For an extending compact like that, you'll want the #420 bag with the hard tube and built-in lens or you'll be straining the zoom motor, particularly under the pressure of 5m of water. Even then the spec some websites show of a 30mm interior extension is about 2mm too optimistic. I needed to insert a spacer cut from a plastic funnel and rubbed down smooth to fit my cheap little Fuji in without it whacking the glass whenever I turned it on.
You'll also want to make sure your camera doesn't rely on a sliding power switch or a dial selector, as you'll never be able to operate it through the bag. And if the badly thought-out paper dessicant sack bursts the grains are very likely to kill your camera, even if seawater never does.
Still, the bag itself is a damn good piece of kit and a lot more worthwhile than those diving cases they only make for the most over-priced cameras. So other than actually trying it in a real environment or saying anything useful about it, great review guys...XXX
Oh dear, accidentally good demo of translation limitations in your note about the Franklin. Screen's last 'word' in phonetic translation, yukai, should be yukuai, 'joy'. With its many homonyms, you don't want mispronounce Chinese - you might be saying its been a _waste_ doing business with you.
I'm not sure it really adds to the protection for the drive, and I wouldn't want the full weight hanging off my computer's USB connector. Get a knife with the tools you want, and get a USB drive with the features you want.
Besides, I'd like to keep my data seperate from a knife, the way the plods are these days.
You are mistaken, sirs, in believing that those gentle souls, the good citizens of the US of A, would be so crude as to mention the word, ahem, 'toilet'.
Maybe that's why when abroad they're so often full of.......
The best thing about the Oregon (well, one of the best things because it's really a great device) is that you don't have to pay for maps anymore in many cases. It works fine with openstreetmap.org maps, including car and bicycle routing.
Bonus: a flashlight, and a cell-phone charger... And it's cheaper than the FreePlay and much much lighter FreePlay: 112 x 60 x 186mm and 700g: Eton: 126 x 60 x 46 mm and 200 g.
While the specs on the webpage lists an extra weather radio band, mine has two shortwave bands. (Because I purchased it outside of the USA?)
I'd be a bit wary of pronouncing the toughness of these things until you've lived with one for a while. I've got a FreePlay Summit, a nice little unit: portable, ok sound quality for the size, and sort of neat to look at. However I tried to be uber-green and never charge it from the mains, only using solar (left on a window ledge) and the winder. After a couple of years the teeth wore on the winder gears, and that became useless.
I called their support peeps, who sold me so new gears for about a tenner. However when I got the back off to fit them I discovered the mechanism was fairly solidly glued in, and I managed to break the wiring for connecting it to the battery! So now it only works when charged from the mains :-(
The WiFi detector - if you've already got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get software WiFi detectors off the app store. I use WiFiTrak, but there are loads of them. It will show you networks that are technically too weak to use so don't show up in the standard network list, so you know to do a bit of wandering watching the meter to get closer.
Wind-up radio - the Tesco own-brand equivalent is £8, has a good LED torch on it, and I'm sure is lighter than 700g - could be a lot smaller, of course. Wouldn't say I use mine extensively, but it's still going and the charge lasts amazingly well with no use for a NiMH. Tuning is a bit fiddly as it's not geared.
One point - the solar phone charger, are you sure the battery's only 150mAh? That's tiny, should be 1500mAh surely.
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Joefish
Aquapac bag #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 13:58 GMT
For an extending compact like that, you'll want the #420 bag with the hard tube and built-in lens or you'll be straining the zoom motor, particularly under the pressure of 5m of water. Even then the spec some websites show of a 30mm interior extension is about 2mm too optimistic. I needed to insert a spacer cut from a plastic funnel and rubbed down smooth to fit my cheap little Fuji in without it whacking the glass whenever I turned it on.
You'll also want to make sure your camera doesn't rely on a sliding power switch or a dial selector, as you'll never be able to operate it through the bag. And if the badly thought-out paper dessicant sack bursts the grains are very likely to kill your camera, even if seawater never does.
Still, the bag itself is a damn good piece of kit and a lot more worthwhile than those diving cases they only make for the most over-priced cameras. So other than actually trying it in a real environment or saying anything useful about it, great review guys...XXX
Rik Hemsley
So if we take all of these with us... #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 14:55 GMT
... we can be the saddest, most paranoid geeks at the festival?
garetht t
Ooops #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 14:55 GMT
"However, if you do come over all Lord Lichfield"
Look.. I apologised once..
fnordianslip
Monkey nuts? #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 15:02 GMT
I think you have got confused between your monkeys and your nuts!
fnord
b 3
lacies are indded "rugged"! #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 15:59 GMT
hi,
i bought a 320gb rugged and a m8 bought a 500gb one..
he dropped his from a height of about 2m onto a CONCRETE floor..
np drive fired up without batting an eyelid..
when i first got one of these i thought it was a bit gay and asking for trouble to call it the "rugged", but it would seem it really is!
cheers,
bill
Thomas Shinnick
Unhappily unjoyful #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 15:59 GMT
Oh dear, accidentally good demo of translation limitations in your note about the Franklin. Screen's last 'word' in phonetic translation, yukai, should be yukuai, 'joy'. With its many homonyms, you don't want mispronounce Chinese - you might be saying its been a _waste_ doing business with you.
Will 22
Tittle Tattle Tooting #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 17:31 GMT
"...However, if you do come over all Lord Lichfield..."
Then you're a better man than me, Gunga Din!
A J Stiles
Franklin TGA-490 12 Language Speaking Dictionary #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:37 GMT
I will not buy this record -- it is scratched.
Dave Bell
USB Swiss Army Knife #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:37 GMT
But why?
I'm not sure it really adds to the protection for the drive, and I wouldn't want the full weight hanging off my computer's USB connector. Get a knife with the tools you want, and get a USB drive with the features you want.
Besides, I'd like to keep my data seperate from a knife, the way the plods are these days.
Al Pha
Good Luck... #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:37 GMT
trying to get that knife on the plane...
Hope you like cavity searches administered by a big customs guy with no medical training.
F MacIllFhinnein
Translations #
Posted Friday 31st July 2009 22:37 GMT
You are mistaken, sirs, in believing that those gentle souls, the good citizens of the US of A, would be so crude as to mention the word, ahem, 'toilet'.
Maybe that's why when abroad they're so often full of.......
Tipjip
Oregon Maps #
Posted Monday 3rd August 2009 08:47 GMT
The best thing about the Oregon (well, one of the best things because it's really a great device) is that you don't have to pay for maps anymore in many cases. It works fine with openstreetmap.org maps, including car and bicycle routing.
Paul Renault
Better Travel Radio, the Eton FR150 #
Posted Monday 3rd August 2009 08:47 GMT
Eton FR150 Travel Radio:
http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=353085
Bonus: a flashlight, and a cell-phone charger... And it's cheaper than the FreePlay and much much lighter FreePlay: 112 x 60 x 186mm and 700g: Eton: 126 x 60 x 46 mm and 200 g.
While the specs on the webpage lists an extra weather radio band, mine has two shortwave bands. (Because I purchased it outside of the USA?)
Jason Togneri
Wi-fi detectors are becoming obsolete #
Posted Monday 3rd August 2009 08:47 GMT
What with everything from modern Nokias to PDAs to iPods being able to connect to wireless networks, is there really much need for a wi-fi detector?
NogginTheNog
FreePlay radio #
Posted Monday 3rd August 2009 08:47 GMT
I'd be a bit wary of pronouncing the toughness of these things until you've lived with one for a while. I've got a FreePlay Summit, a nice little unit: portable, ok sound quality for the size, and sort of neat to look at. However I tried to be uber-green and never charge it from the mains, only using solar (left on a window ledge) and the winder. After a couple of years the teeth wore on the winder gears, and that became useless.
I called their support peeps, who sold me so new gears for about a tenner. However when I got the back off to fit them I discovered the mechanism was fairly solidly glued in, and I managed to break the wiring for connecting it to the battery! So now it only works when charged from the mains :-(
Alan Edwards
Alternatives... #
Posted Monday 3rd August 2009 12:14 GMT
The WiFi detector - if you've already got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get software WiFi detectors off the app store. I use WiFiTrak, but there are loads of them. It will show you networks that are technically too weak to use so don't show up in the standard network list, so you know to do a bit of wandering watching the meter to get closer.
Wind-up radio - the Tesco own-brand equivalent is £8, has a good LED torch on it, and I'm sure is lighter than 700g - could be a lot smaller, of course. Wouldn't say I use mine extensively, but it's still going and the charge lasts amazingly well with no use for a NiMH. Tuning is a bit fiddly as it's not geared.
One point - the solar phone charger, are you sure the battery's only 150mAh? That's tiny, should be 1500mAh surely.
Alan.
Huntley
Franklyn, my dear... #
Posted Tuesday 4th August 2009 08:38 GMT
Thomas Shinnick is right. Should be yu kuai, not yu kai. Piss poor. Also, why no tone signs?
非用
Dex
"You call that a knife......" #
Posted Tuesday 11th August 2009 13:57 GMT
"THIS is a knife...." "...it's a USB stick"
Think Simpsons.....