Which camping tent... Dome, family, 4-season, backpacking or cabin is right for you? They don't repel rain, cold, snow, or biting bugs equally.

Camping tents are an important outdoor gear investment. This article will give you information you need to make an informed decision about what kind is best for you.

First determine what type of camping you'll be doing? Do you only go out in summer or are you into 4-season camping? Make sure to prepare yourself for worst possible type of weather you'll encounter. Waking up to a foot of snow inside your summer camping tent because of a late fall blizzard isn't much fun. ;-)

After determining what seasons you'll need your tent for, estimate how many people you will usually camp with...

Sizing It Up

Camping tents are rated by number of people they can accommodate. But these ratings are like getting twenty circus clowns into a Volkswagon Beetle...goofy. :-) When they say it's a 4-person tent, they mean 4 people and nothing else, no hiking gear, no room for boots, just 4 people that hopefully know each other pretty well. Seriously, if you're looking for backpacking tents or hiking tents and weight is a big concern, then get cozy and use rating system, but otherwise I'd think bigger.

The Color of Light

Everyone has taken at least one photograph that has been way off in color. You get it back from whoever processed it, or if it is from a digital camera you load it into your computer, and your immediate response is “what heck happened?”. Everything has a weird color cast to it, either orange, green or blue.

Light has a definite color to it depending on light source and it’s surrounding conditions. As humans we don’t recognize changes in color of light, for most part, because our brains adjust for it.

The color of light is measured in degree’s Kelvin. This is referred to as color temperature. The lower color temperature, redder light is. The higher temperature, bluer light is.

Let’s look at sunlight. Throughout day color temperature of sunlight changes because of it’s angle and surrounding atmospheric conditions. Early in morning and late in evening sunlight gets a warm golden glow to it. Photographers refer to this time as golden hour. During middle of day however light is very blue, around 5500-6500 degrees kelvin. This is color temperature of most flash units. In shade, color temperature of light is around 7500 degrees kelvin.

Artificial light on other hand is a whole different ball game. Let’s take a look at incandescent light bulbs. These are every day light bulbs. On average color temperature of a light bulb is around 3200 degrees kelvin. They have a strong orange color cast. This is evident if you are outside, late in evening and look at windows of a lit up house. The light in windows will have an orange cast that is very easy to see. It used to be that florescent lights were at about 4000 degrees kelvin. This color temperature would record with a green cast on daylight balanced film. These days florescent lights can be purchased at different color temperatures.

The Recording Media and Corrective Options