PhotoWalkPro

I’ve had a lot of inquiries about what gear I packed with me on my trip to Dubai so I thought I would share the contents of my backpack with you.  Unlike Scott and his saga of always having the wrong lens, I always had the right lens with me.  Of course I had everything but the kitchen sink with me, which means I was carrying a pretty heavy bag across the country.  I don’t know if I’m alone in this but I have a bad case of “Wrong Lens” paranoia, which is always pushing me to leave nothing behind.  So for me, what I brought isn’t nearly as important as what I did bring but didn’t use.    So here is a rundown of everything I packed in my backpack and whether or not I used it.

•    Nikon D300 –                          Definitely used it
•    IR DSLR –                               Used it for one shoot but glad I had it
•    70-200 f/2.8 lens –                  Probably my main go-to lens for the trip
•    18-70 f/3.5-5.6 –                    Medium use
•    12-24 f/3.2 –                          About the same as the 18-70
•    1.4 Teleconverter –                  Used once
•    10.5 Fisheye –                        Never saw the light of day
•    SB-800 Flash –                       Used one night
•    Epson Media Storage –            Used it every night
•    GPS Unit –                             Used it for about half of my shooting
•    Maxtor Hard Drive –                Used it as secondary back-up
•    Cable Release –                      Never Used
•    Thumb Drive –                        Never Used
•    Whi-Bal cards –                      Never Used
•    6-CF Cards –                          Ended up using 3
•    Laptop –                                 Used every day
•    Extra Laptop Battery –             Used on long flights
•    5-Camera Batteries –              Used 4 before recharging
•    USB Cables –                         Used for back-up to Maxtor
•    Hoodman Loupe –                  Used in bright light shooting locations
•    Hoodman CF Reader –            Used for downloads to laptop

You can see that there were five items that were either never used or were used just once.  Of those items, three of them will probably stay in my bag, the cable release, thumb drive, and Whi-Bal cards.  Not only are they small and weigh next to nothing but not having them would be worse than the extra few ounces they add to the bag.  Although I didn’t use the cable release, it is almost always better to have it, especially if I want to shoot multiple exposures at night for an HDR project it would prove to be a crucial piece of equipment.  The thumb drive is just a handy thing to have around, especially if I wanted to share an image or two with a shooting buddy.  The Whi-Bal card is extremely handy for mixed lighting environments when I know that getting a good white balance might be a challenge.

What I really need to consider leaving behind is the fisheye the flash, and the tele-converter.  Although I used the tele-converter once, it only had limited benefit as far as magnification factor goes and it only fits on the 70-200.  Maybe a swap to a 2X might be something to consider in the future.  As for the fisheye, the fact that I didn’t use it is probably a good indication that I should not bring it along.  Another way to save a little weight would be to condense my lens choices down to the 12-24 and an 18-200.  The only problem with that choice is the nice f/2.8 aperture that the 70-200 gives me.  This can come in handy in low light situations but it’s something to consider.  And speaking of low light, the SB-800 seems to be adding some dead weight to my bag and unless I know I will be shooting portraits, I could probably get by with the little pop-up flash on the D300.

As for the rest of the gear, most of it stayed behind in the hotel room while I was out shooting.  If I had to carry the laptop and back-up drives, I would probably be writing this while in traction.

So what are my lessons learned?
•    I am definitely a pack rat
•    I don’t want to sacrifice one millimeter of lens but might be happy with something that covers my preferred range of 12 to 200mm
•    A flash is best packed only when you know you will need it, especially if my goal is to shoot landscapes
•    And my Number 1 lesson – I had better not buy a larger back-pack because I’ll probably feel the need to fill it

Related posts:

1. I want to buy a DSLR, which camera should I buy?
2. Thursday News – I Want My iPod Touch Camera!
3. Simple Off-Camera Flash Solution
4. The Fish-Eye, Worth the Investment?
5. Review – The SpiderPro Camera Holster System

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 12:05 am and is filed under Travel Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.