Bike Touring Photography Kit, New Gear for The New Year

It always feels good to finish the year in a way that feels good in a sense of moving forward into the new year.  So ending the year by replacing a glitchy old bulky DSLR Canon Rebel with the newest Canon G series camera in the G16 has been such a wonderful treat.  Not simply due to the compact size and weight of the G16 but that it is has proven to be the best camera I could find and afford without sacrificing image quality.

After reviewing many of the four thirds cameras which were actually quite expensive considering I would have needed a couple of lenses and then comparing the low light image quality of some of the better quality bridge cameras or super zoom cameras not only were the lenses considerably huge but to get a good quality image were cost prohibitive.  Also some of both types of cameras mentioned didn't provide an optical view finder which is something I felt would be important to have should the camera screen be difficult to view in bright sunlight.

Having a good enough quality image to make prints from or list for stock photography was another criteria I was looking for and was willing to accept some limitations for blogging and sharing to social networks.  However, that limitation is not the case with the G16.  Although some folks have complained about the wifi feature not working very well with their phones, Canon has since improved this with the Camera Connect App rather than the older Camera Window App.  This makes sharing to Instagram or uploading to your favorite photo storage system much easier when traveling.

Photo shown above was looking quite good and needed a good tripod for slow shutter speed in order to render the image sharp enough for approval with my stock photo agency at dreamstime. For this reason I went about researching some of the most popular travel tripods that offer compact, lightweight designs.  One of the greatest hurdles was cost vs. versatility and function.  Many of the more popular designs either didn't extend tall enough or if they did they were simply too bulky or heavy.  This could be one of the main reasons when I researched the leading bike touring blogs I didn't find the information I was looking for.  I was trying to remember what tripod my old friend Harry Boyd used back in the day and it was a Slik. Then I found the Slik Mini II and what a pleasant surprise to find a such a lightweight compact design that would in no way adversely effect my bike touring kit.

Long time Pro Photographer friend Harry Boyd 

At 1.7 pounds and a closed length of just under fourteen inches, a fully extended height of forty three inches while providing more than stable support for the little Canon G16 it has turned out to be a tripod that has met all of my expectations in a nice, quality, durable tripod that I'm certain will last for years to come.  Making low light or night photos much easier and without all the noise of lesser quality cameras.

Night photography or low light images are not an issue with the Canon G16 and Slik Mini II tripod.

As I recently had five out of eight images approved with my stock photo agency I wanted to share this information with fellow bike touring folks who might be looking for a versatile, lightweight, compact photography kit that is affordable and of excellent quality.  Visit my blog articles at Bike Tourings by clicking on links provided below.  Happy New Year!!!
Slik Mini II Tripod
Canon G16