On a recent camping trip I made what I consider to be interesting discoveries. With the amount of knowledge around this forum, some of it may be old news. But I thought I'd share anyway.

The first discovery was made when I made a fatal error. I loaned out my binoculars. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Albeit, not that fatal overall, it was fatal to the binoculars. Anyway, after my ranting and raving about respecting other peoples proterty and so forth, I began to tinker with the broken remains. One of the main end lenses (i don't know the technical name) had been knocked out in the drop, but the other remained. Having no use for a monocular I removed the remaining end lenes. Wow! What a magnifier! At only about the size of a half dollar, I was able to sucessfully start a fire from the sun! (using prepared tinder balls) I've never had any luck with that before.

Now, I'm not suggesting you go busting up that expensive binoc's. But if you have a broken pair, or simply pick up an old one from a garage/rummage sale, etc. they are an excellent source of good magnification. And it will even fit nicely into my PSK. They beat the heck out of the Fresnel lens in my wallet. I'm waiting on a splinter. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The next discovery I made was before I even left for the trip. I went into my local grocery to pick up a few items for the trip. When I made my way to the lighters, I saw a Roni (Ronsonol Mfg.) butane lighter. I've seen them before, but never took the time to look at them. The neat thing is that the flint is replaceable. -- It gets better. --The whole part/mechanism that consists of the striker and flint holder is removable. Leaving you with a spark-lite esque tool that the flint can be replaced on. just tape a few extra flints to the outside of the lighter and when the butane runs out, you still have sparks. And with the extra flints (some are packaged with extra) you can use the sparks liberally.

Although slightly harder to hold, the sparks are about the same as the spark-lite and had no problems lighting cotton ball/vaseline tinders. This has also made it's way to my PSK, with a couple extra flints taped to it.

Just a couple of thoughts for you guys. I had a fun learning experience. Each little discovery was followed by "Hey, I'll bet the guys on ETS could use this."

--Luke

My youngest brother, a fairly keen amateur photographer, worked in a museum and got to know the professional staff photographers. One of them had a superexpensive telephoto lens (close to, if not well over, $1000) that he had once dropped in a mud puddle; he used it as a paperweight. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Apparently, the optics in the lens were so precise that even taking it apart and washing the mud off would have destroyed the anti-reflective coating on the lenses.

Not that I'd advocate "accidentally" dropping a $1000 camera lens into a mud puddle, but it doesn't surprise me that a front lens from a precision optical instrument (like an SLR camera lens or a pair of expensive binoculars) would outperform a cheap piece of plastic. Of course, the cheap piece of plastic fits in my wallet ... <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />