Yes, I know. iPhone smyphone. Sure, it has a great camera but it does not fit comfortably in the pocket of my shorts when running. I don't want to worry about losing the damn thing or sweating it to death during the Hong Kong summer. And I am sure as hell not wearing on of those ridiculous posing pouches for it either. Plus, so far I have succeeded in refusing to have one and I hope to continue to do so until such point as my clients tie me down and physically force one upon me.
Anyway, in light of this, there was a need for a camera I could take running. The brief was simple, it should be a proper stills camera capable of taking half decent shots, and be as small and light as possible. No problem.
After much research it turns out that its not so simple. Most ultra compact cameras are actually neither small or light so its quite a challenge. And none of the manufacturers really see size and weight as important marketing criteria so it requires a bit of digging to find out what is what. Decent pocket-able options are few and far between. There are actually more options in the sports-video-gopro market than stills camera arena.
The solution was a Nikon Coolpix S01. It is tiny (77x51x17mm-so fits in my pockets), super light (96g- so around the weight of 3 gels which is manageable) and seems to just about take photos. I wouldn't want to be taking studio shots with it but for the task in hand it seems to do the trick. I have no idea how to use it properly yet other than switch it on, point it in my desired direction and press the shutter but hey, its early days and its already a step in the right direction.
The other aspect of this how to protect it. With the humidity in Hong Kong, sweat with running is a serious threat to electronic devices. A completely waterproof minimal pouch for it was the order of the day. I could have probably just settled for a ziplock bag (which might still happen) but I for now I ended up taping up a mini roll-top pouch in a some super light Cuben Fibre laminate material I had lying around. It weighs practically nothing (3g) and is completely waterproof. Fingers crossed it protects against sweat death or there won't be many images on here.....
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