Are you trying to avoid getting the camera "humidified?"
Forget the Saran Wrap, that is a bad idea. The key here is to avoid rapid temperature changes, especially going from an airconditioned car or house to the great humid outdoors. Plastic bags that actually seal can be helpful to keep the moisture out until the camera has warmed up.

Your first worry though should be about getting the camera stolen, in the worst case while you are holding it.

If you see two kids in front of you playing or fighting with each other right in front of you, turn around immediately. Run or be prepared to kick as hard as you can if necessary.

Where in Africa are you going?

Not sure yet, going with a missions group to help local churches. (will not be the best of areas however)

The main concern of mine is that I am trying to keep it free from dust and dirt (especially the video heads) Don't need those 15 frame dropouts hitting me with a once in a lifetime trip.

Dave

I'd recommend the pastic bags with zippers and some packs of silica gel inside. When using the camera cling wrap is very cheap. My D8 still has sand from central China in the viewfinder. When the wind blows it creates little vortexes which push sand, fine grit and dust into everything. The red dust that's common down here is iron oxide, not good.
With a bit of luck Portabrace will do something for this camera.
Bob.

Well, it's not like I won't have some time to figure it out, right?

Who knows maybe Sony will have released a Z-2 by that point or something.

Dave

>Not sure yet, going with a missions group to help local churches. (will not be the best of areas however)

Dave, if you go to South Africa, drop me an email at rich@clevercaboose.com. I'm originally from there and I can give you some travel hints and places to visit. For an appetite wetter, see Photos of SA

I'll try to remember but considering how far out it is yet, I'm not sure that I'll even remember this posting.

What I haven't gotten for a diffinative answer on yet is if a camera will be damaged by wrapping it in clingwrap for protection while shooting from sand, dirt, and grit.

Does anyone know?

(Come on, I know you've sat up at nights just gleefully wrapping all your equipment in cling wrap only to unwrap it again just for fun :-)

Dave

Clingwrap is not sufficient. It is virtually impossible to make it tight enough to keep blowing dust out.

Ziploc freezer bags would be much better, but do they make them big enough for the Z1?

Consider a Pelican case for transport (keeps everything out including water).

In windy desert landscapes (Namibia?) you will need to be inside a car or a tent to change video cassettes. You cannot do this outside, no matter what you do.

Now that's the kind of thing I want to hear, thanks for the tape changing tip, however the camera will be hard to use in a ziplock bag, that's why I was thinking of multiple layers of clingwrap. I know that they make bags for still cams that seal up and have a hard clear section for the lense but I don't know if they make these for camcorders and I question the quality of the glass (or whatever it is) infront of the lense.

Are there pre-designed clear bags or cases for camcorders out there? If not I'm gonna get rich making them, wooo hooo!

Dave

RMD! . . .

I was in SA for 5 years. I stayed in the Gradens , Molteno Avenue .. Then out to Loader Street . .then to Kraaifontein . .then to Joeys .. worked for Liebbermann Ppotteries for a spell and designed stuff for them ..

I was making ceramics for 5 years out there and taught at the Green Pont Art Centre near Moullie Point. Jasus! Man! Jay is a rechter ole rock spider! Neah? Hoe kom jay skinney ver mie? Yo Bluksum! Ek kan nie die afrikaanse praat nie so good nowadays. Wot dink jay? Is ek a groot man OR WHAT?

Grazie

There is a kind of soft plastic bag for camcorders with a clear glass lens at the end. They really are for skin diving.

Any better camera store should be able to get this for you.

ROTFLOL. Grazie, you are a man of many talents :-) I was a Durban bananaboy (*) who gave up Afrikaans the day I left back in 77. And before then the only time I ever spoke it was one painful hour a day in school.

Frigid, I'm a bit slow, but there are a whole lot of different Z1s out there. Cameras, projectors, video cameras, etc. Which is yours? If you're that worried about dirt, I'd advise you to look at underwater housings. I saw one for the Minolta Z1, for example. I googled a little bit and found some good discussions of camera protection in the gulf desert. Basically, the best idea seemed to be "take something cheap and disposable".

(*) For you non-natives, Durban is a coastal city on the indian ocean with subtropical weather; lots of sugarcane, palm trees and bananas. Also the english-speaking part of the white population. Grazie seems to have spent all his time with the Afrikaners, so he didn't learn to speak Sarf Efrican English fluentlyglossary. Grazie would know me as a "rooinek" which means "English person" which literally means "red neck" in Afrikaans and that's because English-speaking people have light skin so they get red necks when out in the African sun.

yeah ..don't tell, 'em about "Sout Pil"! HAHAHA !

...I'd advise you to look at underwater housings.

I was just getting ready to suggest this when I read Rich's post. Excellent suggestion that's been used several times. It's pretty much the only way to guarantee that you'll keep out all the sand, dust, dirt, etc.
EWA Marine is one well-known supplier but I did a quick Google search on "underwater video camera housing" and got several different hits.

Mike

That's probably more of what I'm thinking of. looks like about 200-500 dollars depending on the camera and case, They don't have prices on their site, but I looked at another, and there's a about that much range in price. They didn't show the one I'm looking at that is designed for the FX-1 (assuming that the Z-1 and FX-1 are the same, I would guess that it's going to be around the 300 dollar range. (less than 1/10th the cost of the camera to ensure saftey is worth it in my book)

(I'm refering to the Sony HDV Z-1 Camcorder) - I guess I just assumed that everyone would know what I'm talking about since that's all anyone's been talking about on this sony Vegas forum for days (myself included).

The underwater housing sounds like the way to go. Besides Water might be a problem too.......what with your subzero aclimated body defrosting and all. : )

Word

"ooh, ahh, dance in smarty pants yea, ooh, ahh, dance in smarty pant"s

Between the Lions??

couldn't resist taking a stab at it since no one else did........

Just remember... no petting or feeding of the animals. They bite back in Africa!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

That's right, Between the Lions is a happenin show man

Dave