One of the most common things we get asked about is for advice on staying connected to the net while on the road. Worrying about a lack of usable connectivity is an excuse that holds many people back from [...]]]> Note: This post originally written on 9/10/2010 and updated on 9/20/2011 to reflect current information.

One of the most common things we get asked about is for advice on staying connected to the net while on the road. Worrying about a lack of usable connectivity is an excuse that holds many people back from a life of nomadism, particularly if they are concerned about their ability to work and make their living online.

And though it is easier than many people fear, the truth is – it can occasionally be so maddeningly frustrating that even getting a simple one word email out can seem darn near impossible.

There is a scene in the film RV where Robin Williams is standing on top of his rig like the Statue of Liberty, trying desperately to send an email only to have his battery die just as his dozenth attempt looks finally likely to complete.

This series has been greatly expanded - and is now available as a convenient 'pay as you wish' eBook!

It is the funniest bit in an otherwise forgettable movie, but I didn’t laugh. I’ve been in that exact situation (and pose) way too many times…

The real secret to connectivity on the road is learning to be flexible, and embracing rather than struggling against the constantly changing ebbs and flows of bandwidth that might pass your way. Living as a technomad, some days you will have a connection that seems as if you are plugged directly into the heart of the Internet, and other days you will be wishing for an upgrade to IP over carrier pigeon.

What follows are some of our essential tips for staying connected while on the road, as well as our thoughts on and experience with some of the common connectivity options. There is no “one size fits all” ultimate answer for staying connected, so we invite all of our readers to share their success (and horror) stories in the comments as well.

Tip #1: Soak up any WiFi you find!

Often the fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to get online is to use public WiFi networks, and in some parts of the country and world these are growing increasingly easy to find. Many libraries, coffee shops, RV parks, motels, and even fast food restaurants now offer free WiFi. There are also plenty of paid WiFi networks to be found too, but sometimes these are free as well if you are connecting with a certain device. For example, AT&T smartphone users can connect for free at any Starbucks.

Though WiFi has the potential to be blazingly fast, some shared networks can be horribly overloaded, or their upstream connection may actually be little better than a dial-up modem. So just because you can connect via WiFi, it may not be worth using. Even at major tech conferences there have been times where our cellular-powered “Technomadia” WiFi hotspot is faster and more reliable than the official WiFi channel.

The other major limitation of WiFi is range. Sometimes we enjoy working in coffee shops, but usually we prefer to be at our home office in our RV, or computing outside under the shade of a tree. Most WiFi setups fall off to unusably slow connections just a hundred feet away from the base station, and in some RV parks only the nearest spots to the office can reliably connect via WiFi. But with a boosted WiFi antenna system you can manage to connect to a base station substantially further away than your unaided laptop alone ever could.

One option to pull in a distant signal is the Wirie, made by some sailing nomad friends of ours. Another nomad we have encountered swears by his Deliberant CPE2 WiFi Bridge mounted on top of a pointable PVC mast. We have also personally experimented some with an older version of the Wi-Fire, but found that aiming the antenna was awkward and the drivers were a bit unstable. (Reportedly improved in more recent versions, but we can not verify…)

Picking our ideal extended-range WiFi solution is on our list of upcoming Technomadia upgrades, so further recommendations and tips are appreciated.

Tip #2: Embrace multiple pipes!

The more possible on ramps to the Internet at your disposal, the more likely you are to find one that works. Embracing diversity of connection types and networks is the best possible way that you can maximize your chances of getting at least somewhat of a workable connection, particularly since WiFi alone is rarely going to be enough.

When Cherie and I first hit the road together, we had a Sprint Aircard EX720, shared as a WiFi hotspot via a Cradlepoint CTR350 router. We also had a Palm Treo smartphone on T-Mobile, a Pocket PC smartphone on Verizon, and both of those phones were configured to be tethered to and the connection shared via our laptops as well.

Having three of the four largest cell phone networks available for connectivity gave us a lot of potential towers to hit, and it is generally good advice for nomadic couples to have phones and data cards on as many diverse networks as possible.

Our current connectivity arsenal is (updated September 2011):

• Cherie’s cellphone: iPhone 4 on AT&T with a tethering plan ($20/mo for 4GB)
• Chris’ cellphone: iPhone 4 on AT&T, no tethering
• iPad 2 on AT&T: Unlimited data plan, used for all our video streaming ($30/mo – grandfathered in from iPad 1)
• Data USB Stick via CradlePoint Router: Millenicom Verizon 3G ($60/mo for 20GB)  (may soon upgrade to their 4G plan)
• Satellite Dish: Hughesnet ($80/mo for 425MB/day)

All except our iPhones are with no contract, and we regularly suspend the satellite dish when we know we’ll have reliable connection for a while.

Tip #3: Understand roaming & coverage issues!

Speaking of cellular networks – in our experience, there is no ideal network!  While Verizon looks to have the most coverage nationwide, we have been in plenty of places where only AT&T or only Verizon was usable.

One place where all the carriers have grown exceedingly deceptive is around “roaming”. Though no carriers charge you extra for domestic roaming any more, they tend to have special data roaming limits hidden in the fine print. But because they want their networks to seem as large as possible, they also go out of their way to hide from you that you may be roaming and running into these limits. For example…

By default on an AT&T iPhone, the network name is displayed as “AT&T” no matter who actually owns the towers you are connected to. In many rural areas, AT&T is actually roaming onto small regional cellular carriers, and AT&T reserves the right to cap your roaming usage at just 24MB/month. Only once you’ve bumped into this cap does AT&T adjust your phone to display “Off Network” so that you can better track your usage.

Sprint has a slightly more generous 300MB/month roaming cap, but we managed to inadvertently hit this and get our account suspended from roaming after just one day parked soaking up bandwidth in a location that had been seemingly showing five bars of solid Sprint service. Thus why we dropped our so-called grandfathered in unlimited Sprint plan, and switched to Millenicom.

Running into these roaming and coverage map issues actually inspired us to create Coverage?, an iPhone app that overlays the coverage maps of all the major carriers. We developed this app at the iOSDevCamp in August, and won the award for ‘Most Useful App’, and was released in January 2011.  It really is an extremely useful tool for technomads who plan their routes taking into account connectivity at least as much as scenery.

BTW – the great advantage of satellite Internet service is that you can connect anywhere you have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. But there are actually even coverage map issues when it comes to satellite. HughesNet offers service on a dozen different satellites, each with a different broadcast footprint and varying signal strengths across the nation. After comparing all the maps posted at DatastormUsers.com we selected Galaxy 28. This should allow us to connect while traveling into both southern Canada and partway down into Baja, Mexico.

(Changing Satellites on HughesNet is possible, but cumbersome. It is actually reportedly sometimes easier to cancel and reactivate service if you want to switch to a different satellite, for a trip to Alaska, for example…)

Tip #4: Beware near borders!

One final extremely important roaming tip – beware of cruise ships and international borders! While most carriers don’t charge you for domestic roaming, they all charge an arm and a leg for international roaming (including onto the onboard cell networks offered on cruises now). If you are going to be anywhere close to an international border, make sure to turn off data roaming on all of your devices. Otherwise, you might find that you accidentally stumbled into a multi-thousand dollar bill.

And to avoid any unpleasant cruise surprises (like paying $1.00 for an incoming text message), turn off your cell phones entirely as soon as the ship pulls out from port.

When we were living in the US Virgin Islands in the 2011 winter, we experienced frequent roaming onto the British Virgin Islands towers.

Tip #5: Know your caps!

Most fixed location Internet connections are unmetered, but mobile data is very commonly capped (usually at 5GB/month if you are direct with a carrier), and often comes with outrageous overage charges for “excessive” use. Buying a TV series in iTunes, or allowing your operating system to download a service pack, could end up costing you hundreds of dollars if you are not careful.

To avoid getting cut off without warning, or overage charge nightmares, you need to consciously control what you download and when. Turn OFF all your application and operating system auto-update features, and disable automatic podcast downloads and TV series subscriptions. Save your big downloads for the days when you are visiting friends with a fast cable modem connection, or a coffee shop with both ample caffeine and bandwidth to satisfy your cravings.

And though I am a strong believer in sharing your networks when you can (and I love it when people do), if you are on a capped connection you are a fool if you don’t put a password on your network. Otherwise, somebody parked in the next RV over might end up torenting a few pirated films on your dime. Don’t let this happen to you!

We tend to use over 5GB a month even when we are being extremely conservative with our Internet use, so we have been exceedingly wary of signing up for any capped plan with overage charges. So, we were thrilled to find Millenicom.

Millenicom is a virtual network provider – they do not own towers, and instead buy bulk capacity which they then resell. Their current selection of plans varies from time to time – but generally you can get at least double or quadruple the bandwidth, and sometimes even unlimited data caps. At our last check, they just started offering a plan with 4G service.

And, one of our favorite features – no contracts!  This makes it very easy for us to suspend or cancel service when we go overseas for a bit.

As they bulk buy their bandwidth, they can not advertise on their website which plan is with which carrier.   Usually they are offering Sprint & Verizon, and usually the one with unlimited or higher caps is Sprint.  We’ve found their customer service to be excellent, and they will confirm who the carrier is before you buy.  So be sure to do so before signing up to get the plan that will best suit your needs.

This series has been greatly expanded - and is now available as a convenient 'pay as you wish' eBook!

Another reseller of the Sprint network is Virgin Mobile, and they have just started offering a truly unlimited plan for just $40/month! The catch with Virgin Mobile and many other “prepaid” resellers is that they do not support roaming at all, and can only connect to the towers directly owned by Sprint. This works great if you live in a Sprint-heavy metro area, but it could put a serious damper on your ability to connect while traveling, particularly in more rural areas.

The caps on satellite service work a bit differently – they are based upon daily usage rather than monthly usage. The $79/month HughesNet plan that we are on offers us 425MB/day download before we get FAP’ed (Fair Access Policy) and the connection slows to a crawl for 24 hours. BUT – usage is unlimited between 11PM and 4AM (Pacific time), so you can stay up late or use a smart download manager to handle all your heavy download needs. HughesNet now also offers one free “reset token” each month that can reset your download limits should you ever get FAP’ed accidentally in the middle of a critical project. Additional reset tokens can be purchased for $10/each, or you can just log off for a while and wait for your usage bucket to refill.

Overall I think I prefer the daily limits and caps to the monthly plans with overage fees. It gives us more control, and I love the option of logging on late at night to handle OS updates. With cellular data, there is no such thing as “off peak” usage (a serious oversight, in our opinion).

Tip #6: Avoid contract lock-in!

Though you can often get your hardware cheap or free if you sign a two year contract, these contracts come at a price of severely limiting your technomadic flexibility to change carriers or even countries on a whim.

It is often better to buy used equipment, and avoid the lock-in if you can. If your situation ever changes, you can usually resell used equipment for the same price that you bought it for.

One perk of being out of contract is that you can often suspend your account without penalty when you no longer need that particular pipe to be active. HughesNet for example allows you to suspend service for up to six months of every year without penalty, or you can cancel and then reactivate after any length of time for just $25.

All the Millenicom plans are also contract free, and can be suspended – but only whole calendar months at a time, so the suspension is not nearly as flexible.

Tip #7: Learn parallelizing & batching!

Mobile connections tend to be slow, and even 3G connections can sometimes feel more like a dial up modem.

Another problem that is present with wireless connections but which is particularly prevalent on satellite links is latency – in thise case caused by the round-trip to geosynchronous orbit and back.

To fight slow speeds and high latencies, it is wise to divide your online tasks into things which absolutely need a fast connection, things which can be done on a slow connection, things which can be batched up for bulk downloading later, and things which can be done regardless of speed in the background. This way you can save up your bandwidth hogging tasks for the days you have fast WiFi available, and not stress about them at other times.

Things like email and syncing RSS readers work wonderfully in the background, and you often can’t even tell that you are on a slow or high-latency connection. But web surfing can feel painfully slow if every new page takes minutes to render. To deal with this, parallelize your browsing using multiple tabs. Whenever you see a link you want to follow, select “Open Link in New Tab” and make sure your browser is configured to load tabs in the background. You can queue up dozens of pages this way, and by the time you flip over to reading them they will have fully loaded in the background.

Once you get used to surfing this way, you’ll never go back to using just a single window without any tabs – even on a fast connection.

Tip #8: Boost what you have!

We had a Wilson cellular signal boosting system (ordered from Powerful Signal) built right into our Oliver trailer, featuring an external antenna, an amplifier, and an internal antenna that boosts the signal simultaneously for multiple cellular devices. And now that we’re traveling in a vintage bus, we just brought on board – courtesy of the awesome folks at Powerful Signal, the latest in mobile boosting power – a Top Signal 55db Booster Kit that will, in theory, work while in motion.

Courtesy of ImperfectDestiny.com

These systems aren’t magical, but on several occasions made the difference between having a barely detectable signal and a barely usable one.

We are also planning to add on an extensible mast to raise a directional antenna up even higher off the ground. Our friends Julie & Jim at Imperfect Destiny are having great results pulling in weak cellular signals with their 25′ mast-mounted antenna, often managing to turn a marginal and slow 2G signal into solidly usable 3G.

Tip #9: Satellite tips – spot beams & tripods…

When selecting a mobile satellite setup, you can go with an expensive roof mounted robotically aimed dish that can lock on to a signal with the push of a button, or you can go with a tripod mounted system that has to be manually set up and aimed – an admittedly very cumbersome process.

For us, the choice was obvious when we had our small trailer – our roof is already completely covered with solar panels, so we had no space for a large roof mounted dish. We were considering our satellite system an experiment, so we wanted to avoid something exceedingly expensive and permanent.

A tripod system is also vastly cheaper that a roof mount – we bought ours for $600 used, whereas roof mounted robotic systems cost $4000 – $8000 for the equipment.

Tripods have one other advantage as well – you can better position them to find a gap in the trees to hit the satellite. Even the smallest branch in the way can obscure the signal, so this flexibility can come in handy while still allowing you to park in the cooler shade.

On the other hand, it is not practical to set up a tripod and manually aim a dish to grab a bit of Internet when you are pulling off the road for lunch…

One final satellite specific tip… Make sure that you get a satellite system that supports moving around the country. Some satellite providers (like Wild Blue) use spot beams that limit your usage to within 100 miles or so from your officially provisioned address. This is great for spectrum usage efficiency, but horrible for nomads who roam.

The preferred satellite systems for RV’ers in North America are StarBand and especially HughesNet – both of which (at least unofficially) support moving your dish around the country. But if you go with HughesNet, make sure you get an HN7000S modem and service plan. The newer 9000 modem is actually using spot beam technology and will NOT work if you relocate it.

Tip #10: Final Tip — Manage expectations!

If you are planning in advance on having good net days and bad net days (and even no net days), you can better manage your own expectations around what you will be able to get done online, and when. Managing your expectations is perhaps the ultimate key to avoiding frustration.

And if you are working on the road, proactively share your situation and expected connectivity with your clients, boss and coworkers. Let them know that some days you’ll be fast enough to video chat, others barely able to send an email, and occasionally you may not be connected and reachable at all. If they are in the know and are expecting this, it is rarely a big deal. More often than not, your clients will think that it is friggin cool that you are getting work done for them in the middle of nowhere.

And when you do have critical online work to be done, allow yourself plenty of time to make sure that the connection where you are going is going to be fast and reliable enough. If not – you just might need to relocate and find yourself a plan B.

Sure mobile connectivity can be a major hassle sometimes. But when your view is changing every day, you are able to Skype from the middle of the Black Rock Desert, and handle a contract from the top of a mountain in a national park, the hassles are so absolutely worth it…

This series has been greatly expanded - and is now available as a convenient 'pay as you wish' eBook!

We love our iPhones (and yes, we did just both upgrade to the new iPhone 4), and we are growing increasingly addicted to our iPads (yup, we have two).

We consider both of these fine pieces of technology to be [...]]]> As Technomads, it should be no surprise that we are mobile technology lovers.

We love our iPhones (and yes, we did just both upgrade to the new iPhone 4), and we are growing increasingly addicted to our iPads (yup, we have two).

We consider both of these fine pieces of technology to be essential components of our technomadic arsenal. There is something magical about having the Internet in your pocket, a world’s worth of maps on your lap, email and messaging always with you, music and video on demand, and an abundance of incredible apps that every day make our iGadgets ever more useful tools for facilitating our full time domestic travels.

Oh, and apparently the iPhone actually makes phone calls too. (We really aren’t phone people…)

Today we’d like to share some of favorite apps that we use specifically in our travels. Please note that aside from the apps we were involved with creating, we paid for all of the apps and these are unsolicited reviews.  Just our honest opinions.   But, if you do opt to buy any of these apps off our recommendations, the links below are iTunes affiliate links and we will get a tiny cut.

Apps for Finding RV Parking & Camping

When we first starting looking for apps to create on our own – a campground locater was tops on our list. At the time, we could find no decent options.  More recently however, there seem to be a bunch of them – and we’ve been trying several of them out.  There still does not seem to be one single app that does everything – but there are some promising potentials.  We find ourselves using a combination of apps depending on the situation and type of camping or overnight parking we’re looking for.

	RVParking.com – Free This app claims to have more than 18,000 listings in their database, which is also accessible online at RVParking.com.  Both the website and app are brand new, and the database is still being fleshed out.  We’ve found many duplicates, bad addresses, missing parks, and listings for mobile home parks that don’t allow RVs. The maps in the app don’t seem to auto-update as you scroll through them, making browsing by map a bit of a challenge by having to start with a location search. They do have a unique angle tho that we’re really excited about – integrating in full park info, user reviews, photos and profiles. We’ve been enjoying leaving reviews, and would love to see this website adopted by others.  If it can get a lot of following, it stands to be an excellent central source for finding RV Parking information on the go. And as a free app – it’s definitely worth checking out (just be prepared to do a bit of fact checking until the database gets cleaned up.)
	Camp & RV by Allstays – $2.99 This app uses the same technology as the rest of the Allstays product line to help you find things near highway intersections and freeway exits.  It features a wide variety of RV camping and overnight options – including some public campgrounds, private campgrounds, KOAs, truck stops, Walmarts (including those that don’t allow overnighting), rest areas (including wifi & RV dump availability) and RV repair & parts stores.  Each category shows up on maps with nicely labeled pins so you can quickly scan for what you need. You can also adjust how far from the highways exit you want to search. The interface is fairly intuitive, and we like that the maps auto update with camping options as you scroll around.  Their nifty exit view auto updates as you approach exits to show you what is coming up. We’ve found a fair amount of discrepancies in the database, and a lot of missing campgrounds, so it is not entirely comprehensive.  The app has built in feedback to the developer to submit corrections.  As this is the only app that tracks free overnight parking options, we mainly use this app when we’re in transit and just in need of a place to sleep for the night.
	Campwhere – $5.99 This app only covers public campgrounds – including city, county, national, state, forest service, BLM and Army Corp of Engineer campgrounds.  Since this is our preferred camping style, this app has been a great tool for us to quickly find our public camping options. The database seems pretty comprehensive and accurate, and smartly leaves off campgrounds that are not accessible by vehicle. In the map view, each type of campground is displayed in a different color. The user interface is so incredibly well done, that we wish they had a version that was completely comprehensive of all camping & overnight options so we could only use one app.  There is not much information to be found for each campground listing aside from the number of sites they have, coordinates, weather forcast and web link.  The app would be more useful if it listed amenities provided, prices and more.  Overall, for finding public camping options, this is our top choice app – especially since the app now also works full-screen on the iPad.

If the three apps above could be merged into one comprehensive, user friendly app – we’d be very happy campers!

Apps to Aid General Travel

	HearPlanet: Audio Guide to the World – $4.99 We must admit, we’re partial to this app as were hired to orchestrate its launch at MacWorld 2009 (a very fun project!). Even without a connection to the app, we’d use it often in our travels to get an overview of things around us. It’s an awesome concept – an audio tour guide for the world around you, which are perfect for while you’re driving. The bulk of the database is basically text-to-speech computer voiced Wikepedia entries – however HearPlanet has been hard at work acquiring premium human voiced content. We even have some entries we have created in the app, just search for ‘TFT’ to find them.
	Google Earth – Free Chris is addicted to Google Earth, particularly on the iPad. Google Earth lets you zoom in and browse the entire world, using your fingers to zoom, pan, and tilt in a way that is so much more intuitive than any desktop application. We use Google Earth to scope out the road ahead, and the places we have been – getting a great overview of the towns and terrain we have passed through. And – Google Earth integrates Wikipedia as well – so whenever you see an interesting place, the Wikipedia page for more details is just a click away. Just the other day Chris used Google Earth to “fly” through West Virginia’s New River Gorge, reading about the regions rich mining history as he went. Amazing stuff!
	Roadside America – $2.99 This is an app version of the popular website that tracks all the various roadside attractions across the US – so now you’ll know where all those large balls of twine are!  We enjoy using this app to find cool off-the-beaten path things around as we travel.  We enjoy that users can leave tips and that you can mark the things you’ve seen.  They also have an interesting pricing model – the $2.99 purchase prices gets you 1 of 6 regions of the US.  If you want other regions or the entire US, you can make an in app purchase to activate them.
	CoPilot Live USA - $4.99 The iPhone and iPad are perfect navigation devices with the built in GPS and gorgeous high-resolution screens. For the most part, the built in Google Maps application works well, but only when you have cellular coverage. Because the maps are loaded over the Internet, if you are out in the boonies you can easily end up lost. The Google Maps app also doesn’t do turn-by-turn directions to let you know when a turn is coming up, or automatic re-routing when you veer off course. We’ve been in search of a better navigation solution, and for now we’re trying out CoPilot Live USA. At $4.99 for the entire countries worth of maps, it is an incredible bargain. The app so far has impressed us, though the UI is cumbersome at times, and the GPS seems to occasionally get confused – telling us to “turn right, then turn left” on long straightaways where no turn is necessary. But for the price, you can’t beat it.
	CoPilot Live HD North America –  $29.99 The only iPad-optimized full screen navigation app out so far is CoPilot Live HD North America, but it has gotten some rather poor initial reviews. For now we are waiting for an update to be released, or for TomTom or Magellan to come out with an iPad optimized mapping app.
	State Lines – $2.99 And of course, we have to mention our own app – State Lines. We developed State Lines to fulfill our own desire for a single resource for all those laws and regulations that change as you cross state lines.  The app itself is selling fairly well, despite us lacking the time to really do much of a marketing push on it. We also just released a alcohol specific version for just $.99 that tracks just state alcohol laws, including DUI information.  We must say, we are loving our own app, and we use it frequently as we cross state lines to find out if gas taxes will be cheaper in the next state, if we can overnight at rest areas, if we can buy beer in grocery stores on a Sunday and other such information. We’ve been busy collecting even more data (child safety seat laws, U-turns, more motorcycle information, etc.) that we will be releasing in an expanded version soon.  If you were so kind as to purchase the app and are finding it useful, would you mind leaving us a review in the App Store?

Apps for General Use in Travel

	GasBag Pro – $1.99 When you’re on the road as often as we are, being able to locate the cheapest gas can make a huge difference in our bottom line travel budget. There are several apps available for tracking gas prices, and we’re partial to this one because it also has a built in mileage log.
	Yelp – Free We love Yelp – both the iPhone app and their website. It helps us quickly locate good places to eat – as well as dentists, veterinarians, mechanics, hair salons and more. End users can leave reviews, so it’s a great way to get unbiased opinions about places when we pull into a new town.
	USPS Mobile – Free While we try to minimize the amount of mail we need to handle, we do utilize shipping from time to time. This app from the US Post Office lets us quickly location post offices and mail drop boxes.  Our favorite features is that it also lets us find the automated postal centers, which allow us to do full package shipping after postal office hours.

That’s our current list of our favorite RV travel essentials.

Do you have any other favorites? Please share them here – we are always looking for great new apps to try!

I’ve managed to do some amazing and artistic things with small but advanced pocket cameras like the Canon SX110IS that we relied on throughout most of 2009, but I continuously found myself pushing the edges of what small cameras were capable of [...]]]> For literally years now, I have been craving a more capable camera.

I’ve managed to do some amazing and artistic things with small but advanced pocket cameras like the Canon SX110IS that we relied on throughout most of 2009, but I continuously found myself pushing the edges of what small cameras were capable of – particularly once we started experimenting with light painting and long exposure photography.

But every time I’d begin to get tempted by a DSLR, I’d find myself turned off by the size and weight of the camera bodies and especially the lenses. I don’t have any interest in carting around a suitcase full of photography gear, and when it comes down to it – the absolute best camera is the one that is with you when you stumble across a great shot. I knew that anything bulky or complex would more often than not be left behind.

Every year I’d research the latest in DSLR’s, get tempted, and then talk myself out of it. The bulk (and expense!) just wasn’t worth it – particularly considering I’d only ever want to own just a lens or two. It’s not like I had a 30 year investment in legacy lenses that I cared about….

Panasonic G1 (2009) vs Canon T70 (1984) -- My first major camera purchase, and my most recent...

But then last year I started to hear about the upcoming promise of EVIL cameras, and the new Micro Four Thirds standard being pioneered by Panasonic and Olympus.

While Nikon and Canon DSLR’s are unquestionably excellent, they are victims of their legacy – and to maintain compatibility with their vast library of lenses they are based around the same optical design as film camera’s from decades ago. Central to every traditional DSLR is a mechanical mirror that needs to swing out of the way each shot, and a bulky glass prism that focuses the light onto the optical viewfinder that you look through. Up until just last year most DSLR’s couldn’t even offer a “live preview” on the LCD screen of the shot you were about to take (because the mirror is in the way of the sensor until you press the shutter), and even the newest DSLR’s sacrifice focusing speed while the live view modes are engaged.

EVIL (electronic viewfinder / interchangeable lens) cameras are designed from the ground up to be optimized for digital. They take the larger camera sensor and lens interchangeability of a DSLR, but do away with the dependence on a mirror, prism, and optical viewfinder. Cameras based around the Micro Four Thirds standard can thus offer most of the advantages of a traditional DSLR, and some new capabilities that DSLR’s can only dream about, all in a package that is vastly smaller, simpler, and cheaper than would be possible with traditional optics.

The G1 has instant shutter response - SNAP!

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 was the first camera supporting the Micro Four Thirds standard to come to market, and it received rave reviews and spent most of last year sold out everywhere. But I was still concerned that it might be too big and bulky for my needs, and I never found a camera store with a G1 in stock to check it out in person.

Then late last year the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 came out, offering essentially the same capabilities and Micro Four Thirds lens compatibility of the G1 in an even smaller package that travel photographers online were raving about.

I thought I had found my dream camera, so late last December we tracked down one of the few camera stores around that had the GF1 in stock.
(Recommended: The excellent Schiller’s Camera in St. Louis.)

We drove out to Schiller’s one bitterly cold winter day to try the GF1, and to my surprise and disappointment, I didn’t like it.

The GF1 just didn’t fit fell in my hands.

But Schiller’s had a “barely used” G1 on hand, and it was a joy to hold – particularly when combined with the new 20mm lens that came with the GF1. To my surprise, the slightly larger camera won me over once I had a chance to spend some time with it!

We thus came home with a great deal on an almost new G1, and have been loving it ever since.

Lumix G1 – The Good:

It isn’t worthwhile to rehash some of the other excellent G1 reviews online – such as the epic 33 page opus at dpreview.com. But here are a few of the things that I particularly love about this camera…

For me, what I most love about the G1 is its extreme versatility. The camera is small enough and light enough that it isn’t in the way taking it almost everywhere, but it is large enough that it feels great and stable in your hand. After several months of use, I am not at all regretting going with the G1 over the GF1.

I love the flip out LCD that makes shooting at odd angles easy, and I love the integrated electronic viewfinder that switches on automatically when you bring the camera up to your eye. The G1 is just as at home shooting both “thru the lens” as at arms-length, with no compromises in speed or features when changing modes.

The G1 is fabulous for night photography work...

I love being able to take pictures in RAW mode, particularly now that iPhoto supports Panasonic’s RAW format directly so no conversion process is necessary. The RAW files are 5x the size of JPEG’s, but the extra flexibility when editing has proven to be even more worthwhile than I expected.

I love having a remote shutter release, and support for manual “bulb mode” exposures for light painting and night photography. “Bulb mode” in particular was a feature completely lacking from ANY point-and-shoot camera I could find.

And most of all, I really love the wealth of manual controls that the G1 offers – it is so freeing to at last break free from the limitations of pocket cameras. But when I just want to take a good picture fast, the G1′s automatic modes do a wonderful job as well.

Lumix G1 – What’s Lacking:

The most significant feature the G1 is lacking is any support whatsoever for recording video. This has been frustrating at times, particularly since video has become a standard feature on all new cameras.

Fortunately all of the newer Micro Four Thirds models now do support HD video, so I can look forward to upgrading someday.

Other than the missing video features, the only thing I wish the G1 had was an even better sensor for handling high-ISO recording without noise. The G1′s sensor performs good/great at ISO’s up to 800, but I wish it was even better in its highest sensitivity modes. (The max ISO is 3200)

Lumix G1 – What’s Next:

Panasonic started with the G1, and last year added the ultra-small Lumix DMC-GF1 and the pricey pro-video-quality capable Lumix DMC-GH1 to the lineup.

Exploring depth-of-field and the mysteries of Bokeh...

Panasonic has also just announced two new Micro Four Thirds models coming later in 2010 – the Lumix DMC-G2 is externally nearly identical to the G1, but it adds HD video recording capabilities almost on par with the GH1, and a touch screen that allows for a very innovative “touch to focus” capability which reminds me of the iPhone 3GS. The G2 looks to be a very worthy successor to the G1. (And while supplies last, there are some great deals to be had on the G1 now too!)

Also new is the Lumix DMC-G10, also identically sized to the G1, but cost-reduced by eliminating the swing-out LCD found in the G1 and G2. The G10 does however offer basic HD movie recording support – though it is significantly less capable than the pricier G2.

The great thing is that all of these Panasonic cameras can share the same lenses, and the Micro Four Thirds standard is also being pushed by Olympus. You can freely mix-and-match Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds lens and bodies, and using lens adaptors you can actually even take advantage of nearly every legacy lens ever made – including lenses from Canon, Nikon, and Leica!

Essential Accessories:

A great camera deserves a great tripod, particularly for playing around with night photography. One of the highest rated tripods on Amazon is the Dolica AX620B100 62-Inch Proline Tripod and Ball Head, and it is indeed amazing – particularly consider how much it versatility you get for the price. It is easily as capable as many tripods costing 3x the price, and it even includes a free tripod bag!

Our second more portable tripod is the UltraPod UP-1, a small tabletop tripod that folds up to fit in a pocket.

Another essential accessory is our Cactus Wireless Shutter Release, which lets me wirelessly trigger the camera from up to 45ft away. This is great for long exposures and light painting, avoiding any risk of bumping the camera while it is recording. The Cactus shutter release even supports “Bulb” mode for arbitrarily long exposures!

We also purchased a Promaster Digital Elite Holster SLR Camera Bag that is a great match for the small size of the G1, a UV filter, a spare battery, and a 12v battery charger.

Future Photo Arsenal Upgrades:

Our photography arsenal isn’t quite complete yet however. One of the joys (and perils!) of embracing an interchangeable lens camera system is the temptation to start collecting lenses. Sometime this year I plan to add the phenomenally small and fast (low light capable) Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Pancake Lens. This lens is so small that when mounted on the G1, the camera actually becomes jacket-pocketable!

I also will eventually want to replace the default 3x zoom kit lens that came bundled with the G1 with a more versatile 10x zoom lens, such as the Panasonic 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8 OIS Lens.

We also could use a small external flash so that we can start playing with side-lighting and other creative lighting effects.

Though upgrading to the new G2 to get the video capabilities is tempting, I think we’ll try to get at least another year’s use out of the G1 first, and then consider our options. Cherie’s excellent and compact Canon SD780IS handles all of our HD video recording needs fabulously for now.

FYI: For more on the SD780 and why we chose it, read this blog post.

Conclusion:

I really like the technology behind and future prospects of the Micro Four Thirds standard that Panasonic and Olympus are pioneering. Traditional SLR cameras were designed for the pre-digital 35mm film era, and the bodies and lenses are less than ideally suited for the digital age as a result.

The Panasonic G1 was the first of a new breed of cameras, and the GH1, GF1, and upcoming G2 and G10 show that the format has staying power.

So far, I couldn’t be happier with our decision to skip the legacy Canon and Nikon DSLR designs to embrace EVIL.

In this case, EVIL is good. *grin*

Most links above go to our Amazon affiliate account. Should you make a purchase based on our review, we’ll get a small cut of the sale (at no increased cost to you) – which we greatly appreciate!

To recap, here are some quotes from our initial review:

One particular frustration that has vexed me for over three years now is that there is no [...]]]> In May I took a close look at the MacBook 12v power supplies offered by Mikegyver.com – and at first I came away extremely impressed.

To recap, here are some quotes from our initial review:

One particular frustration that has vexed me for over three years now is that there is no “official” way to power any MagSafe-equipped Apple laptops directly off of 12v power. As full-time technomads living in a small solar-powered trailer, we have ample access to 12v DC, while 120v AC is a rare luxury for us. Sure, we could use an inverter – but (as you will see) that inserts a lot of overhead and inefficiency. We would much rather run our lives directly off of 12v as much as possible.

…

We checked out the (Mikegyver modified) Kensington All-In-One, and it has quickly become one of the most indispensable items in our technology arsenal. We have been particularly thrilled with no longer needing to power up our DC-to-AC inverter to power our laptops.

Our love of the Kensington soon faded however, as we discovered the downside of one of the All-In-One’s features – the dreaded low-voltage cutoff.

Low-Voltage Cutoff – More Bug Than Feature:
To protect you from draining and damaging your vehicle battery, the Kensington power supply automatically shuts down (and stays shut down) whenever its input voltage drops below 12 volt. At first glance, this seems like a smart thing to do – a battery bank that is reading less than 12 volts has already been 50% drained. (And ideally, you should never drain most vehicle batteries below 50%!)

But… Things aren’t always that simple.

If you are drawing a lot of current out of a battery (such as when you are charging a depleted laptop), it will register a lower voltage even if it has not been drained nearly that far yet. And if you have a long relatively thin gauge wire between your battery and your 12v jack (which is very common), this voltage drop will be even further exaggerated.

In our case, trying to charge a drained MacBook Pro off of even 75% charged RV batteries would sometimes draw too much current and trigger the Kensington power supply to shut down.

It was extremely frustrating – the Kensington became useless to us at the very time that we needed the increased power efficiency it offered the most.

And though most car batteries will suffer damage if drained below 50%, the true deep-cycle batteries used in solar and RV setups like ours can handle up to an occasional 80% discharge without problem. We hated being prevented from fully taking advantage of our off-grid electrical system.

For our needs, the Kensington increasingly kept failing to live up to our expectations.

iGo Everywhere:
Fortunately – when he realized the nature of the problems we were having, Mike of Mikegyver.com sent us an iGo Everywhere130 power supply to try as an alternative. It worked wonderfully.

NOTE: The iGo Everywhere130 is an older model than the iGo EverywhereMAX linked to above. The primary difference is that the EverywhereMAX is physically smaller.

The iGo Everywhere130 is significantly chunkier than the Kensington All-In-One, and it weighs twice as much. But… It doesn’t cut out when voltages drop – which makes it vastly better suited for some types of use.

Mikegyver currently offers both the Kensington All-In-One and iGo EverywhereMAX modified to support Apple’s proprietary MagSafe power connector for $229. Normally Mikegyver steers customers towards the Kensington because “the Kensington is lighter and slimmer”. Though the EverywhereMAX is reportedly smaller than the Everywhere130 we were testing, I can imagine that the small size of the Kensington is indeed a better option for a road warrior who needs to carry a go-anywhere power supply with them all the time.

But if you are planning to run off of deep-cycle batteries or solar, do NOT get the Kensington!

We have been using the iGo Everywhere130 for the past month, and we have been extremely pleased with it. Testing it head-to-head against the Kensington All-In-One, it was easy to create situations where the Kensington would shut off (and not come back until it is physically unplugged and plugged in again) while the iGo just kept on charging.

Just like the Kensington, the iGo is a combination AC & DC power supply that can power your laptop off of traditional wall current, a car power jack, or an airline power jack. They both have a minimal 0.1A no-load current draw, meaning that it can be left plugged in all the time without fear. The iGo and Kensington seemed to perform equivalently while charging too – both offering up overall power consumption vastly lower than if we had to power up our inverter to use Apple’s AC power supply.

Conclusion:
If you need to run an Apple laptop off of solar or deep-cycle batteries, the iGo Everywhere offered by Mikegyver is a great way to do it. If you just need to charge your laptop in an airplane or your car while in transit, the smaller and sleeker Kensington All-In-One is the way to go.

There are other emerging alternative however… The comment thread (37 comments and counting!) for my previous post has generated some “spirited” discussion, with representatives from HyperMac and Power My Mac both espousing the benefits of their own MacBook 12v power supplies.

We’ve gotten in a Hypermac power supply that we are testing now, and hopefully we will get a Power My Mac supply to throw into the mix soon too.

It wasn’t long ago that it seemed as if there were no alternatives for powering an Apple laptop off of 12v. Now there are options galore. In a future post, I will try and dissect the tradeoffs between them all.

February 2010 Update: Our Mikegyver iGo Everywhere has bit the dust as of a couple months ago. Currently, it’ll run our laptops but not charge them.  Our Mikegyver lasted less than 6 months of usage, which we don’t find all too impressive.  Our HyperMac however is still running like a champ. And yes.. a review of the HyperMac is overdo.  Perhaps someday. Power My Mac never followed through with a review unit.

We rely on this generator to top off our batteries when the solar is not able to keep [...]]]> Though we normally rely on our 200 watt solar system for power, one of the essentials in our technomadic toolbox is our small Honda EU2000 generator that has been modified to run off of propane.

We rely on this generator to top off our batteries when the solar is not able to keep up due to shade, weather, or our own heavy use. And we also turn to the generator to power our air conditioning on the hot days when our roof fans aren’t enough to keep us cool and comfortable.

The Honda EU2000i is a fabulous 2000 watt generator that is small, quiet, weighs just 46lbs, and it gets great fuel economy. We found ours online last summer at Wise Sales for just $850, with free shipping – way less than from any other retailer. (Honda stupidly prohibits dealers publishing prices online – but I suffer no such limitation…)

Most RV air conditioners require a much larger 2400 watt or even 3000 watt generator to work, but we specifically sized the air conditioner in our Oliver to work with this generator. Instead of the (formerly standard) 13,000 btu model, we specced a power-efficient 9,200 btu Coleman Polar Cub that still cools great, but which we can manage with the smaller, lighter, and more economical Honda EU2000 option.

Of course, the big downside of any generator is the need to deal with fuel. Carrying around canisters of gas for the few times we might need our generator isn’t ideal.

Instead of dealing with gasoline, I tracked down a propane conversion kit to allow our Honda EU2000i to run off of our Oliver’s ample 50lb propane supply. I installed the “Tri Fuel Kit” from Central Maine Diesel that allows the Honda EU2000i to run on gasoline, propane, or natural gas.

(The kit is $179, or a pre-converted Honda EU2000i is $1269 + shipping…)

When I bought the kit last year, I was the very first customer to get the “installs in minutes” kit, so it actually took me several hours to figure out how to swap out our Honda’s carburetor and reroute the necessary hoses with only a picture to go on. The carburetor removal instructions I found posted here were invaluable, and in theory my feedback has by now helped Central Maine Diesel create better documentation to include with their kit.

We have been thoroughly happy with how well our generator setup has performed over the past year. It worked great on the playa at Burning Man, and even during sweltering 100+ degree days in Zion National Park the generator was able to keep up despite the high altitude (near 4000 feet).

And when charging the batteries, I am able to sustain a 60+ amp charge current, which allows for a very rapid recharge of our battery banks.

Of course – you have to pick – you can’t charge batteries and run the air conditioner at the same time without overloading the generator. But, this setup sure beats carrying around a 135lb 3000 watt Honda.

Unlike some RV’s, our generator is not permanently mounted and there is no electric start.  But setup is still easy. The Oliver factory folks hooked up a low-pressure propane hose on the tongue for us so all we have to do is plug in a hose and power cable, open a valve, and then pull the starter cable a few time to get our generator fired up for use. This detached setup also allows us to take advantage of the flexibility that comes from having a small generator that is so portable.

For us, this setup is the perfect backup power source. And though we haven’t ever needed to, if we ever do need to resort to gasoline, this kit (unlike some conversions) still gives us the option.

We love it – particularly in the summer!  *grin*

It used to be my job to literally dissect every [...]]]> For those who haven’t known me for a while, you may not know that before going nomadic I used to be the Director of Competitive Analysis for Palm (the maker of the Pilot, Tungsten, and Treo) and PalmSource (the Palm OS operating system spinoff).

It used to be my job to literally dissect every worthwhile mobile gadget in existence, and I typically carried multiple smartphones in my pockets with cell phone plans from every major carriers.

Imagine the looks I used to get going through airport X-Rays… (vintage 2004 tech)

I sometimes miss getting paid to play with so many cool toys, but I don’t miss the endless juggling and constant shifting from one device to the next.

Now I get to pick just one.

For the past two years, my choice has been the original iPhone.

The great leap forward in user interface that the iPhone represented left every other mobile device looking like a dinosaur, even my beloved Treo. Once the iPhone was opened up to third party developers, there was no looking back.

The iPhone 3G last year wasn’t enough to lure me into upgrading, though Cherie did happily leave behind Windows Mobile (another dinosaur platform) for one. Most of the new features in the iPhone 3G were added to the original iPhone via a free software upgrade, and the 3G speeds would have only been a compelling enough reason to upgrade if Apple and AT&T had allowed tethering.

Ever since the iPhone launched, everyone else in the mobile industry has been playing catch up – typically with extremely disappointing results. RIM continues to do one thing extremely well (mobile email), but Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola have all been left struggling desperately for a hit.

The only non-Apple phone that is in the same next-generation league as the iPhone is the newly released Palm Pre – a stunning achievement by the Palm team.

The Pre has real multitasking (sorely lacking from the iPhone), “Synergy” data syncing with multiple online services such as FaceBook and Google, and a fabulous UI that in some ways raises the bar even on the iPhone. With a bit more refinement and some third party developer momentum, the Pre will soon be even more compelling.

But not (yet) compelling enough.

Though I was sorely tempted by the Pre’s amazing multitasking abilities and super sweet Synergy, the brand new iPhone 3G S has won me over. We stopped at the downtown Chicago Apple store yesterday to get one:

I was surprised that there were still lines out into the street three days after the iPhone 3G S started shipping. Fortunately we only had to wait 30 minutes before I got mine.

So why did I choose the iPhone 3G S?

• Applications – There are over 50k iPhone applications out now, while the Pre is just getting started and the SDK isn’t even widely available yet. I am an application junky, and I have many daily-use iPhone apps that I can’t imagine being without.
• Compass + Accelerometer + GPS = Augmented Reality – Over the course of the coming year, I expect to see some amazing innovation in this area.
• Tethering – Though AT&T won’t say when they will support it, it is built into OS 3.0, and at least AT&T promises that it is coming. As technomads, the ability to use our phones to get our laptops online is crucial.
• 32 Gigabytes – I used to have a 60GB iPod, and I have felt hampered the past two years trying to cram my media collection into the 8GB capacity of my original iPhone. I am thrilled to once again be able to carry around a decent quantity of music and videos in my pocket. The Pre on the other hand can only hold 8GB.
• Pocket Video Capture – The iPhone 3G S has a very usable 3 megapixel camera, and it at last supports video! I am very much looking forward to having a reasonably decent still / video capture device that I can trust to be always with me.


Canon G9 (left) vs iPhone 3G S (right). Though the Canon is a much more powerful camera, for typical web snapshots the iPhone is at last reasonably good enough to allow leaving larger cameras behind…

• 3D Graphics – Before Palm, I used to work in the 3D graphics industry, and I have a fine appreciation for accelerated 3D graphics. Early benchmarks show that the iPhone 3G S is 4x faster than the iPhone 3G when it comes to 3D rendering. Assuming the next iPod Touch (due in Sept) has the same 3D hardware, it will be a killer gaming device indeed. Sony and Nintendo better watch out!
• Future Upgradability – Apple has provided the iPhone 3.0 OS as a free upgrade to iPhone 3G and even original iPhone owners, bringing even the oldest iPhones many of the new non-hardware-dependent features. I expect Apple will continue this trend, and even two years from now the iPhone 3G S will be getting major functionality upgrades. No other phone manufacturers has ever done such a good job continuing to support old hardware. Kudos to Apple!

In all of these areas, the iPhone 3G S is way ahead of the Pre, and light years ahead of anything else out there.

So far, I am loving the 3G S. It is a beautifully refined and polished product, with all sorts of little details and delights that show the intense attention to quality and detail that Apple is known for.

I have found my new ultimate mobile phone.

What is yours?