Introduction... what this article is and is not

This article was originally published on another site. It was initially written in 2003, was updated through the years, and was moved to it's new home in January 2009. The dates on the pages do not reflect the actual publication dates; unfortunately the site where this article was previously posted did not allow indication of a page written date. Since the focus of the article is the choice of camera features to meet individual's needs as opposed to the choice of a specific camera, I believe the information here is still useful. If you find factual errors, please contact me and I will be happy to correct the errors and to give you credit for the correction.

Touring and cameras go hand in hand for me. I enjoy traveling by bike and I enjoy taking photos in an attempt to capture some of the things that I see from my bike. Of course, the pictures never seem to do justice to what I actually see, but I keep trying. And now that I use a digital camera as I wander on my bike, I take even more pictures - something about not having to pay for processing leads me to click, and click, and click again.

I made the switch from a film camera to a digital camera before I took off on my cross-country trip in June of 2002. I had a lot of questions that went beyond the usual "what features do I want?" Questions and concerns - like

• How much storage space (digital media) do I need?
  
• Will I be able to recharge the batteries if I'm camping? Where?
  
• Will I be able to upload pictures to my journal from the road? How?

I did my share of web surfing and reading, and I talked to a lot of my techie friends - software engineers who were also into photography. It was helpful to talk things through with them, but they could only help out with the digital camera questions, not with my on the road questions. I managed to answer my questions before I left for my trip, and if you've read my journal then you know that my decisions worked for me... So why am I writing this article? I thought it might be helpful to gather information about touring and digital cameras into a single place - especially for folks who are in the same place that I was just a short year ago, deciding which camera to buy for an epic journey.

Does this article include the answers for you? Maybe, and maybe not. What I hope it does is present questions along with some possible answers that might make it easier to combine touring and the digital camera revolution.

This article is not... the definitive answer to all of your questions about touring and digital cameras.

This article is... an attempt to help you organize your thoughts and find information that will help answer your questions about touring with a digital camera.

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Update on July 4, 2008: When you look at the date that this article was initially written and published (2003!), you may think that you should discount the information in it because digital cameras have evolved during that time.

While there is some information in the article about specific camera models, the camera-specific information is not intended to tell you to buy a particular camera. Instead, I've tried to use the camera information as examples of answering my questions about the features I want in my camera(s).

Yes, the cameras referenced in this article belong to a single brand. Why? Because the cameras that share my life all bear the Canon name. This is my (current) preference. Keep in mind that there are many manufacturers of good quality cameras out there, and a different manufacturer's camera may have your name on it.

I hope that those of you who are searching for the perfect camera companion for your tours will find some helpful information here.