That's right, 1 day to go until 5 days of metal, relaxation, light drizzle and beer. I've been preparing electronic survival kit because, frankly, I don't want to risk my iPhone, very nice watch or my good camera by taking them to a field full of mud and thousands of people. Astonishingly, I've also managed to do it on a very small budget.
Phone
One of the things I'm looking forward to this weekend is a lack of connectivity. For a guy who carries the Internet around in his pocket, this may sound odd, but with the world the way it is at the moment I think a few days of blissful disconnection will be nice. So here is my Bloodstock Phone:
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| Samsung E1110 |
The Samsung E1110. It's a phone. It makes phone calls. It sends text messages. It has vibration alert. It costs £10. What more could I need when the only messages I'll need to send are "where are you?" and "where's the beer?"
Watch
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| Casio F-91W |
The one, the only, the classic Casio F-91W. Favoured by business executives and schoolboys in the '80s, and now favoured by people who want to explode a very reliable timer for some reason, this is the ultimate retro-chic watch. And it costs £9. The water resist will be very handy for when I'm diving into the mud, and the light will make it useful at all hours. Perfect.
Camera
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| Canon Powershot A495 |
Those who know me well will know that I don't take the subject of cameras lightly. I had very specific requirements for this assignment; cheap, reliable and standard batteries (no battery packs). The Canon Powershot A495 seemed to fit the bill nicely, and at a very reasonable £50 (for a Canon compact, no less! None of your Samsung rubbish here) it doesn't break the bank. In fact, it's so good that I sold my old compact (Fuji S1600) because, while the feature set is severely lacking in comparison, the Canon blows it away in pretty much every way. Sure, it doesn't have full manual mode or 15x zoom or many fancy modes and options, but it does what a camera should; it takes pictures. And it does it well. In fact I've taken to carrying it around all the time just in case I see something and the DSLR would be too cumbersome.
It wasn't the first camera I chose. Initially I picked up a Praktica SlimPix 5250. That seemed to fit the bill very well indeed, for many reasons. First, it has a plastic sliding cover to protect it while not in use. It also has no zoom or autofocus, so no moving parts to fail. Unfortunately, though, the picture quality was appallingly bad. In bright light it was ok, but as the light level dropped the fixed f/8 aperture was just too much for it, and the limited range of ISO meant that slooooow shutter speeds were the order of the day. I was hoping for a Lomo, grungy style. Oh, boy, did I get it!
The other issue was that it ate batteries like no tomorrow. The Canon lasts ages on a single pair of AAs. I still have the Praktica just in case I feel like doing some extremely lo-fi photography, but it'll probably just stay in the drawer looking forlorn alongside my 35mm compact which, despite having practically no features, is 4x the size of the A495.
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| Q-Strap |
The other thing I'll be taking along is my Q-Strap. It's a low-budget rip-off of the famous R-Strap, and is a sort of sling that attaches to the tripod socket of the camera body via a sturdy carabiner. The sling-like arrangement allows the camera to hang by your side out of the way, but slides up the strap on a runner making quick access very easy indeed. I use it all the time with my SLRs and have experimented with the A495 too. The tiny size of the camera means that it hangs nicely by my side, and if I put the Q-Strap on underneath my coat, it will be protected from the elements, too.
So that's my festival electronic survival kit. I think it should serve me well. As long as I remember to charge the phone and take batteries with me ...
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