I commented previously about the question of which photo gear to bring with me: the digital all-in-one with the huge storage capacity, or the 35mm SLR with nicer controls and an assortment of lenses from 24mm-500mm. I’ve solved that dilemma by getting a new camera that pretty closely covers both bases.

It’s the Olympus SP-570UZ, a recent descendant of my 5-year-old digital camera (the SP-500UZ). I got it used but in like-new condition from B&H Photo, one of the big New York City camera stores, paying $289 (with shipping) for a customer-returned camera that routinely sells for $400-450. Deal.

The 570UZ doubles the zoom range of the old 500UZ, to 20X. At the wide end, it equals a 26mm lens on a traditional SLR, which is almost as good as my 24mm, and at the long end, it equals a 520mm, which actually surpasses my 500mm mirror lens! The 500UZ’s zoom range starts at 38mm, which in my opinion is not a “wide angle”. I was never even happy with the 28mm that most experienced photogs use as their wide lens (which is why I went with a 24mm), so I consider this a huge improvement. And as long as you have a way to deal with camera shake, you can never have too long a telephoto.

Speaking of which, one shortcoming of the 500UZ (even when it was new) was the lack of image stabilization, which is a technology that’s possible with digital cameras and very helpful when using a lightweight camera with a long telephoto lens. The 570UZ has it, and with just the little bit of experimentation I’ve done with it, I’m amazed at how sharp the results are, even with a long zoom and a fairly slow shutter speed. I always used to take pride in being able to do 1/15 sec. with a 50mm lens, and this camera just did a pretty sharp 300mm shot at 1/10!

One of the reasons I got the 500UZ instead of one of the other 10X cameras available back then was the fact that (unlike most non-SLR digitals) it wasn’t stuck on “auto everything”. I’ve never liked autofocus (slow and subject to error), and I’m used to selecting exposure parameters myself, and Olympus’ SP line lets you do things manually… after a fashion. Unfortunately, on the 500UZ that’s done by poking at buttons and switches, and watching a read-out on the display instead of twisting controls on the lens, like God obviously intended. The 570UZ changes that… or at least it tries to. It has a ring around the lens that controls a servo to zoom the lens in and out. That’s better than just pushing alternately on “wide” and “tele”, but it’s still not direct control, and it has a bit of lag, which is annoying. It also doesn’t stop when you reach the end, which feels weird. Then when you put the camera on manual focus (which is now a simple switch rather than something you have to find in the on-screen menu, thank you) you can use that same ring to focus (almost) like a real SLR! Unfortunately, it takes an ungodly amount of cranking to get from infinity to close up. Still awkward, but it’s better.. and I’ll take “better”. I just wish they’d get over this digitally-controlled-motor fetish and do manual focus and zoom like an SLR does it.

The 570UZ is noticeably bigger than the 500UZ in every dimension, to the point of being nearly the size of a 35mm SLR with a large standard lens. And when zooming in, the lens extends rather indecently. 🙂 That’s unfortunate, but it was inevitable with the more complicated zoom lens on this model. It’s still much smaller than a full 35mm kit with lenses would be, which is important when packing everything into the modest storage space of a scooter. And it’s self-contained.

They upped the sensor to 10Mpixels instead of 6Mp, which I don’t really need, but it’s nice to have if I want it. There are also some other new features in the 570UZ, but most of them are gee-whiz bits of artificial-intelligence that I don’t have any use for (e.g. a mode that detects when the subject smiles and snaps the picture at that instant). In effect, I paid just under $100 each to: upgrade the zoom range, add stabilization, and get better controls. (And that’s before selling the old camera.)

The biggest remaining question is what to do about snapshots. I won’t be able to ride with the 570UZ around my neck, and it can be a little time-consuming to start up and slow to adjust, so I’ll want something handy and quick for those oh-quick-look-now moments. I have my decade-old fully-automatic 1.3Mp 3X zoom Olympus D-460, which will fit OK in a jacket pocket. Or there’s the Aiptek PenCam I picked up for $15 on a whim a few years ago. It’s the equivalent of my first store-brand 110 point-and-click back in the 70s: barely tolerable quality, but idiot proof. It’s small and light enough to wear around my neck under my jacket.

When I was in 12th grade, my Lit teacher Richard Holm assigned our class to read a rather new book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It’s about – among other things – a man on a long-distance motorcycle trip with his 11-year-old son. At the time, my friend Adam Pinsky and I were already planning a long-distance bicycle trip, so it had some additional relevance to us. In addition to the philosophical insights the book offers, one practical insight we gained – later made crystal clear to us on some of our more physically demanding days in the saddle – was that a motorcycle would be a pretty good way to travel: most of the benefits of bicycling, but with many of the benefits of driving a car.

When you travel across the country by airplane, you don’t actually see the country. When you travel through it by car, you see the country but you’re still separated from it; (as Pirsig pointed out to me) it’s a bit like watching a widescreen movie of the trip in the frame of your windshield. At the other extreme, traveling on foot makes you part of the place, but it also takes a damn long time to go anywhere. A bicycle greatly expands your range while still keeping you in the environment, but if you’re straining to pedal up a hill you probably aren’t enjoying the view, and if you’re too exhausted when you get there to explore the ruins at Glastonbury, what’s the point? A motorbike is a good compromise, a mix of immersion and range.

So it’s no surprise that motorcycle travel is a fairly popular activity. There are motorcycles and equipment specifically designed for touring, and a thriving culture of runs and rallies. Motorcyclists still have the stereotype of biker gangs, but there’s lots of just regular folk out there cruising the highways on their Harleys and Hondas. Which is great for them, but I don’t want to ride a bike with an engine nearly as big as the one in my car, that gets gas mileage only a little better.

Traveling by scooter is much less common. It seems from my limited research that most of it’s being done on scooters that are legally classified as “motorcycles” due to their engine size: still much smaller than my car’s, but powerful enough to take hills at full speed and fast enough for the expressways. Which from my perspective is a mark against them, not for. First, there’s the issue of safety: I don’t want to be on a bike going 65mph. Yeah, you don’t have to go 65mph on a 150cc scooter, but if you can, you eventually will. (e.g. It looks like it’s about to rain, and you’re 5 miles from home.) I don’t feel that’s safe. But more importantly for this topic, if you’re riding on an expressway or even on a smaller highway at those speeds, everything close to you is a blur. You’re pretty near traveling by car… a convertible with two wheels.

I ride a 50cc scoot with a top speed (as shipped) of 30mph. With a fairly simple operation, they can be retuned to reach 40mph at full throttle. That means I’m not allowed on expressways, but I consider that a feature, not a bug. I’ll have to take what other people call “alternate routes”… which in many cases means “the routes that people took before the interstate went in”. The roads less traveled. If I may refer to a work with less profundity than Zen or the poetry of Frost, it’s what the movie Cars was about.

At a casual cruising speed of 25-30mph I can cover 100 miles in less than four hours, assuming I don’t stop. But I will.

I’ll encounter stop lights and stop signs. I may notice something interesting by the road, hit the kill switch and the kickstand, and go look. I might even be lucky enough to find some kids selling lemonade. I’m not just going to see places, I’m going to be places. (Isn’t that a Zen kinda thing?) A 50cc scooter is exactly the right vehicle for that.