When you’re asked if you’d be up for touring a foreign land, and capturing its beautiful scenery on-camera, it doesn’t take long to say yes. When that country is Taiwan and the camera is the latest SanDisk EPIC certified smartphone, the time to reply is even shorter!
There is a temptation to assume that since everything used to seem like it was “Made in Taiwan” that it must just be coast-to-coast industrial zones. Well that couldn’t be further from the truth.
For those who have never been to Taiwan, especially those with a western view of the island, it is most definitely not all factories and heavy industry. There is a temptation to assume that since everything used to seem like it was “Made in Taiwan” that it must just be coast-to-coast industrial zones. Well that couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite being a small island, in length it is just 394km from tip to tip and only 144km at the widest point (244.8 miles by 89.5 miles), it is hugely diverse and mostly open space. Dominated by a mountain spine running just inland along the east coast, it somehow packs in over 240 mountains taller than 3000m. The western side is the more open, flat, or gently sloping, land and consequently where the majority of the population is located.
Hugely volcanic, they have up to 18,000 earthquakes per year (although ‘only’ around 4000 are felt by people) they are also battered by around 4 typhoons per year that run in from the pacific slamming in to the east coast. It is an island therefore shaped by nature.
It also straddles the tropic of Cancer, with the north of the island being sub-tropical and the south being comfortably within the tropics. This gives it a uniquely diverse landscape of soaring mountains, massive ravines, lush forests and expansive, fertile plains. You’d have to be completely oblivious to not be bowled over by the beauty on offer!
And so I found myself arriving in Taiwan midway through June, with the remit of “travel around and take stunning pictures of Taiwan with the HTC 10.”
Why the HTC 10 for Touring Taiwan
I should at this point tell you a little about the HTC 10. This is HTC’s flagship phone, sitting at the top of the pile. And, they’ve paid attention to not just the content consumption side, but the content creation too. In other words, the camera is much more than just an afterthought. In fact, it packs in 12MP, manual controls and the ability to capture images in RAW too, something that keeps professional photographers like me very happy for the extra latitude and better results we can get out of it. It also has a microSD card slot. Not all manufacturers think microSD cards are a great option, but frankly, as a consumer and end-user, they’re wrong. I love being able to pop a 200GB microSD card into the phone and no that while the internal memory (in this case SanDisk iNAND 7232) keeps the phone running smoothly and gives me space for apps, the microSD can be dedicated to storing media, whether that’s media I load to the card or pictures I capture on the phone. It all makes for a very simple, and nicely organized, solution.
That’s all for now, check back soon for Part II of my trip.
