Friday, July 27th, 2007...2:48 pm

Travelling Light

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PS Cafe 07

The biggest problem that I’ve found with this photography hobby of mine is that whenever I travel, I spend about 15 minutes packing the clothes and other amenities but about 3 days deciding on what camera gear to bring with me. Do I bring my 30D or can I bear to just fly with the film camera? How many rolls of film do I bring if I’m going film? How many less can I bring if I’m bringing both? Which film camera should I bring – one of the little ancient ones or my 1V which has the added benefit of sharing lenses with my 30D. Or do I just focus on the travelling and screw the cameras…….. nah. Maybe just the Ricoh. Flash, tripod, which bag can fit all? It never ends.

Now that my camera (body) collection has hit 6 – and will increase to 7 on Saturday, also bringing the total number of brands with interchangeable lenses to 4, which is the biggest problem I forsee – my shoulders are getting tired in anticipation of where my indecision usually leads me: bring as many as I can heft around. (Let’s not even talk about whether or not to bring my laptop, which I do on longer trips.)

Come August, I’ll be bidding goodbye (for a while at least) to my Asahi Pentax ME, which I’m permaloaning to a dear friend who flies off to Hong Kong for the foreseeable future. I’m flying on the 14th on a short pre-Vietnam trip to Hong Kong, and will be bringing the Pentax up with me to permaloan to her. It’s also just occurred to me that I should probably fly up with the Pentax (and its 2 lenses), the Ricoh, and a couple of rolls of film, which would mean that for the first time in my multiple-camera-owner life, I’ll be travelling with my Crumpler 4 million dollar home, instead of the 7. My shoulders rejoice!

9 Comments

  • I get tired watching you carry all that stuff around.

    Thank goodness I am weedy and own no camera equipment. I just carry lots of medicine on my trips.

  • Haha. I never make you carry what, riiiiiight. You are important and in charge of the monies and passports and what not anyway.

  • I know – I cannot help you carry anyway because it is all so heavy (and I get very scared I will drop stuff).

  • i only bring one lense and two bodies (digital and film)…you make me feel inadequate xia. But try a monopod instead.

  • Why you bring one lens to share between two bodies? My most efficient setup was when I went to NY – I had the 30D with the 16-35 f/2.8 and the 1V with the 100mm macro. Easy swapping and no unused lenses on at any time.

    And monopods aren’t useful enough to warrant being brought overseas.. I either bring my tripod or a flash now. And my best non-tripod-y friend is a little beanbag. :)

    Wanted to get a gorillapod last year but couldn’t find it when I was in the states, then lost interest by the time I got back. Haha.

  • i ran out of backpack space(that time i had my 17 inch laptop along too) if i could i’ll pack my 17-35 zoom on my d70 and a 50mm on my fm10. yeah the hassle was pretty terrible, i delayed my friends path to enlightenment at Borobudor while i changed lense.

    ah gorilla pod! there’s a slr version right? i want a cheap version of a the POD camera platform to take over my heavy tripod

  • ya the SLR-zoom is probably what you’d need. anyway, no need the POD camera platform la. just get two pieces of cloth, sew them together and fill it with dried beans. easy peasy pudding and pie.

    i think if i see a gorillapod i’ll still buy it. haha. not sure how useful it’ll be but oh well. contemplated buying a lighter “travel” tripod, but decided that if it would just be a waste of money since it’s really not the weight but how cumbersome having yet another thing to carry (that doesn’t fit it my bag) is.

  • Wahh 7 siah. What new camera body are you buying? I’m still dawdling over if I should get the 5D…

  • Hurhur I bought over Ashwin’s F5. I figured now’s as good a time as any to spread the love to Nikon. :P