But on this trip, I want to take the best photos I can - after all, the scenery is so stunning. So this year I am taking my Nikon D80 DSLR with a Nikkor 50mm 1.8 prime lens and a Sigma 18mm - 200mm 3.5 - 6.3 zoom. The Sigma isn´t the best of lenses but does do wide angle to a good zoom without being hefty or long. The Nikkor lens just takes great, sharp photos in relatively low light.
But this leaves me short of any video-capture capability (well, not quite - more about that later). So the web crawl was back on. My very first choice was a Sony HQ1 bullet camera from Dogcam. It sound really great; waterproof, rugged, almost broadcast quality video and can be mounted anywhere on the bike for great action shots. But to use this, you need something to record to, which in turn needs wires and this and that.
The package of one camera and one dv recorder from dogcam is good value, but ultimately, in our budget, an expense we can do without.
I did have a Canon MX3i camcorder that cost around $800 five years ago, but it is a big thing with terrible battery life and needs DV tapes; in other words, a dinosaur and a hassle. So I sold that.
Now, many camcorders are petite and use SDHC cards. I looked at reviews for Flip Video, Vado, the Panasonic waterproof cam and the Xacti. But, according to the many reviews of each, none have particularly good video quality and many of them are not Mac friendly. Accepting the fact that you get what you pay for, I decided something cheap and cheerful - at least I´ll get some video footage and adjusted my sights a little.
Then I came across the Kodak Zi6 HD camcorder.
It is small, uses rechargeable batteries - it even comes with two of those and a charger - it can take up to a 32Gb SDHC card and is simple to use on a bike. It will work with both the Asus netbook and my Mac OS. You can also upload video directly to youtube. Sounds promising. It costs less than 100 pounds - cheaper still if you go for the pink one. I´m such a cheapskate!
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