Remember the rule of thumb for eliminating camera shake when hand-held -- your shutter needs to be the FASTER of 1/60 or the reciprocal of your focal length. In other words, at 200mm, you need to be shooting 1/200 or faster shutter speed. As a Marine Corps Sniper, I can generally fudge this by about half, but it takes every bit of my marksmanship skills to do it, and sometimes that's not enough...

I have created several control systems using various Arduino compatible microcontrollers. Some (like the one that is time-lapsing my house being built) is uber-simple with a set interval and nothing but an on/off button. Others are adjustable for both interval and duration. They are not expensive to make (under $30 for the cheap ones, under $100 for the more complicated ones), but I have only (to date) interfaced with Nikon cameras. I DO use optical isolation on the circuitry, so there is no chance of the controller electronics damaging the camera electronics (or vice/versa) unless something generates a spike > 50,000 volts! Once I have the photos, I use Photoshop to render the time-lapse video.

1. Zero
2. Multiple phones (cellular and cordless), a tablet and two laptop computers in recent memory. A calculator back when a 4 function TI would cost you over a hundred bucks. Was silica gel even available to the general public back then? You certainly couldn't order it for free 2-day delivery on Amazon Prime. Nor could you Google for alternatives. (Yes, I've been around a day or three as well.)

You can site all the chemistry you want -- it doesn't change the fact that rice works. When Mr. Right isn't available, sometimes Mr. Right-now will just have to do...

I would expect it doesn't really matter, though I have never used instant.

Wow! I don't recall any reference to religion, nor have I thrown any comments that may or may not be intended as insults. I have NEVER said rice was the best thing to use. What I DID say is that it WILL work, if that is what you have available. I have multiple incidents of working electronics to show for it. You want to toss out a link and a holier-than-thou attitude in response. Please take your pompous know-it-all-ness and put it somewhere impolite.

I also have a D2X and had several of the IBM Micro-drives. They ended up being somewhat fragile, subject to movement and vibration. Every one I had suffered a head crash and had to be disposed of. In their day they were actually faster than the flash memory, and they were available as a 4G when a 512M was the biggest CF available. Their mechanics also sucked the life out of camera batteries faster than you could swap them for freshly charged! I believe I still have one around here somewhere, but strictly as a memento -- I would not even consider using one today...

I would fill it with junk images a couple times. If it hiccuped again -- off to the dump. If not, I would continue to use it.

Have you tried using Disk Utility to do a repair on the card?

The equilibrium of dry rice will be a lot drier than wet electronics! When you a) don't have silica gel, b) live so far out in the boonies that the locals look at you cross-eyed when you mention such stuff, and c) have no way to get to a store that may have it before the moon is high in the dark sky -- well -- a couple of 3 pound sealed plastic bags of rice do quite well... :)

I did give up on one phone after about 48 hours. I was going to toss it, but got side-tracked. About a week later, my (at the time) 2 year old grandson wanted to play with his mom's phone, so I figured I would give him the dead one. About 2 minutes into playing with it he figured out how to turn it on and make an emergency call on it... We figured this out when the Deputies came knocking at the door...!

I don't tend to keep silica gel on hand, but we always have plenty of rice!

My choice of "walk around lens" depends entirely on where I intend to be walking that day, what I intend to be doing, and how large a kit (including additional lenses!) I feel like carrying that day...

Another thing that works with electronics (I have done several phones & voice recorders, but never a camera) is to seal them in a large Tupperware container filled with rice. It takes longer, but also takes the risk of heat damage put of the equation.

My Nikon D810 has two cards. I have it configured to write all images to both cards. Cheapest insurance I have ever bought...

1. Remove camera from bag.
2. Remove lens cap & put back in bag.
3. Reverse hood.
4. Turn camera on.
...
... take pictures ... sometimes lots of pictures! ... maybe turn camera off to change cards or batteries
...
n-3. Turn camera off.
n-2. Reverse hood.
n-1. Remove cap from bag & affix to lens.
n. Replace camera in bag.

If I am where I think I *might* want to shoot, the cap is off, the hood is fixed, and the camera is on..!

I carry a D810 and a D2X (at the same time) on a Spider-Pro dual rig (link below). I also use their hand strap instead of a neck strap. Everything else goes in a LowePro sling-bag (the Slingshot Edge 250 seems to be the closest of what they make now to what I have). I add to that a Manfrotto carbon-fiber monopod and I hike comfortably -- even up the likes of Crab Tree Falls!

https://spiderholster.com/spider-pro
http://store.lowepro.com/sling-bags/slingshot-edge-250-aw

In my experience, I have only ever sold one lens that I didn't kick myself for later. That one was the original Sigma 50-500mm HSM. It was a tank and weighed more than the rest of my every-day bag together! I literally used it twice and then it sat on a shelf collecting dust -- at the 7 year mark I decided it had to go... I REGULARLY kick myself for selling my 85mm f1.8, and even my 18-200mm DX. I often cry thinking about the 50mm f/1.4 that I inherited with my first camera and sold for a song -- I don't even think the buyer knew what he was getting...