What gear to carry.

[tasadam]

I received an email from someone who found my website. Subsequent emails, and the result is a communication that others may find useful, so I thought I would post it here.

G’day Adam, Just admiring your fantastic work. I am just in awe of your shots. May I ask you a couple of questions as always good to get some first hand advice from those who have done it. I also have been having a look at ‘our Hiking Blog’. You have obviously done alot of hiking in Tas. I notice that you did have a Nikon D200 – what lenses do you have and if you were walking the overland track what equipment would you take with you photographic wise.

Hi.
Before I tell you everything I carry (which I am going to be happy to do), I would like to ask you a few questions so I can offer you the right advice.
Firstly, what gear do you currently own?
Breaking it down, I assume you have a DSLR body? Is it a D200 as well? And what lens/es do you have in your kit? How about a tripod – do you have one? What is it made of? How heavy is it?
How many memory cards and camera batteries do you have?
Do you clean your own sensor in your DSLR body, or do you take it somewhere to have it done? Or have you never had your sensor cleaned?
If “never”, do you have any “dust bunnies” in your shots? That is, little black dots that appear in your shots especially at narrow F stops (~f22)?
How often do you change lenses?
Do you have a camera body that has its own internal sensor cleaning (high frequency vibrating using an ultrasonic piezo-electric buzzer to move dust to a sticky pad or similar)?
What do you do with your photos? Is it a hobby or are you looking to do something a little more commercial with them?
Have you done much bushwalking? Have you done the Overland track (or similar extended walks) before? How much weight do you carry in a pack?
What do you typically photograph?
These questions (and many more that I could probably come up with pretty quickly) will form the basis of my tailoring an answer to what you are asking.

Talk later
Adam.

Hi Adam,
Thanks again for the reply and willingness to assist.
At present I am at the very preliminary stages of any planning to do the overland track. I have thought about doing this trip for a long time and the time clock keeps ticking so I need to take steps to do it. Saying that I am ever conscious of the need to plan and be well prepared. It wasn't until the penny dropped that I had also seen the Tasadam signature on Bushwalk.com and also our hiking blog. I have read your recommendation to get the Chapman Overland track book.
From the equipment aspect it is a minefield of choice with obviously the more you pay the better quality you get and more suited for the purpose.
Other than the peak period is there a time that you would recommend walking the track - another very subjective question I guess

Re photographic - Yes only an amateur but always that drive to take better pictures and still need some improvement prior to doing the more commercial thing. Have sold just a couple of shots of the Victorian High country.
My kit at the moment consists of the Nikon D200 with lenses Nikon 18-200, Nikon 60mm F2.8, Nikon 80-400 (very slow and hunts) and a Tokina 12-24. With the 18-200 I suppose I originally saw this as a good travel compromise but the more pictures you take the more equipment you seem to want to take
I have also recently been looking at the 80-200 f2.8 and have considered buying it second hand on ebay. Ken Rockwell rates the lens very highly and a fraction of the cost against the 70-200VR.

I suppose that was part of my curiosity to see what lenses that you may have and in the end whether can justify the expense to get the true professional lenses.

Camera - D200 - I have not had the sensor cleaned and have not noticed any little black dots when shooting F22. That does not mean that there are none there but just haven't seen them. Have you cleaned the sensor on the D200 and was it easy?
I change the lenses fairly regularly from the 18-200 to the 12-24.

Prefer shooting Landscapes and love the work of Peter Dombrovskis in particular the rock island shot and Laker Oberon - Western Arthur range


I presently have 2 batteries
Memory cards - have a number of Sandisk, the Extreme iv 8G, Extreme iii x 4gb and 2 x 2gb a 1gb and some 512 Mb
Tripod - Manfrotto 055 ProB with a 486RC2 ball head. I also recently purchased a lightweight Velbon Ultra Maxi L but I need to get a different head to make it compatible with the Manfrotto fittings
I have a circular polariser and some cokin ND grad filters.

Best regards

OK, well, it depends a lot on how much weight you want to carry. I would be leaving the 80-400 behind. Weight versus gain, and it gets outweighed (pun), so leave that for this trip.
The 12-24 is a must.
The 18-200 is okay, but it does have what I would call a fair degree of chromatic aberration. This can be fixed in Photoshop if you shoot RAW and can be bothered with that much post-processing. Many people take the photos straight from the camera and leave it at that. While there is a fair amount of setting up within the camera that you can do to try and achieve the highest quality JPG possible, the post processing abilities of software like Adobe Photoshop CS5 (using the RAW image data) and you will be able to create a more appealing picture. Not to say there is anything wrong with using the camera to capture JPG’s, many people do and it depends on what you want to do with your photos. Oops, sire tracked, back to lenses...

The f2.8 would be nice, being 60mm. That’s really 90mm on a DX sensor.
The zoom range is covered by the 18-200 so you don’t really need it, unless you are going to be using the extra light allowed by 2.8 or you are looking at carrying it for the sake of using the sharpest optics on certain scenes.
Personally I wouldn’t bother when you have another lens covering that zoom range.

I would be getting more battery power, I would suggest at least 4 original, fully charged batteries.
It looks like you will have enough memory cards to shoot RAW + Basic JPG and get plenty of photos.

Use the tripod on every photo that you have the time to. A stable tripod allows you to get the exposure right without the blur caused by camera movement. The VR is supposed to do that, but I found I could always get a sharper image by turning the VR off and mounting the camera on a solid tripod. Of course, this assumes you have the time to do it, and the subject is a scene that isn’t about to run away or fly off on you.

When using the wide angle, make good use of the foreground content in a scene, and pick your focal point carefully.

Filters – personal choice. I carry a CPL and an 8X ND. I do not have grad ND’s. Some people like them, allowing a more balanced exposure across the entire scene. I personally find that with a correctly exposed image and some subtle post processing, I can get the image looking natural while enhancing the exposure of the darker elements of a scene..

The equipment that I currently own –
Nikon D700 body
Nikon D200 body
Nikon 50mm f1.4
Nikon 17-35mm f2.8
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon 105mm f2.8 macro
Nikon 12-24mm DX (for D200)
Gitzo GT2542L tripod
Gitzo GT1541 tripod
Tripod bag (for protection of GT1541 when strapped to outside of pack)
Acratech GV2 head
Acratech Ultimate head
Sandisk Extreme Pro 16Gb CF
Several 8Gb cards 4Gb, 2Gb, 1Gb
Cable release
Cleaning gear
Spare waterproof bags
Tools (specific tripod wrench etc)
Other stuff not worth mentioning.

What I would take on an Overland track walk if I was going tomorrow?
I wouldn’t go tomorrow, too much snow. But, figuratively speaking,
Nikon D700
At least 4 and probably 6 batteries (time exposures chew the power)
Plenty of memory (small, light)
Gitzo GT2542L with Acratech GV2 head
Cable release
Nikon 17-35 lens
Nikon 24-70 lens
Maybe the macro lens.
And of course, cleaning gear, tools.

And if going with my wife, add to this list –
D200
12-24mm DX lens
All the batteries
Other tripod and head, tripod bag...


As for when to walk the Overland track, I figure it’s best to have a read of the relevant topics on the bushwalk.com forum
July, August, into September and you have a real risk of needing snowshoes. I did it in June 2007 and got relatively lucky with the weather.

I have used an 80-200 f2.8 as I had it on long term loan from a relative.
While it is nice, I found I didn’t really need the zoom for the sort of stuff I take.
If I were buying something like that, I would get the 70-200 f2.8 VR II (the new one).
Indeed, I nearly did buy it last month.

Taking a lens like the 70-200 or 80-400 on a trip like the Overland track is something I would think hard about, because of the weight aspect.
Weight versus gain, best to get a feel for how you use your lenses, and how often, what the subject matter is that you are looking for and whether it can be captured another way, whether you would regret not having it with you as it’s not like you can just go and do the Overland track again (though, on that point, why not??), whether you have room in your pack or someone else to walk with that is prepared to share pack space etc.

I hope that all helps. Be sure to write and let me know how you get on, or if you have any other questions.
Best regards and good luck!
Adam.

Others might have things to add here too, it seems a typical enough question - of the gear you have, what is it that you will need...

[nickthetasmaniac]

I'll post some thoughts here as well if people don't mind

I've done the Overland Track each winter for the last 4 years (the last trip being last week) and that period has seen my photography evolve from a passing interest to my main passion.

Here's what I took...

Year 1:
Sony A100
Sony 18-70/f3.5-5.6? (the kit lens, I think that was the range)
1x battery
1x SD card, can't remember capacity.

This year we were out for 9 days and had two significant weather systems come through during the walk, so LOTS of snow and constantly wet, which more importantly meant constantly humid, especially the huts. I wasn't particularly into photography at this point so I can't remember any significant details. Notably though, the A100 packed it on the second last day of the trip due to moisture and never really worked properly afterwards... Something to be wary of, even if you're not actually shooting in the rain.

Year 2:
Pentax K20D
SMC DA* 16-50/f2.8 and SMC DA Ltd 35/f2.8 Macro
2x batteries
2x 8gb SD card

This was my first big walk with a fully weather-sealed kit (K20D and 16-50) and it was a huge help. It meant that even in average weather and the humid rainforests the camera could stay on my shoulder all the time. Given how much of a pain in the *&%$#! it is to take off a fully-loaded rucksack and find your camera, this meant that I got quite a few shots that I would have otherwise missed.

I used the 16-50 for basically the whole trip, pulling out the 35mm Macro only twice, despite it being optically excellent. I think this demonstrates how important it is to have a versatile, quality lens. In many cases changing lenses is just too much trouble.

Year 3:
Olympus E-3
ZD 12-60/f2.8-4 SWD
3x batteries
2x 8gb CF
1x 2gb XD

The E-3 and 12-60 was an amazing travel kit. Very durable, almost water-proof, amazing optical quality and very useful range and aperture (24-120mm equivalent). This is the body-lens combo I've done most of my travelling with and if I could only take one lens this would be it. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent in Nikon land (maybe the new 24-120/f4 for full-frame). It's also very handy having a fast-ish aperture when you're shooting in the rainforest areas between Windy Ridge/Windy Bert and Kia Ora, as they will be very dim, even in the middle of the day.

My only grumble would be the size. At almost 1.5kg this is more than I'd generally want hanging over my shoulder all day. This is why I ended up deciding to change to Micro Four Thirds (I also travel/backpack a lot overseas).

Year 4:
Panasonic GH2
Panasonic 7-14/f4
Voigtlander 25/f0.95
Olympus 40-150/f3.5-5.6
4x batteries
2x 8gb SD cards
Gitzo GT0531 carbon tripod
Manfrotto HDV701 head

This year I had a complete shift in gear emphasis. For the first time I had no standard zoom (not intentional, there isn't one made for m43 yet), carried a ultra-wide angle lens (14-28mm equivalent), carried an ultra-fast aperture lens (f0.95), carried a proper telephoto (80-300mm equivalent) and carried a tripod. This opened up new opportunities for shots, but it also meant that I had to actively consider what, how and when I wanted to shoot. As such I had a lot less shots than previous years, but on the other hand had much more keepers.

The 7-14 was invaluable. Having an ultra wide opens up some amazing potential. Butttttt, it's important to understand when yo use one. Not all landscapes have to be photographed as wide as possible.

The 25mm was very interesting. This is a 'normal', 50mm equivalent on Micro Four Thirds, and was on my camera for most of the walking legs. Using a prime forces you to see through the lens, which is very different from using a variable zoom. It's also quite challenging, and is definitely not for everyone. Personally I'd still prefer to use a quality, fast standard zoom. The 25mm also focusses very close (15cm from sensor plane) which makes is a pseudo macro (1:3 magnification), which made for some very interesting shots, especially combined with the f0.95 aperture.

The 40-150 didn't get used much but was great having along. It's a tiny lens, considering the range it covers, and only weighs 190g, so it's pretty easy to stow away for whenever. Having a tele isn't the first thing that people usually think about having along for landscape shooting, but it's an interesting contrast and allows to to photograph 'detail' in broad scenes.

Having the tripod was great. The carbon Gitzo's aren't cheap but they're very good quality and will last. One thing to note, if you're using a light-weight hiking tripod (the GT0531 is about 600g) be sure to weigh it down be a bag or rocks or something (make sure the tripod you purchase has a hook for this). The HDV701 head was completely inappropriate for landscape (I bought it for video and haven't got a ball-head yet...) so I won't bother discussing it. Just get a decent ball-head

On this point, the articulated screen, seamless live-view and real-time exposure preview, as well as lack of mirror-slap of the GH2 has been incredibly useful for tripod work.

Things I've used that were great:
- Quality, fast, standard zoom.
- Weather-proof body and lens combo.
- Quality, light-weight tripod.
- Quality ultra-wide lens
- GH2 as a tripod camera.
- Lots of batteries and cards.

That weren't so great.
- A prime as my primary lens.
- Not having any ND filters - very useful for moving water shots.
- Using light-weight tripods un-loaded.
- Hut humidity and fogged lenses - This is a fact of life and all you can really do is wait for them to clear.

One other thing, I'm yet to figure out an effective storage set-up that allows me to access the camera and lenses while walking (short of hanging it over my shoulder...). Would love to hear anyones thoughts on this!

Sooooo, my perfect hiking kit (full-frame equivalent, but could be from any format...)

- Compact, weather-sealed body (GH2 size)
- 14-28mm (sealed)
- 24-100mm (sealed, fast aperture)
- compact 100-300mm
- Light-weight tripod with ball-head
- 3-4 batteries
- 2-3 cards with enough memory for around 1500 files
- CPL and ND filters

[tsangpo]

One other thing, I'm yet to figure out an effective storage set-up that allows me to access the camera and lenses while walking (short of hanging it over my shoulder...). Would love to hear anyones thoughts on this!

At the moment I usually take a Pentax K7 with a 50-135 f/2.8 zoom and a 21 f/3.2 and 40 f/2.8 with me. I use a Kata H12 without the neck strap attached to my backpack on my hip with a waist tensioning strap through the belt attachment of the Kata, you could also use a couple of small caribiners. It has a zip and buckle setup which is really convenient to access and almost feels like a quick draw. Don't have a photo of it but a search on the internet should show what I'm talking about.

In case of really bad weather I also have a small pelican case in my pack that can fit the two primes (camera and zoom are WR), a spare battery or two and a rechargeable pelican desiccant container. Here it is with a 50 f/1.2 where I would put the battery etc: http://www.flickr.com/photos/granerini/ ... 829405926/

[nickthetasmaniac]

Thanks for the info