Costa Rica Trip camera concerns

[tbwinmill]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are going to Costa Rica over the holidays for his 30th birthday (12/26). We have many adventurous activities planned including: 2 day white water rafting trip, zip lining, a volcano hike, and a sunset sailing trip. Not to mention we'll be at the beach and a hot springs thermal resort for a good chunk of the trip.

I have a Canon 7D and a Canon SD1400. I would like to take both cameras but I'm afraid of ruining them with sand and water and not to mention the humidity! Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to keep my cameras safe?
Any articles here on DPS that I haven't been able to find?

Thank you so much in advance!

[Doug Pardee]

For the 7D, you've really got two choices. You can either decide to take it because "a ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for", or you can decide to leave it behind because you can't afford to risk it. That's got to be a personal decision based on how much you value the potential photos versus how much you would be devastated by the potential loss of the camera equipment.

As for the SD1400, that's an easier choice because the loss of the camera wouldn't be nearly as costly. An even better option would be to buy a digicam designed for hazardous environments and rough duty. Canon's D10 is a bit long in the tooth, and Olympus's Tough line don't have the best image quality around, so I'd recommend—on reputatation only, I've never actually used one—the Panasonic DMC-TS2 (about $300 at Amazon).

Myself, I use an inexpensive DSLR—the Rebel XT—and an Olympus 1030SW "almost indestructible" digicam. The digicam goes everywhere, the XT goes almost everywhere. The 1030SW's image quality is nowhere close to the XT, but when it gets mucked up I just stick it in the sink and rinse it.

[olgabe]

As someone who spent about 2 months in CR over 3 different trips, here is my advice:

Take your 7D, you will regret not bringing it along.

Last time I went I had my Xsi and almost all of the lenses I own on me, and I was real glad I brought them. If I was doing again this year, I'd take my 5D.

Costa Rica is very safe in general, but I would not leave the 7D in a rental car in plain view - break-ins into rental cars are not unusual in the Northwest corner of the country.

Re humidity, I did not have any issues with it - just let the camera adjust to the environment, don't go shooting in the jungle the moment you jump out of your A/C car.

Whitewater rafting trips: everything except things in the dry bags will be soaking wet. You can safely bring the camera if you purchase a dry bag, big enough to fit your camera in it's case. Your guide will store it inside his dry bag (strapped to the raft), and it will get in and out safe and sound. You can't take any photos off the raft safely (I would not recommend doing it even if you had an Ikelite housing - real easy to lose anything not attached to the boat).Assuming you are doing class III rapids or higher - smaller ones you may get away with actually shooting off the raft if you are careful. During your stops on the river trip you can get the camera out and shoot the rafts behind you as they clear the rapids, as well as take photos at your camp site. It's worth it hauling it over.

Volcano hikes - just take the camera in a usual case. Zip lining and photography don't mix well, but you'll see great landscapes as you make your way to the zip lines. Beach - don't change lenses on the beach, and you'll be fine. Bring a big fluffy make up brush to clean the sand off the camera/bag. Also, make sure to have a UV filter on each lens - then you will not worry about salt spray on the beach.

Not convinced? Take a look at my Xsi photo crop from last year, and decide for yourself

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