Best Technology For Long-Distance Travel?

An anonymous reader writes "Over the past year I have traveled across the globe for work but I can't seem to find the right balance of technology to take with me. After reading a CNET article about tech for traveling, I'm still slightly undecided about what hardware suits me best. On the work side of things I need a laptop, nothing fancy but it can't be too heavy or slow. I also need a smart phone that can receive emails across the world and if possible a satellite navigation device, as I need to get to less-traveled locations on a regular basis. From a personal perspective I need my music but I don't care about video, so I'm looking for something with high-quality audio and great battery life. A compact camera wouldn't go amiss but dSLRs are too heavy for my needs and carrying strength, so something I can tuck in a pocket would be perfect. Any suggestions greatly appreciated."

Comments

Re:Hmm... I think

[Brian Gordon]

In any case, we already know the Best Laptop for Going Around the World.

best camera

[Ruie]

And best camera is easy to figure out as well:

• Digital is an easy choice - just from the point of view of durability of media and ease of acquiring lots of pictures
• 4-5 megapixels is the minimum to take a full 1:1 picture of a page and be able to read indices in formulas (this was you can use your camera instead of Xerox).
• Anything with more than 5 megapixels needs digital image stabilization - otherwise your extra resolution will be smeared out by natural shaking of your hands (or even your tripod - but this takes effect later).
• Similarly large "tele" zoom is useless - if you zoomed in 10x closer to your subject you have 10 times the effect of shaking (and thus need a good tripod or very short exposure time).
• Good wideangle on the other hand is great - not only you can get more of the scene in a small room but it also reduces the effect of shaking.

Thus you want a camera with digital image stabilization, as good wideangle as possible and at least 5 megapixels. Last time I did the round up (a few months ago) there were surprisingly few cameras that met these conditions - mostly because most of what is on the shelves in "Best Buy" (not best for at least several years) does not have any wideangle whatsoever.

My purchase was Panasonic Lumix LX-2 which, at the time, was not available in any store in Boston so I had to order it from Vahns. I was not disappointed and even found the movie mode to be useful - it has a higher resolution than my camcorder (which is NTSC like) and, best of all, the movie files are mpeg4 encoded and play readily on my Kubuntu systems.

Re:Just do your own research.

[jamesh]

Plus it runs on Sybian...

I think you meant Symbian not Sybian.