Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, Overland Treck, Tasmania
Going
rough with digital
As
I started with digital photography two years ago I used a Olympus E-10, which
was affordable, fast enough for my first jobs and had a satisfying picture
quality. At the beginning the major drawbacks were poor battery life (about 200
to 300 pictures at most), slow reviewing of the pictures, and the fact that Nimh
accus have a high loss of power within a few days.
When
my wife and I planned a three month trip to Tasmania, South Australia and New
Zealand, I also was starting to work on five new books about towns in Austria.
So after a short calculation about the film costs for the next year, I decided
it was time for a change to a more professional digital camera. My budget was
limited, so only the D-100 or Fuji S-2 was affordable, the D1-X was out of
question (and after I used this camera shortly at a studio, I am happy that I
did not have the money for it – it is too heavy for my kind of outdoor use). I
decided against the Fuji S-2 because of three reasons: availabilty (1 month to
wait), bigger file sizes and dual battery system. After working for a while with
the D-100 and seeing the first print in a book with the size A3 with very good
quality (a long time exposure !) I was quite sure, that from the point of
picture quality there is no major difference to slide film anymore. I also was
amazed that I could shoot hundreds of pictures even in RAW mode, before I had to
change the small Lion accu.
The
Island of Tasmania is an Eldorado for the nature photographer. Here you can find
vast areas of unspoiled wilderness, but with the handicap, that most of these
areas are real wild, with no tracks at all. Therefore the majority of people who
don´t mind long distance walking are heading to the Overland track, about 8000
to 10000 people do this a year with the high season in the months of November to
January. Although it is a well marked and sometimes overpaved track the huts are
absolutely basic: no cookers, no matresses, no emergency phones, just a roof
over your head, rain water for drinking and a pit toilet near by. And certainly
there are no other supplies available, like food or batteries/power for your
camera. The weather can be very changeable, with a lot of rain and the
possibility of a snowstorm even in summer. Taking pictures on a long treck like
this is a little more tough than usual, because the basic needs like food, water
and sleep have absolute priority. Which means, the longer you plan to walk, the
heavier your backpack gets. The modern outdoor equipment has done an amazing
reduction of weight in the last 20 years. But still with all the outdoor gear
and food for 7-8 days you have to carry 16-17 kg plus camera equipment. If you
want to enjoy such a trip you have to be in good shape, a three month training
in a fitness studio was just enough for us. We also made a test walk in the
Freycinet Np in Tasmania for two days with the complete equipment. With outdoor
adventures we belief in the motto: „better safe than sorry“.
Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, Overland Treck, Tasmania
After
the test walk was succesfully done we headed for the capital of Hobart, from
where a bus brought us first to Launceston and then to Cradle Mountain – Lake
St.Clair Np, because normally the walk is made from north to south. It was mid
February, so the high season was over, but still a lot of walkers where in the
bus with us. Being here a week ago with the rented car for a short walk through
rain and fog, it was this time a scenery out of a tourist brochure: cloudless
blue sky, the high peaks of the mountains reflecting in the waters of Lake
St.Clair.
Now
since this is not a walking guide article for the Overland Track (I plan to publish
one on my homepage) I want to go more into detail about the camera equipment. I
used the D-100 with the 24-85, f 2,8-4 Nikon Zoom which gives you a 36-128 mm
Zoom equivalent. (The 28-105mm Zoom would be an more lightweight alternative).
I took two 1 GB Microdrives and three original Lion accus from Nikon. A
polarizer was the only filter I took and also no extra flash, the small built in
flash is enough on tour. As a backup camera and for quick shots I used the Ricoh
GR-1V, a small camera that only weights 180 g (!) and has a 2,8 28 mm superb
optic wich you might not expect in such a compact camera (The price of 470 €
reflects this quality) The light meter is also very accurate, so that the use of
slide film is no problem at all. Before I went on this trip the D-100 was
cleaned by Nikon. I did not take any special cleaning material with me, only a
dust brush and a microfibre. Since I did not have a second optic for the D-100,
there was no real danger of getting dust into the camera – the Overland track
is normal more a wet than a dusty place anyway. I did some practical tests with
battery life before and decided that it should be quite ok with two Lion accus,
but to be on the safe side I took a third with me. What I feared was heavy rain
lasting for days, but often what you fear does not happen – 2003 was not only
in the Region of Victoria a bushfire year, but also in this wet area of Tasmania
with a annual rainfall of up to 5000mm it was very dry and it stayed like that
for the hole trip.(Would be interesting to know when a sunshine period of 8 days
has occured in this area before !) Though I did not have a problem with humidity
I got another „problem“ - a lot more picture opportunitys than I had
expected. But because I was able to review my pictures immediately, I also could
delete a lot. It was clear for me from the beginning, that I would use Raw file
format only for some „top shots“on this trip, because my wife is not rich
enough to donate to me 4 more Microdrives (the „share-working concept“: „my
wife is earning the money – I am spending
it“ has its limits). JPG-fine means aproximately 330 pictures per
Microdrive, in Raw I get 107, with compressed Raw I would get more than 200
pictures, but with very long processing time and as an result slow writing speed
(acceptable for landscape work) but also more battery power needed! Raw is not
so much better, the resolution is the same, but more convenient, because one can
change all settings afterwards to one´s needs. To make this clear I always use
Raw in my professional work, except when I do journalistic work (look at my gallery:
„Lifeball
2003“) or I am on a long
outdoor trip where I expect to shoot more than 200 pictures over a couple of
days.
Känguruh, Waterfall Valley Hut, Overland Treck, Tasmania
The
main thing when you shoot with JPG is to turn the camera sharpening to „low“
– you can do that better in photoshop later - and to keep thinking about white
balance. The automatic mode of the D-100 is quite good, but there are situations
where a manual setting is better (rainforest, shady gorges, sunset, panoramas, ...). The
other thing was that I did a lot of pictures of waterfalls with long exposures.
Black rock and white water has often too high a contrast, so I shot at least two
pictures, one for the shadows and one for the highlights, sometimes a third in
between. The histogramm (or the „highlights warning“) was an important help
and I used it regularly.
Normally the Overland Treck is walked in 4-5 days, depending on your fitness, the
weather conditions and the extra walks you make: If you want to take good
pictures of an area it is always a good advice to walk slowly, you will be
rewarded with a lot of good pictures and impressions the fast walkers are
missing.
But I have to add a special warning: this track is the area of the venomous tiger
snakes, so do not roam around in the bush blind eyed ! We have seen three of
them directly on our path but fortunately they where in good mood and gave way
(This kind of snake sometimes does attack !).
Leatherwood in bloom, Kia Ora Creek, Overland Treck,
Tasmania
Because
the weather was just great and my wife had done a fantastic job with planning
the food for this track we extended the trip with some extra walks which brought
us into side valleys or on top of a mountain with a fantastic view. So at the
end we had not a wet 5 day trip as expected, but a sunny 8 day walk with
fantastic scenery. I had taken about 630 pictures in JPG-fine, used almost
always the screen for checking the picture, deleted a lot, made also many long
time exposure pictures (1-8 sec) and still was using the second Lion accu on
full power indication – there was enough power in it for more than 200
pictures afterwards ! And also the third Lion accu was in perfect shape, the
positive thing with them is that they do not loose much energy when they are
stored.
Also very positive was my small Slik Carbon fiber tripod 703 CF (1000g !) with a
simple ball head and directly screwed to it the new lightweight Novoflex quick
release.
So
all digital at the end ? No, because without my Ricoh GR-1V I would have missed
a lot of good pictures. Two reasons for that: This small camera was always
attached at the belt of my backpack while the D-100 was stored safe inside and
also the 28 mm optic was a good complement to the 36 – 128 mm equivalent on
the D-100.
The
conclusion from this trip and from the hole 3 month journey where I took about
6000 digital pictures, 50 films with my Mamiya 7 and 15 with the Ricoh GR-1V is
simple: Go digital if you shoot a lot of pictures and if you don`t mind working
on a computer. That a professional digital camera like the D-100 is also a very
reliable and a practical tool for the rough outdoor use was for me a little bit
surprising. But I like positive surprises !
To be honest I must say that for quality landscape work I still prefer the
Mamiya 7 since there is no Nikon mount digital camera which is affordable for me
and has the quality of 6x7. Certainly my dream would be an affordable and
lightweight digital camera with a resolution similar to medium format and with a
good battery life, so that it is usable also on long outdoor trips. I think now
this is a wish to Santa Claus, but in a few years it will simply be reality.
Christian
Handl
The "Labyrinth", Overland Treck,
Tasmania
About
me:
I
live in Austria in a small village 50 km from Vienna. I am fascinated by rough,
unspoiled nature. Therefore the north of Europe and here especially Iceland, is
my favourite photographic destination, but I also like Australia very much,
because of the rich animal life. My photographic work is quite broad, depending
on the jobs I get. I even worked on a ship as a photographer, and now do a lot
of architecture, repros of paintings and objects in museums. This is mainly for
books about the cultural richness of towns in Austria. Nature photography is
more a hobby to me, although I publish regularly for mountain magazines. I have
also published a walking guide to Iceland and a book with DDr.Viktor Frankl
about
how walking in the mountains can give a special meaning to live.