The Swiss Alps meets the Merrills - how did that work out? Pt 1

Further to this thread "Trekking dilemma - Sane or insane - you decide... ", how did it all work out in the end? Well this will be a long post, so bear with me.

I agonised right until the last few days before I left, pondering on what would work best out of quite a selection of cameras. In the end I went with the 3 Merrills complimented by my little Sony HX50. The rationale? well whatever I was going to carry needed to fit a small Kata bag hanging off my bergen belt, so I could access the cameras quickly and easily (This turned out to be a very good decision). I also carried the HX50 in a small bag attached to my bergen belt padding (Another decision which worked well). I carried the DP1M and DP2M side by side (separated by a small bag divider in the Kata bag, along with two spare batteries and a spare SD card. I carried the DP3M in my Bergen accepting I could only use it in the evenings or when we were stationary for long periods. I also carried a couple of lens hoods and a filters in a separate small bag attached to the other side of my belt padding (This ended up being unnecessary - a bad decision).

Anyway, so we flew out to Geneva and got transport to Chamonix to begin our Haute route adventure, there were ten of us in total, one other guy had a Nikon D90 and the 18-105VR and carried that - it seemed to work for him. I had trained for this by doing some lengthy walks in the Wiltshire countryside carrying around 13kg. The first curveball I had was my final carrying weight in Switzerland, which varied between 18-20kg (40-44lbs), quite a difference. I had to carry some extra equipment and food, this was necessary, no opt out on that. The second curveball was the temperatures - apparently Switzerland was having it's best weather for this time of year since 1925, in the 30's on the lower slopes, high 20's even at 2000m+. Our route on average consisted of 1000m ascents and 1000m descents over anything from 10-20km every day.

The first few days were gruelling, high temperatures and getting used to the weight took it's toll. I had very sore shoulders and feet (though fortunately no blisters - my boots were excellent). Everyone found it tough and I was easily the oldest there (by 10 years for the next oldest and on average 15-20 years for the rest). We stayed in dormitoires which ranged between very basic chalets with no food available to more hotel like accommodation with evening meals (Though still sharing cramped rooms).

So how did the Merrills fare? Well firstly I learned that they are tough little hombres, they got covered in dust, dropped (in the bag) on numerous occasions, spilled in the dirt and on one occasion dropped in a fast stream as my belt buckle unclipped right at the wrong moment. They got wet, though not totally immersed. I wiped them off, ignored all usual advice and with baited breath carried on using them, they were fine, and still are.

In the bright light, of which there was plenty the whole two weeks, I learned to shoot almost blind at times, using the histogram as a guide and the mountain outlines as a compositional aid. The LCD's are very dark in these conditions, but I was surprised how accurate I became at getting it right, mainly because I had to be, necessity being the mother and all that. I also had to commit the cardinal sin of shooting quickly one handed. We moved at quite a pace a lot of the time, I literally had to dip into my bag, grab one them, grasp the camera firmly with my right hand whilst I held my trekking poles with my left hand and use my forefinger to operate the shutter button. I became very adept at this in short space of time, again because I had to.

I almost exclusively shot at ISO 200 and F8. In terms of which camera I used the most it was the DP1M hands down, usually my least used Merrill. 28mm is actually a great focal length for shooting in this kind of environment, not too wide that the mountains get lost in the distance but wide enough to mostly get what I wanted. The DP2M was a distant second choice and the DP3M last, though I did get to use it quite heavily on one rest day at the end, so it was worth taking. The HX50 was also useful for documentary shots and a few telephoto shots. Two of my favourite shots were taken with this camera, so again, worth taking.

So do I regret taking the Merrills? definitely not, for the following reasons

1. I didn't have time for lens changes, grabbing either the 1M or 2M out of the bag worked really well.

2. Dust - there was a lot of dust due to the high temperatures, no need to mess about changing lenses, no dust spots in my shots.

3. Haze - the quality of the Merrills and their lenses mean they cut through haze far better than bayer sensor cameras.

4. Far distant detail - nothing does this better than the Merrills, alpine villages far below can be easily made out in my shots, as can distant glaciers and rock formations etc.

5. Robustness - untested for me before now but I was very impressed with how they held up with the battering they took. I'm not sure my X100 or Panasonic GM1 would have fared so well with this kind of punishment, my E-M1? probably.

6. Ease of use - F8 and be there, that's pretty much what I did, no messing about, stick to their strengths and all is good.

7. Consistency of operation - they all work the same, simple, switching between them is seamless.

Downsides?

Only one really, write times, but I knew that, I just had to be patient or put them straight back in my bag and switch them off a minute or two later. Even battery life wasn't an issue, I took 13, I could have managed with 8. I did get some access to power and I also carried a small power pack, I always had enough batteries to get by, no issue at all, though the temperatures helped with this.

So the images? well I took around 600 shots with the Merrills, I'm two thirds through processing them but I'm happy with what I got, in a couple of days I'll post some. Shooting one handed even worked, I usually had enough shutter speed to get away with it, only a few shots are slightly blurred, I'd have taken that if you'd asked me before starting.

The trip overall was awesome, tough, but well worth it. We completed most of what we set out to do, we made it to Zermatt with one or two changes to our itinerary where necessary. The Swiss alps are spectacular, just how I imagined it to be, I'd definitely go back.

Oh and I nearly forgot, would I do the same again? absolutely, the Merrills were definitely the right choice for me, hopefully my pictures will vindicate that decision.