The first of the last two posts in this series covering our ten day trip in Hanoi: about the image and video capturing experience of the trip. Our last trip to Japan in December last year saw me bringing a ton of equipment, a good portion of it ended up not being used. I was determined to try as much as I could to lighten my shoulder load this trip to Hanoi, very mindful of the hot and humid weather that we were expecting. The list of equipment that eventually made into the list included:
Sony A6600 with the Sony 18-135mm kit lens
DJI Action Mobile 3
DJI Mobile 6
DJI Mini Pro 3 drone
This is also not counting the four handphones between the missus, daughter and myself: the Samsung S21 Ultra, Samsung S8+, Samsung Galaxy Fold Z4, and Samsung S23 Ultra, and also the 3.5 year old Dell XPS 13. Of this list of equipment, a fair bit were fairly new and in part purchased for use starting this trip. These included the A6600, Mobile 6, Mini Pro 3 drone, and Samsung S23 Ultra.
Just after arrival, I did a Facebook post projecting what would likely be the actual usage of this equipment:
And that prediction turned spot-on. Numbers-wise, this is what happened:
Sony A6600: 327 photos in .ARW RAW format (0.3GB pictures)
DJI Action Mobile 3: 0
DJI Mini Pro 3 drone: 141 DNG format + 47 videos in 4K 60fps (3.23 pictures + 74.2GB videos)
Samsung S23 Ultra: 2598 photos in JPG/HEIC + 87 videos (40.0GB pictures + 33.3GB videos)
Samsung Z4 Fold: 55 photos in JPG/HEIC (0.1GB pictures)
Samsung S21 Ultra: 157 photos in JPG + 27 videos (0.5GB pictures + 2.59GB videos)
In short, the vast number of pictures were taken using the S23 Ultra. Sign of the times indeed.
Pre-trip, I’d thought long and hard about which dedicated camera to bring this trip: the coming to 6 year old Canon G7X II, or get a pre-loved Sony APSC camera or Sony RX100 VII. I eventually went with a pre-loved Sony A6600 and also picked up a used 18-135mm kit lens for it. The Sony A6600 with this kit lens is much lighter than the Sony A73 with 24-105mm f4 lens I’ve brought out on most overseas trips since 2018. But even then, the size of the APSC camera with lens became a space issue within my daily carry bag during our day tours when I needed the drone too, and the S23 Ultra was already taking such fabulous pictures and so convenient to use. So, while the A6600 was in my daily bag most days this trip, it only came out for use in very selected occasions. Moreover, most of our tour activities were outdoors and in good light, so there was minimum post-processing needed for pictures taken using the S23 Ultra.
Sadly, the DJI Mobile 6 didn’t see any kind of use – most of the places we were in this trip were fairly public and saw lots of people. I think I would had been on the receiving end of many stares if I’d brought up that phone gimbal stabiliser! As for the Action Mobile 3, there simply wasn’t an opportunity to use it, as I ended up not swimming or kayaking. During the cruise, I stayed on the main boat to fly the Mini 3 Pro drone.
I reckon the photographic situation would had been very different if the vacation was in a different country: e.g. wintering in Australia or Japan where there are more indoor locations of visitation and possibly less good light even when outdoors, and at least for the latter, the places we routinely go to wouldn’t be places I’d be able to do any kind of drone videography. In short, the A6600 didn’t have an opportunity to prove its mettle this trip, but we’d see what happens for our year-end holiday this year.
When put into a table of comparison, and excluding the drone pictures/videos:
| 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% |
So, my takeaways for the next trip, and using a Japan holiday as a basis for projection:
Bring the Sony A6600 with the 18-135mm with possibly a small fast fixed-focal length prime.
Samsung S23 Ultra for the win!
DJI Mini Pro 3 drone: bring if necessary, but I doubt it’d see much use.
Bring the DJI Mobile 6, and hope there is opportunity to use it!
Leave the Samsung Z4 Fold at home, unless I need it specifically for Google Maps.
The Dell XPS 13 is also aging. While it’s still in good shape for office work, I’m finding that it’s barely keeping up when doing image and video post-processing and newer codecs like H.265. So, possibly I’d have to bring a faster but heavier laptop to post-process photos and videos each night, or look into picking up a newer light laptop for trips.
Next post on final notes of this trip!