Check list.

Razor-BladE · 3 Jun 2010 at 16:24

Off to a nice 2 month holiday (coming back for 4 days in mid-august) at the end of this month, so i thought i'd just post everything i'm taking here nice and early, so you nice people can advise me if there's anything else i'll need i'll still have time to buy, or whether not to bother taking something, etc etc.

Canon 450D
18-55mm, 50mm 1.8, 55-250mm

Fastpack 250
Going to buy the Muffin Top 7500 soon.
^ Take both? Or just take the 7500?

To take a tripod or not??

Remote shutter release.
Lens pen.
3 spare batteries.
CP filter.

How much memory do you think i'll need? I have 2x8gb, and possibly a 4gb (if i delete everything on that). I was going to buy another 2x8gb, which will give me a total of about 1.9k shots. I'm thinking that will be more than enough right?

I need to remember to upgrade my insurance to world wide as well.

Do i need to declare anything? Because i don't want to come back and at the airport they say i have to pay import tax/vat on it.

Razor-BladE · 3 Jun 2010 at 23:36

Also, i've never dabbled in landscape photography before.. would it be worth getting a filter for it? ND grad or something? Not sure what there is?

DB_SamX · 4 Jun 2010 at 00:11

Where are you going and what are you doing? Might help people advise whether a tripod is worthy or not.

Just came back from a 2 week hol and even then had 6gb of pics taken in raw. I bought a mini Hama tripod for £10-12 that fit in my Crumpler 5500 and used it only twice however.

I'd recommend a portable hd to backup or transfer your photos to if you don't want too many cards. Also, possibly more 4gb cards rather than fewer 8gb cards to lower the risk of runied pictures if a card gets corrupt.

Edit: get a circular polariser.

Razor-BladE · 4 Jun 2010 at 00:29

DB_SamX said:
Where are you going and what are you doing? Might help people advise whether a tripod is worthy or not.

Just came back from a 2 week hol and even then had 6gb of pics taken in raw. I bought a mini Hama tripod for £10-12 that fit in my Crumpler 5500 and used it only twice however.

I'd recommend a portable hd to backup or transfer your photos to if you don't want too many cards. Also, possibly more 4gb cards rather than fewer 8gb cards to lower the risk of runied pictures if a card gets corrupt.

Edit: get a circular polariser.

HK(4 weeks), Malaysia(1), Thailand(few days) <- with family. And Kos(1-clubbing holiday with mates so won't have too much time).

So 4x8gb cards should be enough for the 2 months?
I did think 4gb cards but i'm gonna take a risk with 8gb cards. Am going to go with the Ultra II's so it should be fine *hopefully!*
I'm already taking so much and i don't want to spend more on buying another hard drive, i'll take the chance on the cards.

I have a circular polariser

some £20 hoya one, but it'll do.

Razor-BladE · 4 Jun 2010 at 22:50

So i've bought 2 more 8gb Sandisk Ultra II cards

I've been looking at ND/Grad filters and i was thinking of investing in them, but wow the grad filters are expensive lol. Lots of people were like get the lee filters, so i looked them up £150+! So then some people were saying get the hitech filters as they are much cheaper, but they're still like £50+

I think i'll just try the multiple exposure method.. meaning i'll have to take a tripod.
Would it be worth getting some cheap ND filters?

Goliath · 5 Jun 2010 at 01:58

Razor-BladE said:
I think i'll just try the multiple exposure method.. meaning i'll have to take a tripod.

Thought about a Gorillapod? It's a darn sight easier to lug around when travelling and is more flexible too. Since I got one I don't bother with my tripod when travelling abroad, it hasn't let me down so far.

Amp34 · 5 Jun 2010 at 02:47

Ta da.... http://wildaboutlife.net/wp/archives/122

Personally I think 4 8GB cards will be plenty! 32GB is a stupidly large amount.

I should be heading to the US for a month soon and will be in the back country for most of that and intend to get another couple of 4GB cards to go with my 4GB and 2GB card, giving me a total of 14GB, which tbh I don't intend to use. Just shoot in RAW instead of RAW and Jpeg and review your shots when you get the chance. That way you can weed out all the rubbish shots in camera which means less work when you get back.

Razor-BladE · 5 Jun 2010 at 13:47

Yeah i did think of a smaller tripod actually because mine is this one at the moment, which folded, comes at just under 60cm.

What other good travel tripods are there?

Amp34, that tripod looks very good actually, but no where sells it anymore?
For landscapes, seascapes, etc, would it not be a problem having it lower down??

Yeah 32gb is a lot actually

Better safe than sorry though

Yeah i always shoot just RAW

Amp34 · 5 Jun 2010 at 17:52

Sounds about right, I managed to get mine on Amazon but that was one of the few places that had one.

It is a bit of a pain that it is so low down but it's small enough that I can take it anywhere with me, no way do I want to be taking my 055 Pro for multi day walks etc. Unfortunately other than the one I reviewed there are very few cheap travel tripods. Gitzo do them but they are several hundred.... The only other option is something like the Manfrotto Modo but it's heavier and very rickety IMO.

Razor-BladE · 5 Jun 2010 at 20:00

Ah right that's your review lol nice one

But i mean would it effect the impact/composition of the photo much by being lower down?
Quick read that the 055 pro tripod is folded at just over 75cm. Do you think a 60cm tripod is still to chunky to carry around?
I probably need a new one anyway because the grip on the top of the tripod plate is leaving a weird sticky residue.

Is the gorillapod any good then? And which one if so becaues there's so many different types lol.

DB_SamX · 5 Jun 2010 at 20:24

Razor-BladE said:
Ah right that's your review lol nice one

But i mean would it effect the impact/composition of the photo much by being lower down?
Quick read that the 055 pro tripod is folded at just over 75cm. Do you think a 60cm tripod is still to chunky to carry around?
I probably need a new one anyway because the grip on the top of the tripod plate is leaving a weird sticky residue.

Is the gorillapod any good then? And which one if so becaues there's so many different types lol.

There's a gorillapod just for dslr's, their biggest one. Even then, you can't get it too high off the ground.

Razor-BladE · 5 Jun 2010 at 20:36

Yeah.. hmm thinking about it more, i'm not feeling taking seascapes, etc, that low down lol. Unless there's something around 30cm folded but can extend to 1m+?
I think i might get something like the gorillapod to just have because it's easy to take around and there might be sometime where i might need it, but i think i'll just take the bigger tirpod i have already as well. I'll just make an addon strap so i can stick it on the fastpack 250 or crumpler 7500.

Amp34 · 5 Jun 2010 at 20:38

Haha, yeah should have said actually!

Well it depends on the photo. It can be a right pain that it doesn't extend as high as I want however you can always recompose slightly differently and get a similar shot. There have only been a couple of times where I haven't been able to get the shot due to the tripod height.

As an example of what you can achieve even with this height have a look at these blog posts, most were shot with the above tripod (other day shots were hand held, all the LE ones were with the tripod).

http://wildaboutlife.net/wp/archives/105
http://wildaboutlife.net/wp/archives/107
http://wildaboutlife.net/wp/archives/112
http://wildaboutlife.net/wp/archives/110

It's not perfect by any means but it's definately better than nothing.

Personally even 60 cm (and weight is also very important) is not a tripod i'd want to carry around all day on the off chance of using it. The Gorillapod I decided against because on it's own it can't get anywhere near as high, however it does have the advantage of being able to be attached to posts etc.

Just as a last point I've used my 400D and 300 f/4 on the Giottos without any problems so it can take a reasonable amount of weight and isn't afraid of a bit of length.

Razor-BladE · 5 Jun 2010 at 21:17

Yeah, they're good.

Hmmm, mine isn't too heavy i don't think.. and i've never taken it out of the house so there's always a first! Hah.
I think i will get a gorillapod (as there's no way of getting the giottos one) and just take both.. will keep the gorillapod alongside the camera, but only take the bigger tripod when i'll be going to locations where it'll be more suitable for it. I think that's the best bet.

When travelling on the plane.. take the stuff in the fastpack 250 and put the crumpler in the suitcase?

Also.. not sure if i can link the bay so i won't just in case..
if you type in 'visico 58mm' it'll come up with some nd filters..
I don't want to spend much on nd filters (and nd grad filters are expensive!) so would these be ok to experiment with?
I have a circular polariser already btw.

Edit: Literally just bought the muffin top 7500 new off the bay for £40.90. Not too bad.. isn't anywhere cheaper in stores.

DB_SamX · 5 Jun 2010 at 22:08

Got a crumpler 5500 myself and it's been great for me to lug around. When it's not full, I can put snacks in there, which is handy when going out.

Razor-BladE · 6 Jun 2010 at 13:12

What about the PhotXpro TP51? I know it won't be amazingly stable when fully extended.. but it's small, cheap, and i'll only be using a 450d and 18-55mm on it when shooting landscapes,etc?