China Trip: Look at my equipment and tell me what I'm missing!

I am sure your tripod will be fine. But I would not go so far to say that no other tripod could possibly be better. Carbon fibre helps reduce weight yes, but it is by no means a must. It is good that you have a CF tripod. Some table top tripods are flimsy, just like many normal tripods are. But for example Leitz tabletop is more solid than most small tripods and some large ones. I fully agree that it is sometimes a pain, and occasionally impossible, to find a suitable place to set it up. Normal tripod gives much more freedom. I tried to show with my examples that tripod is really worth carrying.<div></div>

Hi Ben,

 

I was carrying my tripod in the supplied bag. Basically I looked like a bit of a fool with my Sligshot over one shoulder and a tripod bag over the other. But got some great shots. I'm not sure if it made me look like more or a tourist, or just a dork.

 

Grad NDs, I brought just my 2-stop soft filter. I'd bring your 3-stop soft and hard grad. In Shanghai and Hong Kong you may encounter some pure ocean horizons, depending on where you travel. I'd say I used my grad a fair amount, enough to warrant bringing it along. A few times I could have used a hard-stop filter.

 

I've put a couple photos up, I'll get to some more in a bit.

 

http://www.photo.net/photos/sampson

 

The pic of the great wall should give you an idea of what the skies may be like.

Ben: Just change your US and or Canadian money on as needed basis may be $100-200 at a time since you can get your money changed in your hotel everyday.

 

If you plan to return in the future, no need to change back to USD, since pressure has been on the Yuan to appreciate.

Ben:

 

If you insist on carrying a tripod, you may have a chance to use it when visiting the spectacular lime stone cave near Guilin.

Consider replacing the 50F1.8 with a Sigma 30F1.4.

 

I do agree with leaving most of the filters and do-dads home though. You're going to be shooting urban areas, hence a "capturing the moment" type attitude and a very lean equipment selection will be helpful.

Fast primes would be good. I only have the nifty fifty though. I bought 4 2Gig Kingston CF (45x) cards; I now have 2 8gig cards and 4 2gig cards for a total of 24 Gigs. I hope this is enough. I could have bought another 4 2gig cards, but it's just plain annoying carrying around like 10 Cf cards.

Well pending concerns (much in part due to Sampson's advice)about how comfortable the Slingshot 200 would be for long day hikes in China, I have decided to sell it and buy a National Geographic small backpack (http://www.gadget-bag.co.uk/product_details.php?id=2997) which looks to be quite a compact, non-camera-bag looking camera backpack. You can mount a tripod on the side (or a water bottle) and it has two storage compartments: one for camera gear in the lower compartment another for miscellanous things. The NG backpacks have a lot of good reviews on the net so it looks to be a good choice.

I'm also going to China to all of the same places plus some on 9/1 for 21 days. I too have been trying to figure out what equipment to take, so it has been great reading the suggestions. Can I assume you don't really need a flash unit? I have a D200 and have been reading posts about buying a cord for the Nikon Quick Charger to handle the 250 voltage. Anyone do that? Thanks in advance.

If I had a flash, I would bring one, however, I have some reservations about using flash. I like the landscape/city type shots, so flash won't help there.

 

Apparently, in most of the big cities the pollution causes an overcaste haze in the cities, so a flash would help. BUT it's very intrusive to have flash going off in peoples' faces. You also give up any chances of candid photography. You are not (from what I hear) allowed to use flash in temples and museums too. So I would say Flash is a no go for china travel.

Hmm, if it fits, I'd still bring an external flash.

 

I did end up using my flash a good deal, both for fill light during the day (counter intuitive when you think skies are 'overcast', but we still often had quite harsh shadows - figure that?) as well as in covered pagoda etc, when people were in the shade and the background was quite bright.

 

I don't use my built in flash at all, but I'd expect it to be somewhat limited in range.

 

Ben, you're right that typically, temples don't let you use flash, but in some cases, they are just guidelines. There really isn't anything too bad about flash photography in Bhuddist or Taoist temples.

 

I only made it to 3 museums, at the Forbidden City in Beijing, and 2 in Shanghai. Flash was ok in the Shanghai museums although I just ended up shooting with my 50mm f/1.8.

 

Oh, just looking over your original post Ben, remember that sunrises are at very very extreme times in the morning, try about 5AM or so, but with the jet lag combined with excitement, I was waking up at 3AM for the first week. I never made it out for a sunset since I didn't want my wife to wake up all alone in a foreign country wondering where her hubby was. ;)

 

Oh one last suggestion regarding the Great Wall. If you end up going to Badaling (the most common site), go near the end of the day, arrive late in the afternoon, and most people/tours will have left for the day.

No need to bring a 250 volt charger. Hotels have plenty (at least 2) of 120 volt outlets for

the regular D200 charger. The MH 18a Nikon D200 charger has foreign voltage range

100-240 printed on the back and I assume it can handle the 250 voltage line.

 

No need for a flash unit. The built-in unit is more than adequate. Just don't forget to take

the lens hood off for wide angle shots, otherwise you may get a dark semicircle in your

bottom midddle of the picture.

Kin Yu, Thanks for your answer about the 120 volt outlets and the flash. I'm leaving my flash at home.