Which camera for a week in the canyons? Olypmus Tough or GoPro?

Five adults are planning on accompanying five boys scouts into the wilderness of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We will be cut off from the rest of the world for nine days; that is no Internet, no cell phone. In preparation, I have to decide what gear is essential. I love photography and I love timelapse video. My inclination is to make a video documentary of our trip which has me leaning toward the GoPro2 Outdoor Edition The GoPro would give me the ability to take some photography (but not with the composition of a point and shoot or dslr), film video, and film timelapse. Naturally, power and storage space become issues. A more practical solution may be the Olympus TG-810 Tough 14 MP, 5x Wide Optical Zoom (28mm), 3″ 920K LCD (Black). The built-in GPS drains the batteries; however, it would be very nice to be able to map our trip in photographs upon our return. I could also film video and technically could do timelapse also. See specs at DPReview.

How would you decide between these two cameras?


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Comments

5 responses to “Which camera for a week in the canyons? Olypmus Tough or GoPro?”

  1. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    bring a gps and track the coords? you would have to fudge at end but could work.
    if you go with gps camera, for battery problem you could build a minty boost and take the rechargeable from home?
    http://ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/

  2. Doug McCaughan Avatar

    I’ll be taking a solar charger and rechargeable batteries so I’m less concerned about power consumption. Basically I have to decide “documentary style” or “quality pictures.”

  3. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    can you take a crap gps tagged photo with your iphone when you take good photos, at home change the meta data with the data on your good photos?

  4. Doug McCaughan Avatar

    Too much effort. The decision here is a little less about the GPS and more about whether or not I timelapse and video document the trip or if I photo document the trip.

  5. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    personally I always prefer your time lapse. it has more character to it. if i want really good photo of ________ i go to google and search for images. plus someone else would be more likely to have a good camera

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