What do you bring (photographic equipment) for travel

[DonnyDan]

Hi it is just my opinion, I prefer to carry less. What you mentioned is quite a complete system of gears if you are going there just for holiday unless there is an assignment. The gears that you bring will make you carry less Timberland and Levis stuff back from there =P Furthermore you wont wan to lug around with it all day like Disney.

Just a few question like why bring a grip and backup cam? Why dun just 18-105 to cover all the fast lens and shoot in DX.

Was preparing my list when i saw this thread
For my US trip in 2 days time (14 days to California, LA, San Fransico, Nevada, Las Vegas)

I am bringing : -
D700
MBD10
AFS 17-35mm f2.8
AFS 24-70mm f2.8
AFS 105mm VR f2.8
D5000
AFS 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
SB900
Demb Flip it Pro
Lee GND 0.6 Soft
Lee GND 0.9 Hard
Kenko Pro 1D CPL
Hoya ND8
Hoya ND400
2 sandisk 8 GB 30m/s
12 Enelops
MC-30 cable release
Rocket Blower
3 pcs of micro fiber cleaning cloth
Acer Netbook
ThinkTank Urban Disguise 50
Sirui T-1004 Tripod
Markins Q3

Hope i have nt left out anything..:think:

 

[2evans]

Just a few question like why bring a grip and backup cam? Why dun just 18-105 to cover all the fast lens and shoot in DX.

Backup, in case the main one fails... would suck to carry all that equipement and only have 1 body and it fails. Now you'd have a ton of "useless" gear for the rest of your trip.

18-105 can cover a decent focal range, but the trade off is that aperture is smaller, IQ is not as good, and probably won't AF as fast. In some instances you want more Bokeh or need a wider aperture due to lower light conditions.

 

[DonnyDan]

Backup, in case the main one fails... would suck to carry all that equipement and only have 1 body and it fails. Now you'd have a ton of "useless" gear for the rest of your trip.

18-105 can cover a decent focal range, but the trade off is that aperture is smaller, IQ is not as good, and probably won't AF as fast. In some instances you want more Bokeh or need a wider aperture due to lower light conditions.

I see that why it is really depend on the nature of your holiday. I bring 2 or more if it is an assignment that cannot make any mistake, but for holiday carrying so many things is quite a burden esp on load, on safe keeping and transporting.

For comparison, this is what i bring for general trip.
D300
N18-200
T11-16
Kenko TC 1.4

and this is what I brought to Egypt recently. Once i am at Cairo during free and easy i left everything in the hotel room and walk around with my D700 14-24 24-120.

D300 D700
14-24
24-70
70-200
50
85
105M
300(Borrow)
24-120
Kenko TC 1.4

 

[coolsigg]

Will be bringing the following to Phuket:

GF-1
20/1.7
14-45
Memory cards
Batteries

That's all

yeah man, this is what I prolly wan to bring as well...dont want to torture myself carrying all those heavy gears...

mayb i will just throw in a LX3 as a backup...

 

[kongping]

DSLR, two lenses (21mm / 70mm), point and shoot, tripod.

It's always a balance, but heavy gear generally leads to exhaustion, reduced mobility, increased 'visibility' to your subjects, and ultimately poorer shots.

Ultimately, it's about the experience. Soak it all in, then take some pictures; otherwise, documentation IS the destination.

However, if you're making money out of it, i guess anything goes.

 

[twiki]

What, or where, is Carol?

Perhaps you are referring to Cairo?

...and this is what I brought to Egypt recently. Once i am at Carol during free and easy i left everything in the hotel room and walk around with my D700 14-24 24-120.

 

[DonnyDan]

Haha ya my mistake. Amended.

What, or where, is Carol?

Perhaps you are referring to Cairo?

 

[Bellaraphon]

20 days Australia Roadtrip:

Canon 50D with 18-200mm lens attached.
Canon 580EXII.
GF1 with 14-45mm lens attached.
Panny 45-200mm lens.
Olympus miu-700 Tough
5 batt chargers (MacBook, Canon 50D, GF1, Olympus, rehcargeable AA-size batts)
8 rechargeable AA-size batts.
13" MacBook

 

[AYC Nee]

Just came back from HK. This is what I brought with me: D300, 8GB card, 2 batteries, 17-35 f2.8, 50 f1.8, 80-200 f2.8, Horizon 202 pano camera (film) + 6 rolls of film. No tripod. I ended up using 17-35 f2.8 most of the time.

 

[satch]

5dmk2 without grip, 17-35, 24-85, 35 f2, 50 f1.8, 580ex, cleaning kit, around 42GB (total) of CF cards.

 

[Clown]

U guys should check out William Chua's (will03) travel kit. The last time round in tanzania, he had a fuji 6x17, mamiya 7iis, and 3 Dslr with different lenses slung around his neck the whole time.

 

[Roinghu]

1. D300s
2. 16-85
3. geotagging gps (Easytagger or gp-1, not decided which to buy yet)

 

[aloskimo]

5dm2
24-105
430EX
macbk pro

only a leisure photographer...currently with 5dm2 a videographer hobbyist as well...

shoot for memories keeping.

only use camera bag for transportation; if not, most of time will just sling the cam and walk around...
lesser things the better it is..

 

[george671]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fyiKcLWpx7A/SvZFw9Vw93I/AAAAAAAAAAM/z6g9O9QdBjI/s1600-h/DSCN0182


http




Two Nikon D200 bodies
Nikon AF 300 f2.8 edif / with TC 14B
Nikon AF 24-120 f3.5-5.6
Nikon AF 17-35 f2.8
Sigma AF 12-24 f4.5=5.6
Nikon AF 20 f2.8
Nikon MF 50 1.4
I also carry a couple of older nikon speedlights and a couple of vivitar 285's or 283's with wein poppers or some cheapo Chinese radio slaves in the bag... Along with some flash cards and a point and shoot. (the point and shoot must run on standard AA batteries and us SD cards.
I also thro in a Nikon "F" or Nikormat ft3 with a manual 20 f2.8 lens on it...(still hard to beat film sometimes).
If I lighten up I go with just one body and three lenses...Nik 300m...Nik 24-120...Sig 12-24...and the point and shoot,( in this case an L20 coolpix)
As you can see most of my gear is kinda ugly and painted with bits of fluoresent Orange...easily identifiable and easy to find in the dark.
I do a lot of my travels in Thailand so I get most of my gear serviced and cleaned at Nikon in Bangkok.
[url]www.nikon.co.th/contactus.php[/url]
Since I live on Guam as with all warm humid climates, fungus is the primary enemy!!!

://snakephoto.blogspot.com/2009/11/this-is-my-normal-travel-kit.html.JPG


cheers George www.snakephoto.blogspot.com

 

[Numnumball]

Hi it is just my opinion, I prefer to carry less. What you mentioned is quite a complete system of gears if you are going there just for holiday unless there is an assignment. The gears that you bring will make you carry less Timberland and Levis stuff back from there =P Furthermore you wont wan to lug around with it all day like Disney.

Just a few question like why bring a grip and backup cam? Why dun just 18-105 to cover all the fast lens and shoot in DX.

Missed it, sorry for the late reply dude.. its not a concern to me as i m so used to lugging ard such heavy gear.. Besides i have 2 big luggage half filled on my way to US (obviously it came back with the interior space all fully utlilised (with my wife's ard 10 coach bags *faint* katespade, CK, Timberland, nike/addidas shoes, hugo boss apparel etc etc)

Ohh... Answering ur qs..

Bingo, i brought the 18-105 wif the D5000 which was on my wife's neck most of the time..It's her cam actually.. i labelled it as a backup becos i will have to fall back on the D5000 shd my D700 fails me (which i was proven wrong).

Grip is essential to me as i need
1) the extra juice(lazy to chg batteries in n out)
2) comfort in shooting in portrait mode
3) the arca swiss style base plate to mount on my tripod was meant for my MBD10, if i dun bring the grip, how m i suppose to mount my cam on my tripod

Lastly, u need fast lens to optimize D700 low light ability, alot of my shoots indoor is shot at iso 3200 and above (tripodless some places they dun allow the use as they deem it as hazardless, but i still managed to sneak it in Disney Land and Universal Studios ).
All my wife's shots on her DX turned out unusable while mine is almost flawless/noiseless.. So bottomline is, FX still tat impt in low light conditions and i wil ldefinietly prefer it over DX for travel photography..

Cheers

 

[Numnumball]

Backup, in case the main one fails... would suck to carry all that equipement and only have 1 body and it fails. Now you'd have a ton of "useless" gear for the rest of your trip.

18-105 can cover a decent focal range, but the trade off is that aperture is smaller, IQ is not as good, and probably won't AF as fast. In some instances you want more Bokeh or need a wider aperture due to lower light conditions.

How right u r dude

 

[mezzanine]

9 Days Beijing Trip

Sony A300
Tamron 17-50 f2.8
Joby GorillaPod SLR Zoom with Ballhead
1 Extra Batt
2 x 4g CF

Canon A640 P/S
Joby GorillaPod
3 x 2g SD

Still learning..and don't want to break my back, so going minimal!

 

[twiki]

mezzanine,

Your gear sounds just about right. Enjoy the minimalist approach and don't let your gear bog you down.

Too many photographers who are well beyond the 'just learning' phase have the mistaken belief that they need to cover every last millimeter of focal length, or they'll miss something really great.
Don't feel you have to do the same thing to have worthwhile vacation shots.

9 Days Beijing Trip

Sony A300
Tamron 17-50 f2.8
Joby GorillaPod SLR Zoom with Ballhead
1 Extra Batt
2 x 4g CF

Canon A640 P/S
Joby GorillaPod
3 x 2g SD

Still learning..and don't want to break my back, so going minimal!

 

[2evans]

mezzanine,

Your gear sounds just about right. Enjoy the minimalist approach and don't let your gear bog you down.

Too many photographers who are well beyond the 'just learning' phase have the mistaken belief that they need to cover every last millimeter of focal length, or they'll miss something really great.
Don't feel you have to do the same thing to have worthwhile vacation shots.

It's really up to personal preference as to what you want to bring. If you want to carry a lot of gear, don't be complaining...

 

[twiki]

.
I don't think anyone has (been complaining).

But all you need to do is read the part where they admit that, for the better part of the trip, only one of their lenses was on their camera.
The rest remained in the bag or, better/worse still, in the hotel safe.

But, like you've said, it's personal preference.
If you want to be burdened by a ton of gear while on vacation.... do whatever makes you happy, and whatever gets the shot.

It's really up to personal preference as to what you want to bring. If you want to carry a lot of gear, don't be complaining...