7i to buy or not to buy

I currently have a Nikon F801 and full range of lenses, I have been shooting with this for the last ten years but are thinking of changng to digital for several reasons, firstly bulk of travelling with a full SLR, developing costs, and would like to start publishing pics on teh net. Have been looking at the 7i for a while an following this forum. Can any one give me there true veiw on performance of this camera. I do a lot of backpacking in third world countries, high altitude treking, and take the odd action sports photo, would this camera suit, as its hard to give up a loyal freind as the Nikon

many thanks

D Allen said:

I currently have a Nikon F801 and full range of lenses, I have been
shooting with this for the last ten years but are thinking of
changng to digital for several reasons, firstly bulk of travelling
with a full SLR, developing costs, and would like to start
publishing pics on teh net. Have been looking at the 7i for a while
an following this forum. Can any one give me there true veiw on
performance of this camera. I do a lot of backpacking in third
world countries, high altitude treking, and take the odd action
sports photo, would this camera suit, as its hard to give up a
loyal freind as the Nikon

many thanks

Click to expand...

I think David (aka Icypeak) does the nearest to your type of use that I can think of off-hand.
See:

http://fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/pictures?userid= {F351C88E-FEF7-4892-9F30-9FD2DDD1593C}&tio=0&st=he&guid={3A13A9F9-B6A6-445D-8274-D48CB22B23AF}&sent=session
He uses a D7i and an F100, I believe.

The other guy you really need hasn't been around for a while, Petteri has done stuff in the Himalayas.
The 2 big issues for you will be power and data storage.
You have a number of different strategies availailable for storage depending

on where you will be and how far away from the internet and power supplies. I believe some people even recharge using solar panels.

The only thing I am certain of is that you don't want to use a microdrive at altitude, as the thin air don't agree with the disc remaining a respectful distance away from the head.
For a weatherproof case check out:
http://www.arnason.no/

As regards the sports shots you've got to reckon on pre-focussing. The 7Hi is more capable in this respect than the 7i as it can really bang out a lot of shots fast.
Hope this is at least a little help to you,
Regards,
--
DaveMart

I wonder, could you tell us why you are not looking at a Nikon DSLR? If we knew your expectations of the 7i in terms of what you normally photograph then we could perhaps answer your question in a more useful manner.

Basically: You will almost certainly need power packs if you are trekking far from civilization so you'll still need to carry photographic equipment including a tripod. Technically I have found it to be a good camera capable of allowing a huge variety of settings. Personally, I'd take film on the kind of trips you plan. Hopefully, others with experience of using the 7i in such tough conditions here will have reason to disagree with my doubts.
John.
========

D Allen said:

I currently have a Nikon F801 and full range of lenses, I have been
shooting with this for the last ten years but are thinking of
changng to digital for several reasons, firstly bulk of travelling
with a full SLR, developing costs, and would like to start
publishing pics on teh net. Have been looking at the 7i for a while
an following this forum. Can any one give me there true veiw on
performance of this camera. I do a lot of backpacking in third
world countries, high altitude treking, and take the odd action
sports photo, would this camera suit, as its hard to give up a
loyal freind as the Nikon

many thanks

Click to expand...

Main reason I was looking at the 7i was because i wanted to cut down on the bulk of camera equipment i travel with. This trip will be approx 4-5 months and will be all budget backpacking, so carrying a full SLR kit around gets to be a pain some times, the budget i travell on dosent really allow me to lock things in a room saftley. I know i will lose some quality and possibly some photos by not having the lenses but thast life and should make up for it in other ways. Budget was also a driver for not looking at a DSLR. Will a digital camera just not work at altitude or will it be long term failure, I will only be above 4000 m for approx 2 weeks and no higher than a possible 5000 m .

Thanks for the info

John Farrar said:

D Allen said:

I currently have a Nikon F801 and full range of lenses, I have been
shooting with this for the last ten years but are thinking of
changng to digital for several reasons, firstly bulk of travelling
with a full SLR, developing costs, and would like to start
publishing pics on teh net. Have been looking at the 7i for a while
an following this forum. Can any one give me there true veiw on
performance of this camera. I do a lot of backpacking in third
world countries, high altitude treking, and take the odd action
sports photo, would this camera suit, as its hard to give up a
loyal freind as the Nikon

many thanks

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

D Allen said:

Thanks for the info

John Farrar said:

D Allen said:

I currently have a Nikon F801 and full range of lenses, I have been
shooting with this for the last ten years but are thinking of
changng to digital for several reasons, firstly bulk of travelling
with a full SLR, developing costs, and would like to start
publishing pics on teh net. Have been looking at the 7i for a while
an following this forum. Can any one give me there true veiw on
performance of this camera. I do a lot of backpacking in third
world countries, high altitude treking, and take the odd action
sports photo, would this camera suit, as its hard to give up a
loyal freind as the Nikon

many thanks

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

The peoblem isn't with the camera not working at altitude, it's just any form of hard-drive. The thin air doesn't support the head and causes it to crash.
I've found the thread I was thinking of for you. Here is Petteri:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=3818295
This whole thread is worth a read.

There are a lot of other threads on similar subjects - just go to the open forum and put in backpacking as a search term.
Best regards,
--
DaveMart

Little fuzzy on reply although good advice. CompactFlash Media will work fine at altitude. IBM Microdrive will not.

Initially I thought Microdrive was the better answer but after having a 2 week old microdrive with 50+ irreplaceable images crash as I was trying to offload I have moved over to CompactFlash media.

I have used both the C4040 and the c700 at altitude of 12,000 (3000 m) to 14,000 feet (4500 m)without any problem. As long as it is in the operation temperature it should be fine..but the battery will maybe hard to work with if it's too cold and hmm where will you recharg it? If you have a car or truck that has a car adapter, then you're ok, but you will need plenty of batteries and those can be heafy to carry as well.

I know some people are using small battery pack that weight about 1.5 pound (500 gm) but that's maybe too heavy for you? not sure.

I know that altitude itself is not a problem, only a problem for the camera but only for you if you are not used to it (headhacke etc..)

Is it summer? how cold is it?

you will need lots of storage too.

D Allen said:

Thanks for the info

John Farrar said:

D Allen said:

I currently have a Nikon F801 and full range of lenses, I have been
shooting with this for the last ten years but are thinking of
changng to digital for several reasons, firstly bulk of travelling
with a full SLR, developing costs, and would like to start
publishing pics on teh net. Have been looking at the 7i for a while
an following this forum. Can any one give me there true veiw on
performance of this camera. I do a lot of backpacking in third
world countries, high altitude treking, and take the odd action
sports photo, would this camera suit, as its hard to give up a
loyal freind as the Nikon

many thanks

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Daniella
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=26918
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C700 FORUM: http://www.c700uz.com

c700uz, Dimage 7, Tcon14, C210, Cokin 173, Graduated DN, Hoya red Intensifier, Hoya R72 infrared.

Very interesting...i will definitly go with CF, even if it's more expensive. I love hiking at high altitude, so peaceful.

David Martin said:

The peoblem isn't with the camera not working at altitude, it's
just any form of hard-drive. The thin air doesn't support the head
and causes it to crash.
I've found the thread I was thinking of for you. Here is Petteri:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=3818295
This whole thread is worth a read.
There are a lot of other threads on similar subjects - just go to
the open forum and put in backpacking as a search term.
Best regards,
--
DaveMart

Click to expand...

--
Daniella
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=26918
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C700 FORUM: http://www.c700uz.com

c700uz, Dimage 7, Tcon14, C210, Cokin 173, Graduated DN, Hoya red Intensifier, Hoya R72 infrared.

Member said:

The peoblem isn't with the camera not working at altitude, it's
just any form of hard-drive. The thin air doesn't support the head
and causes it to crash.

Click to expand...

You are a very nice guy and have been very helpful to me, and also have been right quite often, but I think this is not true at all. Then again, I have not tried it, so I can't be sure. If you have any sources, let me know.

Hard drives are completely sealed so that nothing goes in and nothing comes out. The casing seems pretty strong and I can't picture the volume changing very much with a change in pressure. The pressure at 10,000ft is not that much different than sea level.

I checked the IBM Microdrive datasheet and saw no reference to altitude or pressure in the operating specs:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/micro/datasheet.htm

Kirk Bauer said:

Kirk Bauer said:

The peoblem isn't with the camera not working at altitude, it's
just any form of hard-drive. The thin air doesn't support the head
and causes it to crash.

Click to expand...

You are a very nice guy and have been very helpful to me, and also
have been right quite often,

Click to expand...

That's not usual! Some mistake, surely?
but I think this is not true at all.

Kirk Bauer said:

Then again, I have not tried it, so I can't be sure. If you have
any sources, let me know.

Hard drives are completely sealed so that nothing goes in and
nothing comes out. The casing seems pretty strong and I can't
picture the volume changing very much with a change in pressure.
The pressure at 10,000ft is not that much different than sea level.

I checked the IBM Microdrive datasheet and saw no reference to
altitude or pressure in the operating specs:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/micro/datasheet.htm

Click to expand...

Really, I was purely going on hearsay. I do remember Icypeak, for whom I have a great deal of respect and who does mountaineering, commenting that he used CF for that reason, and I've seen it in several other places, on how good authority I suppose I am ultimately unsure.
Here's one such post:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=1296664
I just fed in altitude as a search term in the Open forum.

You are obviously bette qualified than I to work out whether this is true or is an urban myth, so I would be interested to know what is the end result.

Fortunately, for practical purposes the answer is not vital to the present discussion, since if you are backpacking CF are obviously better anyway as they are more rugged. If it is true, though, it would cause difficulties to things like travel wallets.
Best regards, (and a happy new year!)
--
DaveMart