Enter the Nikon AW100! This little guy is great! I’ve been shooting with it for a few days and I haven’t been disappointed. Does this camera have the photo quality of my DSLR? No, but is does a great job for a point and shoot. On top of being a simple pocket camera it also has awesome features like GPS for geotagging and it’s tough. Waterproof up to ~30ft, dust proof, and drop proof from about 5ft. This is a perfect camera for the traveler. It’s light and fits into your cargo pocket.

Main Features

• 16mp Sensor
• 5x Optical Zoom
• Waterproof & Shockproof
• GPS for Geotagging
• Takes 1080p Video
• Small & light
• Plus tons of other functions & settings

Below you’ll find a few images I took on this last Saturday at the Old Mill in Bend, Oregon. I feel they came out a bit soft but I was shooting at 16mp. I’ve found that if you bump that down to 12mp images are much sharper.

I’m excited to take this little guy with me on my next trips. I’ll be heading to Portland, Oregon at the end of the week and next month to San Diego and San Francisco, California. Those will be the real test. I’m also curious to see how the battery life holds up with and without the GPS turned on.

Be sure to check back as I’ll be updating this post when I have more info.

 Via Matador Network

While my REI Venturi 40 served me well in Thailand and Japan, it was missing a few key features and had a few problems. One of the main problems I had with this backpack was that when packed and on my back I wasn’t able to look up. The top of the bag was in my way and my head movement was limited. The other main issue I had was that it was a bit long. Going through the airport and stuffing it in overhead bins was a problem a time or two. Finally the material it was made out of seemed a bit weak. While I didn’t have any problems I was constantly worried that I was going to rip it.

Enter the Kelty Redwing 50. Earl had posted that this was going to be his replacement backpack. His old Kelty had helped him travel for many years but it was time to lay it to rest and he wanted to replace it with the Redwing. I read what he wrote and did my own research. Turns out that the Kelty Redwing was a top contender. It had 10 more litres than my Venturi, it was built out of tough canvas, and it was shorter allowing me to move my head better.

After reading and doing bit more research over the next day I popped down my local REI and gave it a go. After loading it up and doing a bit of adjusting, I was sold. It was comfortable, had more than enough pockets, multiple grab handles, and best of all the main compartment unzips for easy access. I will be the first to admit I hate digging around for a clean pair of underwear in a top loading backpack.

The Kelty Redwing comes in two sizes and multiple colors. REI at the time had a large size in black but I wanted something different. I wanted my bag to be subtly different so I ended up ordering the green. A few days later I picked up my order and before you knew it I was running around the house like a kid on Christmas wearing my new gear.

Do you have a video you’ve made while in SE Asia? If so, let me know! Post it in the comments and share with the others.

Cambodia from properniceinnit on Vimeo.

Traffic in Frenetic HCMC, Vietnam from Rob Whitworth on Vimeo.

iPhone 4s // Thailand from artisland on Vimeo.

Toy Thailand from joerg daiber on Vimeo.

Phuket Breathing // Thailand from artisland on Vimeo.

BALI, JE T’AIME! from artisland on Vimeo.

If you have your own travel video! Post it in the comments. I love watching them. It just helps fuel the fire for travel.

Such was the case when I went into my first Tokyo arcade. Five stores of arcade game after arcade game. Sitting at these games were what I’ve come to call zombies. These Japanese zombies were playing game after game and feeding money into these things like no ones business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge nerd! I grew up playing video games and still, to this day play video games. I understand 100%!

Maybe this is an escape from their daily life. Or perhaps a way to forget about their insane work schedule. Either way, it was an impressive site and I strongly urge you that if you’re ever in Tokyo I suggest you take a trip and see Akihabara. Make sure to visit at night though. It’s much more impressive!

A full size version of this image can be found on my SmugMug site. If you like what you see, please purchase a print. It’s a huge confidence booster and drives me to produce more images. If you like what you’ve seen be sure to “Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vagabondguide.

Like always I distribute my photos under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.