Hi there
I would really appreciate your help.

My brother-in-law is going wiht his two sons on a motobike trip round Australia. They go thorough the Simpson Desert after about a week.

They are certainly not expert photographers and are thinking of taking a compact camer with them. Weight is always any issue on an unsupported motorcycle trip. Are there any suggestions for or against on the type of camera/specifications they should consider.

Some of the questions I asked (without any real knowledge of the environment) include:

Dust/water proofing
Lens zoom range

Many thanks

David

If it has a rechargeable battery consider how it will be recharged in the middle of the desert.

Definitely take at least one spare fully charged battery as well as plenty of spare memory cards, and a microfibre cloth to help keep the lens and screen clean. The most rugged compacts are made, I believe, by Olympus and Pentax. A few minutes on www.dpreview.com might be well spent.

The Canon G9 is pretty difficult to beat as a compact.

Definitely worth investing in a spare battery or two and something to back up all those images from memory cards.