Cameras

Yes, I love my heavy Nikon D7000 DLSR—I just hardly ever carry it anymore... Sony's mirrorless NEX-5N has become my go-to camera for backcountry stills and video. Image quality is on-par with the D7000, at a fraction of the size and weight. Overwhelmingly, compact size and low weight trump everything else when I'm climbing and skiing. Big cameras tend to spend all their time in the backpack—or the car.

Video remains both an exciting and vexing aspect of my backcountry photography. GoPro's new Hero2 has completely usurped the Contour cameras for my helmet-cam needs. For pro-quality work, I do have an NX70U, but major issues (which may be fixed by Sony in mid-2012) prevent me from being able recommend it right now.