RE: [Paddlewise] Is this thing working

I know what you mean. I turned 69 a couple days ago. I had intended to try
to roll 69 times that day over the course of a couple of hours, but I woke
up with no energy and, the promised high being in the 90s, decided to
cancel. I did do some rolling the two previous weeks after not doing any for
the previous two or three years, but it certainly seemed harder than it did
five years ago. It can't be because I'm older; it must be due to lack of
practice.

I'm currently planning a camping trip in the Apostle Islands National
Lakeshore next month, and saw that I could get a 50% reduction in camping
fees if I only had a Senior Pass for federal parks. So I drove over to the
Mississippi River Visitor Center this morning and bought one for myself. I
don't know why I didn't do this years ago -- I've been eligible for seven
years.

Finally tried out my Sony RX100 camera with the Meikon/Meike waterproof case
on the water. The case is about the size of an amateur DSLR with a prime
lens, has a good grip, and is easy to operate. It floats with the camera
inside, so on local lakes I don't bother to leash it like I did the old
Nikonos V. The case is just barely small enough to tuck inside my PFD when
rolling, and the OP/TECH Fast Cap I put on it does a pretty good job of
keeping water off the lens when rolling. I've had to reorient the Fast Cap,
though, to minimize water droplets on it when I'm paddling with it open; it
now opens to the right instead of down. All camera controls work except the
wheel on the back, but that affects mainly setting manual exposures, as
there are workarounds for the other functions. Focusing can be problematic
when glare and reflections obscure the view screen. When using the no-brain
multisegment auto focusing, it frequently focuses on the kayak's reflection
rather than on the paddler, whereas with flexible spot focusing sometimes
its hard to see the spot to place it accurately on the subject; still, there
are many more hits than misses. Automatic white balance is excellent, and
with the live view histogram option, it's easy to override the auto exposure
before snapping the picture. Another camera feature I like is the ability to
save up to three sets of settings, including focal length. This allows me to
quickly load different settings for use on water than on land. On water, for
instance, I set a fixed shutter speed to minimize motion blur, whereas on
land I might use program or aperture mode. All in all, a good combination of
camera and case for sea kayaking.
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