Expert: Abe - 10/19/2008

Question
Hi, I hope you can help me with choosing the correct camera for a trip I am making to the Amazon next year. I would like the camera for taking wildlife, (mainly insect and small animal)and people photos. All subjects I will be photographing will be from ten inches to 20 meters away. No long range zooming. The camera will need to be very waterproof (wet season) and shockproof (Clumsy guy) as I will be treking through the jungle for 3 weeks. I will need it to be chargeable via a solar charger. This trip is a once in a life time so while I don't have an unlimited budget quality and reliability is paramount. Please help. Struggling seeing through all the marketing rubbish on the net. Any help would be great. Thanks

Answer
There is no camera on the market that is completely shock or weatherproof, but there are some that do better than others. What you closest to describing is a digital SLR that has very good weather sealing. If your budget is not unlimited, I would suggest a Pentax K20D and some of Pentax's weather-sealed lenses. The camera body and two lenses will cost you approximately $2500-3000. You'll need one macro lenses (for the bugs) and one zoom lens that has an adequate wide angle and telephoto range to suit your needs. I don't know of any camera that is chargeable via solar power, so you'll need to take along some charged spare batteries.