Originally Posted by
John Nelson
For a P&S, I insist on one with a viewfinder, as it is hard to see the screen in bright sunlight, and the screen chews up valuable battery life.
I would suggest not automatically dismissing cameras without a viewfinder. I would have made the same statement not too long ago, but recent advances in screen technology has made the screens much more satisfactory in a wide range of conditions. Similarly battery life is greatly improved in many of the newer cameras.
On the battery situation... I have found that the lithium batteries in many of the newer P&S cameras have very long life and are very light weight so it is no big deal to carry several. I can carry 4 of them and I don't think it amounts to an ounce. In any case it is much lighter than carrying a charger and is adequate for medium length tours. My daughter carried three extras on a two week trip to Greece and managed to get by without carrying a charger and she took a lot of pictures. The trick for me, being a tightwad, was to figure out that the batteries that Nikon or Canon sell for $30-40 can be found for about $7. At that price having several batteries just isn't a big deal.
On something like the Trans America I might still carry a charger, but there too after market stuff is worth checking out. Some of the after market chargers are extremely light weight and cheap. I found one for my camera batteries that weighs a fraction of the Nikon one. I am less inclined to leave the batteries in it for a long time but on tour I usually wind up plugging in for an hour or less during a stop any way. I also found a little 2 ounce AC to USB charger and a tiny adapter that lets me charge my iPod Shuffle. The Shuffle holds a enough audio books to last me for a coast to coast tour and charger and all it weighs maybe 3 ounces.
Sorry if I got a little off topic there
