Spec me some travel gear

Jase

Jase

Jase

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
5,126
Location
Pembrokeshire
I'm planning a few overseas trips in the next 6 months and I really need to be thinking about getting some appropriate gear. Mainly I need the following:

1) Tripod

I presently use a fairly big tripod with an Arca Swiss ball head but this is going to be far to big to travel with. I want something that is lightweight yet strong, not too bothered about price but if it's expensive then I want it to be justified.

2) A backpack/bag

I presently use a Tamrac Expedition 7 which is a little to big to travel with as carry on bags. I'm still deciding on gear that I will take but as most will be landscape'ish I'm thinking D800, 14-24mm, 24-70mm and a 70-200 with a 2x converter. I may have to change this I guess subject to weight.

So what do you recommend for the above? also what other bits should I be thinking of getting?? The trip I'm most looking forward to will be Iceland in March next year but still in the planning stage for that one.
 
I like the Redged carbon tripod, not sure about back pack...I only take a body and 1 lens, no bag, but Thinktank make nice stuff.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I like the Redged carbon tripod, not sure about back pack...I only take a body and 1 lens, no bag, but Thinktank make nice stuff.
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Cheers, I'll look into that. I actually have a ThinkTank Retrospective 10 as an everyday bag, that's actually a good idea for the short European trips but I want something more rugged for the Iceland trip etc.
 
Jase said:
Just looking at the Thinktank Airport backpacks, they look ideal :)
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I have the Thinktank international V2, basically the biggest wheelie case you can get as carry on. Great bag for getting as much gear as you can as hand luggage. The wheels are 100x better than the Pelicase that i have.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I have the Thinktank international V2, basically the biggest wheelie case you can get as carry on. Great bag for getting as much gear as you can as hand luggage. The wheels are 100x better than the Pelicase that i have.
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I had no idea you could get so much stuff into a carry on allowance, very good news :)
 
Jase said:
I had no idea you could get so much stuff into a carry on allowance, very good news :)
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BA has a 23kg hand luggage allowance !

I've had that on a FlyBe flight before, although going through customs the X-ray people tend to roll it back and forth to check and give me funny looks.
 
Fstop guru and a fstop satori! bring two backpacks IMO. the fstop guru for day walks around the city/area and a satori for your main backpack.

Wouldnt bother with a roller unless you are staring in one place and in a nice hotel. backpacks offer more flexibility in moving around.

There is a reason why people who travel various places do so in a backpack
 
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jonneymendoza said:
Fstop guru and a fstop satori! bring two backpacks IMO. the fstop guru for day walks around the city/area and a satori for your main backpack.

Wouldnt bother with a roller unless you are staring in one place and in a nice hotel. backpacks offer more flexibility in moving around.

There is a reason why people who travel various places do so in a backpack
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Those fstops backpacks look really nice but the satori would be far too big for what I need. I agree with the roller bags, I don't want one of those although I will be staying in hotels etc. For the city breaks I'll probably put my Thinktank Reto in with my hold luggage for days walks.
 
Jase said:
Those fstops backpacks look really nice but the satori would be far too big for what I need. I agree with the roller bags, I don't want one of those although I will be staying in hotels etc. For the city breaks I'll probably put my Thinktank Reto in with my hold luggage for days walks.
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Pick one of the Loka or Tilopa bags dependent on size.
I use a Tilopa because I still want to add extra mountain gear into the pack, the Loka is nice but gives less space, although the great thing about fstop is that you can buy multiple ICUs so a small ICU in a loka works very well if you take less camera gear.
 
I just got back from a year backpacking in Asia. I took my DSLR and a tripod. The tripod was a cheap aluminium one, three stages, but nice and light. At times it felt like a burden, but it was worth the lugging around as I was able to capture some great panoramics.

I actually posted home a few lenses as I found I was only ever using my 15-85 and couldn't justify the extra weight.

I bought a fantastic strap that lets me carry the camera at my hip. This was worth its weight in gold as I could explore all day without any neck ache. The strap is a black rapid.

Finally, I ditched my tamrac camera bag along with the lenses as I found a fake north-face bag I bought of a stall in India was more comfortable and portable. Every time I turned around with the tamrac on I would knock an Asian flying :D
The north-face bag was tiny, but allowed room for a hoody, a bunch of filters and my dslr nestled in the middle of the hoody. Basically all I needed for a day out exploring. If I took my tripod I slung it over my shoulder!

main takeaway from the year travelling is don't take a lot of equipment. You really wont use it.
 
D.P. said:
Pick one of the Loka or Tilopa bags dependent on size.
I use a Tilopa because I still want to add extra mountain gear into the pack, the Loka is nice but gives less space, although the great thing about fstop is that you can buy multiple ICUs so a small ICU in a loka works very well if you take less camera gear.
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IIRC they don't fit as hand luggage do they?

I still haven't found a bag that works as both a carry on and as walking/hiking bag, which is why I use an Osprey Talon 22 and made a foam insert. Not brilliant for getting stuff out quickly but far comfort than any camera bag, with the possible exception of the fstops.
 
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Amp34 said:
IIRC they don't fit as hand luggage do they?

I still haven't found a bag that works as both a carry on and as walking/hiking bag, which is why I use an Osprey Talon 22 and made a foam insert. Not brilliant for getting stuff out quickly but far comfort than any camera bag, with the possible exception of the fstops.
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I've taken my Tilopa as hand luggage a lot of times, but this is in the US. If it doesn't fit in the overhead lockers (common for local flights) then you just take the ICU out and gate check the rest.

The Loka is just a 35L pack so will be hand luggage on even the stingiest airlines.
 
An aluminium Manfrotto Befree Travel tripod may do the trick as it is only 1.4kg and folds down to 40cm so fits hand luggage, and comes with a slimline QR ball head. Maximum payload is only 4kg though, not sure how much your heaviest combo weighs in at.
 
Slamhamster said:
An aluminium Manfrotto Befree Travel tripod may do the trick as it is only 1.4kg and folds down to 40cm so fits hand luggage, and comes with a slimline QR ball head. Maximum payload is only 4kg though, not sure how much your heaviest combo weighs in at.
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A friend has ordered one of these yesterday so I hope to try it this week, if I like it I'll probably pick up the Carbon version though.
 
I went through a number of bags before getting a Loka. It's ideal. Carry-on is no issue in terms of size, but I find it's easy to load it to over 10kg (Virgin Atlantic's allowance) - I probably overpack though...
 
Slamhamster said:
An aluminium Manfrotto Befree Travel tripod may do the trick as it is only 1.4kg and folds down to 40cm so fits hand luggage, and comes with a slimline QR ball head. Maximum payload is only 4kg though, not sure how much your heaviest combo weighs in at.
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I got one of these for a trip to Iceland in Feb, fantastic piece of kit for the money. Haven't used it since but was well worth it for the northern lights.
 
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