Carrying gear on backpacking trip

Hi All,

 

I'm planning a 14 week backpacking trip around North Africa (mainly

Egypt) and Europe from mid-Sep through to Dec and have a couple of

questions to ask :

 

1) What do you recommend for a case to carry all the gear ?

 

My gear at the moment is a EOS30 (7e in the US), 24-85mm zoom, 50mm,

75-300mm zoom plus accessories (filters, remote cord, cleaning

fluid). Also have a lightweight tripod - Velbon CX 480, approximately

0.4-0.5 kg for the tripod. I carry this around at the moment in a

shoulder bag and a dedicated tripod bag, but tried this for a whole

weekend around town and found the combo too bulky to carry. Also, my

shoulder and the middle of my back began to ache from carrying the

shoulder bag.

 

I'm leaning towards a mini-backpack at the moment, with a strap for

the tripod. Any suggestions/ comments on this ? Any ideas for which

brand/ type of back I should be looking for ?

 

2) Film

 

Any ideas for film? My stock film at the moment is Fuji Sensia (can

get relatively cheap at bulk prices) and Velvia (for those scenes

where I want to really capture the colour). Style of photography is

mainly landscape (urban) and architecture, not so good at asking

people to pose for photos or to capture candid shots of people. Any

thoughts of other films to think about given varying locations

(Egypt, Eastern and Western Europe), temperature etc. ?

 

3) How to store/ carry film ?

 

I'm not planning to cart film around Europe, so am planning to send

back film to Australia (current residence). Any ideas/ thoughts/ tips

on how to do this ?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

1) I suppose it depends on how crucial the images that you plan to take will be to the overall trip enjoyment. I've just spent 14 weeks in India and Nepal and took a similar amount as you've listed. I stuffed everything into a Karrimor day pack, along with other kit, as the popular Lowe Pro's can only take photography gear and not much else. After a lot of head-scratching I decided against taking a tripod and it was the best decision, although it sounds like yours is lighter than mine...

 

2) Film is a matter of choice, but don't obsess about temperature too much. As long as they're not in direct sunlight Sensia and Velvia will be happy in Egypt in September. I'd give strongly think about some 400 neg. though, especially for Europe.

 

3) It probably makes sense to mail/Fedex film home, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. You're often retracing steps so it's usually possible to leave some with a friendly hotelier for a while, and film really doesn't weigh that much, unless you're planning on shooting literally 100's of rolls.

(1) you need a Lowe pro mini trekker

 

(2) over 14 weeks, some might say you'd get a little colour shift with Velvia - but if you can keep it cool and get it processed straight away once home it should be fine. (Not done my own tests on that). The sensia isn't a pro film so it will be fine, but again keep it cool. Provia 100F is finer grained...would be my choice along with the Velvia.

 

(3) I travelled for much longer and kept everything with me in 2001. I'd be too paranoid to Fedex it! Even if we're talking 40-50 rolls, just keep it cool and protected in your main rucksack, it takes up surprisingly little space once out of the cardboard packaging.

1st thing I didn't understand: Backpacking trip. You ve got one back. 1st pack contains cothes and so on. Where do you want to carry the photo backpack?

2nd backpacks are slow! and endangered - thieves...

I'd suggest some vest like construction wearable in combination with your backpackbelts or copy something from the army, to have your 2nd zoom in front of your breast and a simple cotton bag for your 50mm or 1st zoom. I'd also use some non solid canvas or whatever bag for the camera.

I used to carry my tripod open, after mounting a shoulder belt and an other one holding the legs together.

I've got a Lowepro Nature Trekker, but I found I didn't much like it for carrying gear around. What I do now is have a regular daypack that is very comfortable and roomy, and have padded inserts inside to hold and protect my camera equipment. For wilderness travel, I'm considering reducing this further to a topload zoom case, such as those produced by Lowepro to hold one body plus a lens, and then lens pouches to hold any other lenses I might want to take as well. This combination would allow me to put the equipment in a regular daypack while still maintaining acceptable levels of protection.

 

With regards to film, I suggest you take whatever you're familiar with. A big trip is not a time to experiment. You might want to consider a few rolls of fast speed film for those places that don't allow you to use a tripod, such as inside museums.

 

When I've taken long trips of a month or longer, I've always mailed my film home. These trips were usually within the U.S., so I was only shipping them domestically. Actually, what I did was mail my film to Fuji Processing, Fuji's mail order film processing lab, and have the developed slides sent to my home. This way, when I got back from the trip, practically all of my film was waiting for me to review. I usually waited until I had about a dozen rolls or so before I sent out a shipment.

 

One tip I read from National Geographic was to put every other roll in a separate shipment. So, if you were numbering your rolls of film, you would put all the even rolls in one box, and all the odd rolls in another. This way, if one of the shipments got lost, you would still have half the rolls and they wouldn't all be of one grouping.

First suggestion is to look inconspicuous, you dont want to scream "tourist with loads of cash" by hanging name brand gear all over yourself.

I've done a fair bit of travel shooting, and found a regular old daypack worked best. My guess is that your 24-85 will live on your camera most of the time, so find a small cheapo camera bag that will fit that combo with film, and keep your other lenses in pouches. If you are doing the budget travel route, you will be clambering onto buses, trains and camels, so keep it light or I guarantee you will be sending a package of stuff home from Cairo (I did). Skip the tripod and get a beanbag, you really will not use the tripod enough to make it worth the hassle.

I have some of my images from <a href="http://www.oboylephoto.com/africa/egypt">egypt here</a> if your interested.

LowePro Micro Trekker isn't bad. The hipbelt is useless as a belt so you can take it off to save weight or use it to attach to a larger pack. The outside pouch is big enough for a water bottle, a book and smaller items. It has straps for a tripod on the bottom but unless you have a fairly compact tripod you will be banging it into every doorway and bus entry you go through in this configuration. I take a lot of night and early moring shots so leaving the tripod isn't an option for me. When that's not easy I use an Ultrapod II. It's not enough for a heavy tele-zoom but I've gotten great shots using it with a 200mm all over Europe.

Not exactly an answer, but I did want to keep this thread going, because I am facing a similair dilema, and wanted to hear other folks ideas. I am doing a backpacking trip for a couple weeks in central europe. I have a Canon A2, 80-200 2.8, 28-70 zoom, 50mm, filters etc etc.

 

Was thinking of the LowePro mini, but what do I do when I am wearing my big pack and heading off to another location? Might be difficult to wear both bags, and I doubt I could safely squeeze all that gear into my big pack.

 

I really like the fast zoom, but its sooo heavy that I was thinking of just bringing the body and regular zoom. I am trying to think of bag combinations and think I am going to do the following. Bring an old beat up backpack, try to line it with some cushioning. Keep the body and lens in there along with other carry around type things. When I am travelling to another location I can fold the old backpack up and fit most of the stuff in my big pack.

 

My other option is a bike messanger type shoulder bag. It can hold quite a bit of stuff, and folds down to nothing.

 

Still trying to figure this out.

'cos the evening you take off from all your gear will be the one you see the shot of the trip - guaranteed!

 

Remember the best camera is the one you have with you!