Ultra Light Technology

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Tammie and I love taking photos on the road and sharing them with friends and family back home. On past trips I usually pack a Nikon D300 and two lens. I usually toss in the MacBook Pro for editing photos and uploading them. The tech gear takes up the entire pizza box on the back of the KTM and most of the tank bag.

The result is having great photos afterwards but during the trip it's a lot of work and space. Not to mention having a ton of gear on a bike that is not all that secure. So this time I was determined to go light. In the past we have also taken a point and shoot camera for times that we didn't want to schlep a huge 35mm style camera around.

That point and shoot was a Panasonic TZ3 and did about 65% of everything we needed. The lens zoomed from 28mm to 280mm and is designed by Leica so it produces sharp photos.

But 65% wasn't good enough so I've been waiting for something better. This year Panasonic released the ZS7 and I took the jump.

• 24mm to 300mm zoom

• Does HD video in AVCHD lite format

• About two frames per second in burst mode

• Screen is 3" wide and crystal clear even in bright light

But the kicker is that it has GPS built in so a photos location is embedded right in the image file. That feature sold me since I was considering buying an add-on for the D300 to do the same thing.

The second part of the equation was getting rid of the laptop. That part was pretty easy since we just recently bought an iPad. We could connect the camera to the iPad and copy photos over to it. There is a great app on the iPad called Photogene that we used for toning and cropping of the images. Plus it allowed you to save the photo up online.

I hacked my iPhone so I could use it as a wifi modem so the iPad could connect to the net where ever we had 3G service.

The iPad also gave us access to email, Facebook and dozens of other services including Smugmug.

Here is what the entire kit consisted of and how it packed up into an old Marsee bag that I had laying around. The final pieces included:

• iPad with charger, cord and connection kit

• Two iPhones in Otterbox cases with charger and cord

• Panasonic ZS7 camera with charger and extra battery

• Three 16 meg SD cards

• Cigarette USB adapter

At least that is how it was all supposed to work. Add Tammie into the equation and nothing ever goes as planned.

Point and Shoot - How well did it work?

Tammie said that I wasn't working the photo opps as much as I usually do when I have the Nikon D300. I think she might be right about that.

So here is the short list of pros:

• The 25mm to 300mm lens rocks. Being able to pull in a single boat and then zooming out and capturing the entire harbor is just incredible.

• The best camera is the one that you have with you. And the ZS7 was always with us. Small enough to just have in your pocket all the time.

• The HD video is really nice.

• The three inch screen on the back is very crisp and gives you an excellent way to preview whether or not you got the shot.

• GPS built into the camera. You don't realize how great this is until you download the photos into something like Picasa or iPhoto. You can literally track your trip through your photos. Even a couple of days after you shoot a photo it is so nice to see exactly where you made the image.

• The price. I picked this up for just under $300 with two batteries.

• The macro lens works fantastic.

Some of the cons:

• Very limited aperture settings. You really can't stop down the lens very much.

• I miss a viewfinder. Even on a point and shoot I would still like to have a viewfinder.

• This is one of the fastest focusing point and shoots that I've used but … It's still not as fast as a SLR.

• Tammie complained a lot about the zooming on the camera and having a hard time getting the lens in the right spot.

• The microphone for the camera is on top. Sometimes you cover it up by accident.

At the beginning of the thread I said the old camera was 65% of the way there. The ZS7 is probably 90% of the way there.

Here is a look at the how the iPad puts the photos on a map.