In Reply to: Camera? posted by Skimania on Wednesday, 14. April 1999 at 12:20 Bali Time:
I understand completely about not wanting to drag around a nice SLR and a bunch of gear. I asked some similar questions in the forum about what can be purchased in Bali and got lots of info from email rather than posts. Without exception, everyone advised aginst trying to get a camera once you get there. I have also heard horror stories about the quality of C-41 processing done there, so better to bring home film and have it done there. I teach intro-level college photo classes and shoot a pretty good bit when I travel. I would advise using a shielded film bag, as it has been my experience that airports outside of the US and Europe tend to have equipment that can cloud film, especially Kodachrome or very high speed print film. I live in the SE United States, and I was at a party for Chuck Wolf--he is a local celeb who owns a franchise of camera stores and photo labs. It seemed like everyone that worked for him had one of those Olympus Infinity/Stylus pocket cameras with them. Since these folks could get whatever they wanted, yet chose this camera, I followed their advice and got one--they didn't like the zoom or deluxe, models, just the base model. The price in the US is still about $100US--less if from a discount house. I had a Minolta I used in Central America, one of the ones that is waterproof to maybe 20 feet--nicely made but crappy lens and poor focus in general. Although I am a bit of a camera snob since I work mostly with Nikon, Hassy, and sheet film cameras, I can say that I shoot tons more pics with the Olympus just because it is so easy to carry around. I rarely get excited about how something is made, BUT.... my girlfriend accidently backed over our travel bag a few months ago while in her car, and she she ended up slamming on the brakes so that the back tire was on top of the Olympus. Although the body is scuffed and the lens cover was damaged, the camera still works great and is headed to Bali with us. Good luck!