Spiffyguy
New member
I figured I would ask here since you guys are know a lot about cameras 
My mother is an adventerous sort and will be going to Africa in July to climb Mt Killimanjaro, yes she is a crazy type. She has done adventures in the past and brought a small 35mm camera with her. She wants to upgrade and get a digital but doesn't know much about them. I have a cheap point shoot and know nothing about cameras really. So I am looking for some suggestions but there is some criteria I am trying to meet. So here goes.
1. needs to be easy to use. It is my mother and she can't even check email. She can learn but navigation needs to be good.
2. it needs a bit of optical zoom, maybe about 4 or 5. She likes her point and shoot 35mm which I looked up the lens and it compares to 4 or 5 optical.
3. It needs to take AA batteries. She will be on the mountain for 9 days then off to the Serengeti for some safari stuff, yes I am jealous. So there will be almost no access to power to recharge batteries. So she will bring a bunch of batteries for the trip and swap them out as she goes.
4. it needs to be fairly small and light. She will be wearing it on a backpack strap which she does with her 35mm.
5. This is the weird one. It needs to weather both cold and hot temps. The temps on the summit are around 30 degrees she said. So it will need to be able to function in that temp. She will keep the camera inside her jacket at that height to keep it warm but I worry about the lens fogging up. Maybe someone has some tips on this. They say that people who bring film cameras should sleep with the film to keep it from freezing. Digital I don't think would have that problem but there is an operating temp range on all the cameras I am sure. Can memory cards freeze?
I think that is it. Memory card wise it should't really matter. Price will be a factor but she will probably buy a few smaller cards than get one big one. Cards are so small that she will have not issues fitting them in her pack. So any thoughts, suggestions or tips on what to look for would be great.
Thanks
My mother is an adventerous sort and will be going to Africa in July to climb Mt Killimanjaro, yes she is a crazy type. She has done adventures in the past and brought a small 35mm camera with her. She wants to upgrade and get a digital but doesn't know much about them. I have a cheap point shoot and know nothing about cameras really. So I am looking for some suggestions but there is some criteria I am trying to meet. So here goes.1. needs to be easy to use. It is my mother and she can't even check email. She can learn but navigation needs to be good.
2. it needs a bit of optical zoom, maybe about 4 or 5. She likes her point and shoot 35mm which I looked up the lens and it compares to 4 or 5 optical.
3. It needs to take AA batteries. She will be on the mountain for 9 days then off to the Serengeti for some safari stuff, yes I am jealous. So there will be almost no access to power to recharge batteries. So she will bring a bunch of batteries for the trip and swap them out as she goes.
4. it needs to be fairly small and light. She will be wearing it on a backpack strap which she does with her 35mm.
5. This is the weird one. It needs to weather both cold and hot temps. The temps on the summit are around 30 degrees she said. So it will need to be able to function in that temp. She will keep the camera inside her jacket at that height to keep it warm but I worry about the lens fogging up. Maybe someone has some tips on this. They say that people who bring film cameras should sleep with the film to keep it from freezing. Digital I don't think would have that problem but there is an operating temp range on all the cameras I am sure. Can memory cards freeze?
I think that is it. Memory card wise it should't really matter. Price will be a factor but she will probably buy a few smaller cards than get one big one. Cards are so small that she will have not issues fitting them in her pack. So any thoughts, suggestions or tips on what to look for would be great.
Thanks
