to move on. That drop was a sign, I think, that I had finally milked that old, dented, scratched, and beaten camera for all it was worth.

I got some good recommendations for cameras that fit my needs and parameters from my friend, Wally, who does photography now for a living, and one of them really stuck out as fitting my needs more than the others.

My criteria for a replacement camera were as follows:

  • Must be pocketable and retrievable easily while riding a bicycle. No funky lens protrusions and obviously, it had to be smaller than an interchangeable lens camera, so all of those were out. 
  • I wanted it to have durability. I ride gravel, I sweat, I ride off road, I ride in snow. The old Fuji, while not designed to be weather-proof, was pretty adaptable to my needs. The new camera had to be this as well. 
  • Controls that could be operated with a gloved hand, and definitely operated with one hand. 
  • Features: I don't care about movies, I don't care about a lot of gee-gaws, so I didn't really look at the HD movie this, or the WiFi that. Really- I could care less about those things. I just want a camera that takes a good image while I ride. 
Riding and shooting images. Ya know- that's something I've missed lately. I have an iPhone 5, but the camera experience sucks. Sorry to those of you that think an iPhone, or any camera-phone, is all you need because none of them really are that great. None.

I have a Panasonic LX-3, which is a fun little camera, but it is a clunky shape, and it cannot really function as an "on the bike" camera. Heck, if I dropped that thing, I bet it would die the death the first time. And grit and weather? No way. I've packed it along on rides, but it is definitely a "stop and shoot" camera, not a "ride and shoot" camera.

So I ordered a red Olympus TOUGH TG-3 and soon it will be on the way, (once they come into stock), and I'll be happily popping the shutter button from the bike again. While it is "overly-featured" for my needs, it has salient features that I do need in a camera- namely the "tough" ones! Plus it has some stuff available that I may grow into. So, hopefully soon I'll be shooting and sharing more stuff here using this new tool.

4 comments:

coastkid said...

That looks the ideal camera for the blogging cyclist!,
Liking the time lapse mode, along with the filming i could make good use of a waterproof tough camera for cycling,also one that is not interested in the whole wi fi thing, same goes with camer phones for poor quality,
Post up a few reviews of the TG-3 please Ted once you put it through it`s paces,

cheers
Bruce

Tyler Loewens said...

Good choice! I have an Olympus Tough camera that has served me well, except the image quality is now less the my phone (Samsung S5) HA.

Guitar Ted said...

@coastkid: I have been eying that time lapse feature myself. I may be convinced to do a short film or two with this camera. I will definitely be writing up a review, so look for that in the future.

Unknown said...

GT - the only knock on the TG-3 by reviewers is thats the video is not that great, which I knew when i recommended it to you. The sensor is small by standards I prefer but i'm doing different things and when I'm on my bike, I use a similar sized sensor. If you want compact, you gotta give up something somewhere.
Oly does a damn fine job on out of camera JPG's. I've blown a few sample pics up to large size on my 27" iMac and they look darn fine to me. I think you will love this thing! I may get one for my canoe and fishing trips. Seems to be the ticket for outdoors. Let me know when you get it!