Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney Photo Advice Needed

Richard,

I use a 1GB microdrive in my Canon 1D all the time and I've never encountered a problem. In fact, I'm quite thoroughly impressed with it since I've been using the same microdrive for 3 years in different cameras. The performance has been flawless and it's read/write speed is faster than lots of solid state cards. Maybe I just got lucky?

As far as cold and altitude, I know for a fact that my microdrive has been subjected to below freezing temperatures and altitudes above 10,000 feet and up to Whitney levels several times. No problems there.

I will continue to use the microdrive as my primary drive anywhere until I run into a problem. And, so far after thousands of miles traveled and thousands of pictures, I haven't had one failure. However, I do carry with me a 256MB solid state card as a backup. I've never had to use it but I'm sure Murphy's Law will surface when you are least expecting it.

I defer to anyone else who has used a microdrive for other opinions.

I do have one note about battery performance. While freezing up in the mountains, I noticed my video camera's battery (lithium-ion) life held up great but my Canon 1D battery (nickel metal-hydride) ran out quickly. I find it a necessity to carry a backup battery to my Canon 1D even on a 2-day trip into the mountains where I'll take about 100 pictures.

gosc

Disk drives operate under fluid dynamic principles, specifically Bernoulli. The read/ write heads float on air, keeping them seperated from the metal surface of the drive.

I suspect there is some weakening affect due to the reduced air pressure at altitude. WHat and how much I don't know.

Hard drives are not as rugged as one would think. They specially seal hard drives and sometimes using nitrogen and a purge/replacement agent.

The sold state memory card are much better suited for hiking and other outdoor activites.

I had a microdrive when they first came out, and had no problems with it (didn't use it at altitude)except the data transfer rate is slower than cards (ability to take pictures faster).

I shoot my camera up to 8 frames per second in sometimes up to 24 frame bursts and my microdrive keeps up fine. It is counterintuitive with all the advances in technology these days, but the write speed of the microdrive is better than most solid state devices. Here's a comparison of a variety of compact flash cards, and the microdrive had the fastest write datarate!

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/mediacompare/default.asp?sort=fwwrite#fwperf

Can't really comment on personal experiences (I use CF cards), but if you're buying new, it seems that 1GB Microdrives and 1GB CF cards are about the same price these days (found either for about $150 on pricewatch.com), so it's probably better to get the CF card to be safe. I also carry several CF cards of varying sizes (keep the old ones when you upgrade!) so I always have a backup. If I'm going to be away from my computer for an extended period, I also have a battery powered 20GB hard drive with a CF card slot on the side for downloading images (you'll hear these things referred to as digital wallets). BTW, not that I'd recommend it, but if you want a really big Microdrive, buy an iPod Mini and tear it apart. In it you'll find a 4GB Microdrive that can be reformatted for your camera. Much less expensive than buying the Microdrive up front.

mountain photography.. my choice

first i am of the stone age. i use Canon F1 cameras that are manual, heavy, simple, robust, reliable, old tech, like me. I print my pictures.

ask yourself;what am i going to do with the photos? print them to 16X20, 11X14, 5X7? hang them on the wall? put them in a book? email them to my friends & family? put them in desk frames?
compare how much this will cost to do this..
compare the myrad of high-tech new digital cameras vs old tech film cameras like the Canon pro F1, F1N A1,AE1Program, Nikon F2e, F3,F4,F100. a good 35-105, or 70-210 are good all-round lenses..the f2 85mm & f2 24mm were two of Galen Rowell's favorite lenses for mountain use...
all these are today less expensive and plentiful in a market place of eager digitizers. Film resolution clarity exceeds digital, and Longs drugs will cheerfully give you a dvd disc of your pictures to use with your computer... cheaply!

if you've a 35mm, use it.by all means get & use polarizer filter,(circular if available), especially with color film. uv light at 14k+ft...
is plentiful, oversaturates your negative w/blue.
weight for one trip is insignificant... take lots of film, asa 25,50, (try Kodak Technical Pan b&w)for sharp clear prints, I use Kodak Portra NC,
natural color (clear,subtle tones) VC (vivid color
for greater saturation, both in 160 or 400. Portra is also available in 400 in UC (super-saturated ULTRA COLOR) for BRIGHT brigh colors!

IF you can anchor the camera to use the slower speeds w/slower film. a small,light-weight tripod is nice BUT high winds WILL blow it down... you can stabilize & weigh it down by hanging bags of rocks from its neck. a monopod is a good choice too. available light,dawn, sunrise, dusk, sundown shots are wonderful, but require stability... especially when the wind picks up... use a good cable release.

two high quality brands of tripods and monopods are Gitzo and Bogen. Aluminum & carbon graphite
pods are offered, cg being more expensive but lighter-weight.. i use the heavier Gitzos
finally a well-made ball-head will give your camera-to-pod a useful, sturdy shooting platform...

the Gitzo 100 series tripods is small, relatively light-weight but very sturdy & will easily last lifetimes... again i am of the stone age, and seige mentality-overkill is my default setting.

i never want to buy another camera, amd will problably not have to... my wife wants a digital
is giving me her F100 w/autofocus 28-70 2.8 lens
she does not climb, however. stay safe, watch for storms, beware of lightning... drink LOTS of H2O.. fuss, modesto

I have used my digital cameras (both Canon and Nikon) on 20,000+ foot mountains with no problems. One tip, don't use alkaline or NiMH batteries, they freeze in cold temps. Energizer makes a Lithium double A battery that works well at temperatures well below anything you'd want to be out in - and they weigh about half the weight of Alkalines to boot.

While I agree that it is worth having a UV filter for your digital camera, it is for the purpose of rotecting your lens from scratches since the CCD is not sensitive to UV in the way that film is.