It finally happened, one of my favourite and most used camera the past two years seized operating two thirds of the way during a recent Mongolia fishing trip.
It keeps turning on by itself and starts recording video till the battery goes flat. I gave up trying to figure out what was wrong with it.
Finally after getting home from the trip, the Re refuses to be charged or switched on.
I’ve had quite some adventures with the HTC Re, having lost it not once but twice on two fishing trips. Interestingly both trips were in Thailand.
LOST AND FOUND
The first time was in Thailand during a fishing trip with Bob Skuza from Townsville Australia. We went fishing for arapaima, giant Mekong catfish and Siamese carp. I thought I got pick pocketed in the largest open air market in the world, Jatujak market.
Halfway Tackleberry tackle shop in Bangkok, we got the taxi to turn back to the market. I hoped (and had a feeling) I might have left the camera behind at a stall we had stopped for a drink and it turned out I was right. And lucky. Otherwise, it would be as good as gone and with all the pictures and videos from the fishing (that’d be a disaster)!
Fortunately, the stall owner saw the camera and kept it.
Funnily, he didn’t know what it was until I told him it is a camera! Haha, the Re has a habit of doing that to people.
SECOND TIME LUCKY
The second time I lost it was under an even more incredible condition.
Until now I find it hard to believe actually finding back the camera because I dropped it in the jungle, literally in the middle of nowhere. It was during a fly fishing trip with Tim Kempton for Thai mahseer in the national park of Thailand.
It was also the trip where Tim landed a big Thai mahseer.
We were walking out from one of the river after a days fishing. When we were near to the boat and not far from the exit of the river, I realise the camera missing.
I have absolutely no idea where i could have dropped it. We had earlier walked 13 kilometers or about 10 miles that day, wet wading in the river and trekked through the jungle. What are the odds of finding back the camera the next day? It could be anywhere. Incredibly, find it the next day we did!
RISE OF THE AW1
With the demise of the Re, I’ve revived my Nikon AW1 which went into temporary coma last September after less than two months of usage.
I purchased the AW1 in July 2016. The camera started giving problems in September. It was in the middle of the busiest period so I just put the camera aside and never got around to sending it back to Nikon for service – till recently and days before the warranty expired!.
In the interim, I relied a lot on my iPhone for photos and videos (still does). The camera in the iPhone has come a long way.
As good as the iPhone 7+ is at taking pictures and videos, a DSLR camera still hold some advantages and can do some things and achieve results that a smartphone camera cannot. Not yet anyway.
Camera gear I’m currently still using:
• iPhone 7 Plus
• GoPro Hero 3
• Nikon AW1
• Olympus Tough TG-1
The Hero 3 and TG-1 are really dinosaurs in tech age but they’re still going strong. What would be my next camera baby? What are you using for your fishing shots?
Above is a recent shot on the Nikon AW1 (cropped)
