About a year ago I traded in my professional camera equipment for something a little smaller. I got tired of all the weight and space taken up by an SLR camera body, three lenses, flash and assorted gear. It was like packing an extra suitcase whenever my family went on vacation.

It wasn’t an easy decision. That camera equipment helped bring home my first paychecks as a professional photographer. Eventually, my newspaper photography evolved into a career as a television photojournalist and my camera equipment was relegated to family snapshots.

I played guessing games whenever I went cycling, trying to anticipate what type of shots I would be taking. In an effort to reduce weight or to save space in my bike bag I would try to determine which lens to bring along and which to leave at home. It never seemed to work.

That’s when I began to notice the growing popularity of a new family of 35mm cameras. Built in flashes, timers, zoom lenses and self loading were tempting. My pride kept me from taking them seiously for quite some time, though. I couldn’t get over the thought that they were nothing more than cheap substitutes used by professional wannabes. My ego was bruised one hot summer day in Nicaragua.

I had decided not to bother with my camera gear on that trip since I was already lugging fifty pounds of TV news camera, batteries, tape and microphones. It was painful passing up one opportunity after another only to see on of my traveling companions effortlessly slip a compact 35mm zoom camera in and out of his fannypack at a moment’s notice.

Upon returning to the states I went into research mode. Finding the right combination of brand, price and features took some time. My goal was to get the greatest focal range within my budget. I ended up with a 38-105mm zoom. The build in flash automatically activates when the light level is low.

That can be a plus when you don’t have the time or patience to mess with a separate flash unit. It has a tripod mount that can be used in conjuction with the timer, allowing me to get my cheesy smile in the picture once in a while. Other features (like the focus lock which allows me to focus on one subject and then recompose the picture) helped retain some of the SLR qualities that I was reluctant to give up.

Prior experience had taught me the importance and convienience of keeping the camera in a handle bar bag as opposed to a rear bag. There’s nothing more annoying to your basic woodland creature than some moron scrambling from his bike, fumbling with zippers and rummaging. They tend to be long gone by the time you turn around with camera in hand.

When it comes to actually riding, a lightweight camera in the front won’t affect handling. If you’re mountain biking, a padded camera case is essential. After spending a couple hundred dollars on a new Olympus or Canon, the last thing you want is to find it dinged up after a rough ride. Worse yet, you could discover your lunch leaking all over it.

If video is more your thing, you can’t go wrong with a palmcorder. Hi8, 8mm or the new digital models offer the best video and the smallest size. As with SLRs, the more you spend the more versatile they are, giving you a wide range of features from external microphone jacks to flip out viewscreens. Digital produces the best quality, but its technology is new and rather pricey.

A couple of accesories can greatly enhance your video or still photos. Lightweight, miniature tripods, designed especially for hiking and cycling, can easily stow in small bike bags. A friend showed me a nifty gadget she purchased for a cycling adventure in South America. It was an aluminum clamp complete with a ball head and standard tripod thread. She plans to mount her palmcorder to the handlebars of her mountain bike while negotiating the trails of Peru.

I can appreciate having both hands on the grips when riding off-road. The quickness and strength required to guide a mountain bike can make even a quick sip from a water bottle a little dicey. One strong jolt to the front wheel can send you sprawling. You probably don’t want to break your fall with a thousand dollar video camera in your hand.

But I did find a way to ride and shoot with my 30-pound BetaCam. As a matter of fact, I did it without holding onto the handlebars at all. I was the stoker (the rear seat) of a tandem recumbent. Recumbents are low to the ground and are equipped with large, comfy seats with backs. It’s kind of like pedaling a recliner. It proved to be the perfect bicycle for the assignment.

Being in the rear, I didn’t have to pay close attention to the road. That gave me the freedom to be creative and experiment. The low center of gravity allowed me to pass the camera from one side of the bike to the other, hang it far out to the side even low enough to shoot underneath the frame, all without causing so much as a wobble. With a smaller camera I could have been doing handstands.