Travel Gear: cranking your phone to life

Leica X-U Adventure cameras just got a top-of-the-range competitor. Okay, so you might not risk fixing Leica's new X-U to the end of your surfboard, and it's a little bulky to stick to your ski helmet, but Leica has introduced one pretty tough camera. It's shock-proof, dust-proof, and waterproof to 15m. All this with a 23mm Summilux prime lens and a large APS-C CMOS sensor to capture lots of pristine picture information too. It shoots 16MP stills and full 1080 HD video, with a 3" LCD monitor. The rugged build comes from aluminium plates top and bottom, with a secure lock on the battery and SD card compartments. From $3,000; for availability in Ireland see leica-camera.com

Ampware CrankCase Familiar technology gets a mobile makeover from Ampware with its crank-charging smartphone case. Power-hungry mobile devices mean there's a growing sub-industry of off-grid recharging gadgets, from battery cases to solar or kinetic generators. Here a crank-driven dynamo is built into the phone case and its makers claim elbow grease is a particularly efficient power source, with five minutes' winding delivering about an hour's phone life. It is, though, only for iPhone 6/6s at the moment. $79 from next month at getampware.com

Matador Droplet Wet Bag One might be more inclined to call this a dry bag, but the functionality is the same: keeping stuff dry in the wet or wet stuff safely separate from your dry. Its point of difference is how handily it packs away into a tiny key-ring silicon pouch. Unfolded, the wet bag has a 3 litre capacity, completely waterproof, so you could weather-protect your phone and car remote out in the wilds or stash away those chlorinated wet togs or stinky gym gear. $15 from matadorup.com

Tom Kelly @tomtomkelly