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November 21, 2007
[ UP EVEREST WITHOUT A BATTERY ]
ALL THOSE WHINGERS who complain that their digicams are not really foolproof after all should spare a thought for Alfred Gregory.
Greg (as his friends know him), was the official photographer on the triumphant 1953 conquest of Everest. The photographs of Hilary and Tenzing that we know so well were all taken by him, using two 35mm and one 120 roll film cameras.
Greg’s 35mm cameras – the ones that he carried to the highest altitude – were a Kodak Retina IIa and a Contax III, loaded with 10ASA Kodachrome film. There was no auto focus, no automatic metering and, most important, no batteries.
Penguin has published a magnificent book of Alfred Gregory’s photographs, including the Everest pictures, together with a stunning collection from his travels in Africa and a selection of his photos taken in the English resort town of Blackpool. And right now, until the end of February, there is an exhibition of new prints from the Gregory collection at the Monash Gallery of Art in Wheeler’s Hill.
We mention batteries in this context because even as we speak our pal PJ is somewhere on Everest with a new fangled auto-everything battery powered camera. And when he was deciding which camera to buy for the trip batteries figured large in his calculations. He dismissed our suggestion that he take a Retina IIa from our collection as frivolous.
What PJ wanted was a camera that is light, has a wide angle lens – 28mm film equivalent – and is powered by AA batteries. He reckoned there wouldn’t be a lot of power points on the slopes of the Himalayas from which to charge proprietary batteries.
We suggested the Nikon P50, which we haven’t tested but we are impressed with the specifications. It has a 28mm equivalent focal length and it does take AA batteries. So PJ went looking for the Nikon but couldn’t find one in any camera emporium.
We mentioned the fact that the most spectacular battery performance we have had was from a set of four Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables in a Pentax K100D. In testing we took 630 photos and when we sent the camera back the battery meter on the camera still showed full charge. This camera, with the right zoom, would satisfy two of PJ’s criteria – a wide angle and AA batteries. But it isn’t light. By SLR standards it’s not heavy, but it carries a few more grams of mass than a compact.
These days the camera is called a Pentax K100D Super and has a few improvements on the original, and it is an excellent camera. Not only that, it is a real bargain, now selling everywhere for less than $700. There is no compact that can match it for versatility and image quality. And once PJ had taken a closer look at it he was sold.
We admired his reasoning. While Alfred Gregory never had to worry about batteries for his cameras the modern mountaineer needs to think carefully about power sources. The Pentax takes four AA NiMh batteries and the Sanyo Eneloops are ideal because they won’t self-discharge in the back-pack. And with a few sets on hand the Pentax will be ready to snap any passing Yeti.
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Posted by terry at November 21, 2007 10:53 PM
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Comments
I took a Minox ML up a 6000m peak in the Annapurna Himal in the late 80s. It worked ok until the temperature dropped below (probably) -10c. Then no pics - probably because the battery failed, or the shutter 'froze'. Of course I had no idea until I reached a minilab!
Posted by: matthew Holliday at December 8, 2007 09:58 AM