The camera conundrum: Arctic 10

So here’s the short version of the battery charger fiasco. I brought the USB cable but not the charging cradle for my battery. I thought I could charge it using just the cable. Nope. Scott asked the passengers at a daily recap if anyone was using an Olympus EM1 mkii. Nobody was but one person had an Olympus camera and kindly took my battery to her room for a quick check as to whether her charger would fit. It didn’t. Okay, next plan. There might be a camera store in Nuuk Greenland where I could pick up a charger.

In the meantime, I was in the ship’s gift shop and happened to notice a point and shoot Nikon Coolpix A 300 on the shelf behind the counter. A camera, with a zoom lens. Not bad. Even better that we had a credit at the gift shop. I bought the camera. As with all baby cameras, it has a pretty wide angle lens but given that photos I take with the zoom on my phone end up looking like pointillism, I was happy enough to get it.

Parasitic Jaeger in flight

After I charged up the battery, I began to play with it. There are a lot of things I like. It’s light and pocketable. Phone in one pocket, Coolpix in the other. The exposure compensation is in a very convenient spot. Twenty mega pixel is plenty for what I want, and the colour rendering is generally to my liking. My main complaint is one of the same ones I have with the phone: I can’t see the blooming screen in bright sunlight so there is quite a bit of ‘point the camera in the right direction and press the shutter.’ Pixels are cheap, opportunities are not so fire away and hope for the best. I hadn’t ruled out using the Olympus but I was thinking carefully about under what circumstances I would willingly drain the batteries.

We arrived in Nuuk on a Sunday and, although it’s like a small European city, many places were closed. There were two stores that sold electronics. Both were closed and as I peered through the windows I could see that the chances were 99% against either having what I needed anyway.

I wasn’t done quite yet. We were staying onboard for the High Arctic Explorer voyage. Maybe someone on that one would have a charger I could borrow. As the new group of passengers came aboard I checked out as many of the brands on camera straps as I could. Mostly Nikon, followed closely by Canon with a smattering of Panasonic and Sony thrown in for good measure. Barbara, our host, asked at a recap if anyone had an Olympus charger that might fit. I was quite delighted when Jon, a friend from previous trips, put up his hand. After the recap he went to get his charger and I went to get my battery. Once again, the two didn’t fit.

At least I knew for sure that I wouldn’t have a chance to recharge the batteries. I chose two locations to shoot the last of the photos with the Olympus. On Monday August 8 we made a landing in Croker Bay. It was sunny and warm and the scenery was gorgeous. I decided there was no point in returning home with any juice in the batteries so I took the Oly. It was a good call. There was a pair of parasitic jaegers, also called Arctic skua, protecting their territory. I had a wonderful afternoon trying to capture their body positions in flight as they squawked at the human intruders. They are much bigger than sparrows so they were a bit easier to track. I also got a chance to try different settings as they flew.

The last battery died on August 10. Because we were unable to reach Resolute we sailed back to Greenland. We paused for a zodiac cruise amid the sea ice in the middle of Baffin Bay. It was foggy and chilly cruising among the bergs and the sea ice. Because of the temperature the battery drained more quickly than I thought it would but, again, I had a most enjoyable time taking the photos.

Cruising in the ice

I’ve come to a few conclusions. I’ll ignore the obvious one regarding battery chargers. I love shooting with the Olympus and I’m getting better at understanding the features. I hate carrying it on the plane though. It is smaller and lighter than a lot of cameras but the 100-400 mm lens is not a featherweight. When I add a second lens to the weight of the camera body, and throw in a book, a notebook, a few coloured pencils, a bottle of water, and the various cables and chargers I need for my other electronics, the backpack comes in at around 9 kilos. That is heavier than I want it to be when I have to sling it into the overhead bin. Before you ask, Richard is more than willing to do the slinging to help me out. There is a part of me that feels strongly that if I can’t manage the pack by myself I shouldn’t be carrying it in the first place. Perhaps I need to up the strength training in between trips. In any case that certainly wouldn’t hurt. The jury is out on whether I will continue to carry the Oly or whether I will look for a lighter travel camera. I really like the one I used in Holland and Belgium but the zoom on it is unreliable and it’s usually just as cost effective to buy a new camera as it is to try to get a point-and-shoot fixed. Oh well, I have another year to make up my mind.