A UK friendly specific EDC gadget thread!

[Deeps]

Aye, the camera is quite slow, but I've not had any problems. The quality of the images are excellent - I even bought a bridge camera from Argos because I wanted a dedicated camera thinking it would be better. It's not. Takes ages to focus, it's dead blurry and crappy half the time, and then when the image is absolutely perfect it's still not as good as my camera phone.

I might go for the G4 at some point - or maybe the G5 once it comes out. But to be honest, I've had dozens of smart phones and the newer ones are never that much better than the previous models. Once the novelty wears off I always feel disappointed.

The G2 is excellent, the G3 is better (only reason is the memory card and battery) and the G4 is slightly better again but not better enough to upgrade.

They're all just little plain black slabs at the end of the day, innit.

My mate who does a lot of ebaying was complaining that his very expensive camera was crap for taking close ups for his postings, he ended up using his mobile, close up it was way better and he uses a fairly basic samsusng, (an A3 I think). Horses for courses maybe.

[Jamesey1981]

Every camera has a minimum distance they can focus at, that'll increase if you use an optical zoom, if you have a macro setting that will usually help, (although it won't give you true macro, that is when you use a lens that gives you an image at your film plane or sensor that is the same size or larger than the original object, which will usually require a specific macro lens, extension tubes or a set of bellows) as can focusing manually if your camera will let you, if it won't then increase the amount of light, the brighter it is, the easier it will find it to focus. You can also cheat it by using a narrower aperture if you can, as that will increase your depth of field so that when the aperture stops down the photo can be focused even if the image you viewed through the viewfinder wasn't.

Smartphone cameras are usually designed to focus in close so that teenagers can send each other pictures of their bits, they also use software to clean up the image which will lose colour saturation, create noise and mess with your image as its a fake effect, like you'd apply in Photoshop after you've taken your photo, I would always prefer to have the photo the way it comes, and then I can clean it up using better software than the smartphone includes afterwards if it needs it.

As a general rule, unless it's a Leica, I would never consider a bridge camera an expensive camera, they're all built down to a price and have various limitations, what they are depends on what the manufacturer decided was important for the market that they were aiming that particular model at, some of them can be very good, I have a great little Olympus, and some of the LUMIX cameras are very good, but if I want the best picture I can get then I use one of my Canon SLRs, I have lenses that run into the thousands on their own, and even those are cheap by expensive camera standards, a few years ago Hasselblad launched a digital camera that listed at £22,000 for the body only, no lenses, nice, very nice indeed, but designed for people that make a living taking photos, not mere mortals like the rest of us.

Part of the problem is that when people buy cameras they only tend to look at the megapixels, resolution really isn't everything, and quite often manufacturers use tricks to artificially inflate it, they're not lying, but it does make the stated resolution largely irrelevant.
There are plenty of bridge cameras that have higher resolutions than my canons, but the images they turn out are nowhere near as good, a bigger part of it is the quality and size of the sensor, which technology it uses, and the quality of the image processor, optics and software, something that's very lacking when it comes to smartphones, they'll take good snaps, but if you know how to use your camera and edit an image then you almost always get a higher quality image.

[tanstaafl]

Sorta connected , but part of my car EDC is a Nokia 101 ...... Great backup phone .........

9 months in the glove compartment before I checked it and still 60% charged. switched off of course but apparently over a month on standby..........

[Jamesey1981]

I do like basic nokias, the 215 reckons on a 30 day standby time, so you'd probably see close to 20 with light use, smartphone battery in a feature phone, brilliant idea, and tough as old boots and dirt cheap, and has basic internet access, there'll be a couple going in my emergency kits shortly once I manage to find the fluorescent green ones!

[metatron]

I've got a Nokia 101 dual sim phone in my first aid kit, very nice phone.

[munchh]

I have a samsung e1200 dual sim in my edc, they are about £15 same sort of thing calls and txts thats it, 30day standby

[metatron]

I have a samsung e1200 dual sim in my edc, they are about £15 same sort of thing calls and txts thats it, 30day standby

Yeah nice thing is you can get replacement batteries for under £5. I like having spares for things just in case.

[dangerman]

Anyone bought any new gadgets? I've not. I'm getting itchy.

You lot must all be aiming for EDC stuff for your chrimbo pressies. Yes? Anything hoped for but not owned?

[digi]

i remember dropping my old nokia 3110 off the top of a ladder onto the patio below it wasnt as bad as it sounds though, i paid £3 for a new patio slab to replace the one that got smashed and everything was good again (the phone was fine once i put the case back onto it)

[metatron]

Received a few things that may go into EDC.

Gerber Shard. First impressions is its well made and would work well for prying, I'll probably keep it in my wallet.



Energizer 6 LED Industrial Headlight

Its bright and has a bunch of modes, the red LED's are nice and its very comfortable, the angle adjustment has a clicky sound and feels like its going to fail over time.



Rough Rider Fixed Mini, really nice little neck knife and has a solid lock up in its sheaf. The cordage they used was terrible, so I did switch it out with some black 550. Really like the look and feel, only down side is the high polish finish as its a finger print magnet.



Will also EDC some hot sauce I got, as it will add some flavour to the petrol station food I often eat while driving long distances at work.