The first of the last two posts in this series covering our 18 day trip to Japan, and this one will be about the image and video capturing experience of the trip. I reckon the most important thing to say first is that over the last four years, I’d been taking a very large number of photos using smartphones. It’s not just that the quality of images coming out of flagship phones is incredibly high, or that it’s just so much easier to share selected pictures on social media as a form of real-time journaling, or that an all in one device like the Samsung S23 Ultra is capable of 4K video footage, and has that very usuable pair of 3x and 10x optical zooms. There is one further reason: that two Samsung phones we primarily used this trip for pictures – the S23 Ultra for myself, and the S21 Ultra for the missus – are IP68 rated. i.e. they scoff at snowfall. Our two snow activity days on Days 15 and 16 saw falling snow, and while the Sony A6600 is weather resistant, I’m less sure about the lenses mounted on them!
I was very mindful that I had to lighten my daily carrying load when we went about each day’s activities, so thought very hard about what ILCs to bring. Earlier this year, I’d bought a used Sony A6600, and an also pre-loved Sony 18-135mm kit lens. These came along for the Hanoi trip and ended up not being used very much at all. There would be far more opportunities this trip: specifically the pictures we’d be taking of Mt. Fuji, during the snow activity days, and also at the snow monkey park. The variable zoom would be perfect, and for general picture taking, a f2.8 variable general purpose zoom would be suitable. So, in addition to the 18-135mm, I picked up the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 DC DN lens. A number of the Mt. Fuji pictures were taken using this Sigma lens.
So, the list of dedicated camera equipment this trip was just:
Sony A6600 with the Sony 18-135mm kit lens, and Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 DC DN lens.
Canon G7X Mark II
That’s it. This is also not counting the four handphones between the missus, daughter and myself: the Samsungs Galaxy Z Fold 4, S23 Ultra, S21 Ultra, and Samsung Note 9. I’d left the Z Fold 4 at home during the 2022 trip, but it came along this time for the 2023 trip as I thought I’d appreciate the larger display area to find our way using Google Maps. As it turned out, the S23 Ultra’s 6.8″ display size was sufficient. The Z Fold 4 ended up staying in my backpack throughout the entire trip, largely unused.
Photo and video numbers-wise, here’s the tally post-trip:
Sony A6600: 1,788 .ARW RAW format (42GB pictures)
Canon G7X Mark II: 19 photos in DNG (0.56 pictures)
Samsung S23 Ultra: 8722 photos in JPG (35.6GB) + 170 photos in DNG (5.12GB) + 176 videos (44.0GB)
Samsung S21 Ultra: 964 photos in JPG (3.35GB) + 202 videos (19.3GB)
Like the Hanoi in June and Japan in September trips this year just before this family vacation, the vast number of pictures were taken using the S23 Ultra.
When put into a table of comparison of photos taken using cameras and smartphones over our family trips since 2017:
| Trip | Photos taken | Videos taken | Storage used | Photos kept | Keeper rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Australia (2017) | 5,828 | No records | 77GB | 3,331 | 57.2% |
| Taiwan (2018) | 7,422 | 182 | 148GB | 4,200 | 56.5% |
| Maldives (2019) | 2,320 | 137 | 82.4GB | 1,518 | 65.4% |
| Chūgoku & Kyushu (2019) | 4,951 | 149 | 144GB | 3,283 | 66.3% |
| Kanagawa & Hokkaido (2019) | 7,652 | 216 | 309GB | 5,076 | 66.3% |
| Kansai (2022) | 7,683 | 429 | 196.2GB | 5,539 | 72.9% |
| Hanoi (2023) | 3,137 | 87 | 46.2GB | 2,090 | 66.6% |
| Chubu-Kanto (2023) | 11,663 | 372 | 146.93GB | 8,042 | 68.9% |
Comparing with the Kansai trip last year, we took far more pictures – a lot of which were JPGs – but less videos: so the actual storage footprint is slightly less.
In terms of computing equipment: the missus had her iPad Air 4 which she used every night to check and review the next day’s activity and movement plan, my Dell XPS 13 for photo editing and also as the primary storage device for the several hundreds of pictures we were taking every day, and finally the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 which I used for blogging on the go.
I’d seriously need to look into retiring the Dell XPS 13! It’s simply not a capable device anymore for Lightroom. The Tab S9 was terrifically useful this trip on the other hand, and I used it largely to blog on the go – in the hotel, in cafes, restaurants before our meal items came, and on the Shinkansen. On our flight home on Day 18. I even wrote the drafts for four blog posts – including this one – on the Tab S9 over the 7.5 hour flight home, thanks to complimentary WIFI for Krisflyers.
Something very odd also happened this trip by way of malfunctions. The Z Fold 4 started misbehaving about midway, and it wasn’t intermittent or random: folding the Z4 closed would immediately crash the phone, and I’d need to do a hard reset with the phone unfolded in order for it to be usable again. A Google check showed that it was an issue showing up for some owners of the Fold 4. In addition, the missus’ S23 Ultra display developed a fierce-looking vertical green line. That problem is even better documented, and apparently is likely the sign of a faulty connection between phone motherboard and display screen. I’ve had dozens of Samsung mobile devices at this point, and this is the first time I’ve encountered it on a personal device. When we sent both devices for repair at the Samsung Service Center, and there were two other persons also bringing in devices with the vertical green line display.
Another note to self: for mobile data, buy nano-SIM rather than e-SIM cards if possible. I bought 4 nano-SIM cards and 1 e-SIM card for the five mobile devices we had. The Z Fold 4 had the e-SIM, while the Tab S9, S23 Ultra, S21 Ultra, and S9 Note all had nano-SIMs. When the Z Fold 4 started malfunctioning mid-trip, it basically meant that the e-SIM tied to it was also unusable. Still, delivery of a purchased e-SIM is instantaneous, and will be helpful as an immediate alternative to get connected if you arrive at a country to discover that the nano type data SIMs don’t work. But unless I’d (somehow) forgotten to buy these before a trip, I really should just get nano-SIMs for all the mobile gadgets coming along for a trip.
Finally, my takeaways for the next trip, and using cold weather holiday as a basis for projection:
Bring the Sony A6600 with the 18-135mm and the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 to use as general purpose lenses, including when I am taking photos in low light.
Samsung S23 Ultra for the win!
Don’t buy e-SIM for mobile data.
Bring along a fully ready spare phone.
Leave the foldable at home. It’s just too clunky to bring around.
Next post on final notes of this trip!