This is one area of packing that I always come rather unstuck, my camera choices. It’s so easy to end up using all your weight in camera if you are travelling somewhere that you might want to use a DSLR. I am absolutely not an expert, but this is me sharing some of what I have done and use.
So, my DSLR is a rather elderly Nikon 3000. For this I have decent zoom lens and extra magnifier which has enabled me to get some incredible shots (for my level of amateurism) such as these ones that I took in Kenya in 2011.
I also have a wide angle 35mm lens that I took with me recently to Norway, however, what I did discover is that actually the iPhone is really far superior for shots such as the Northern Lights versus my DSLR. I couldn’t manage to get a low enough setting to get good pictures on the manual but the iPhone really worked better in this instance. I had bought an iPhone tripod in advance and this was essential. Ideally it would have been nice to have a much sturdier tripod for my phone as this one was bought for stuffing in a small back pack and was wobbly in the wind and required me to literally kneel in the snow at -8c set the iPhone onto night setting and a 10second exposure and this was the outcome (Disclaimer, I also got some excellent crappy shots where the wind blew the phone around or there was too much light leaking in from surrounding buildings).
Not too shabby!
Finally I have a cheap version of a GoPro which I had hoped to set up for the dog sledding and do intend to use it on an upcoming trip to the Maldives in the water, but I realised I’d not got a head band attachment or chest attachment so I got nowhere with that. However, my son used his same version in the Gili Islands last year and got this result:
It’s a pretty good imitation (the camera, not the turtle!).
Once I have decided what to take, there’s then the factor of how to carry it. Obviously batteries are not allowed in the hold and no one wants to put expensive kit in there anyway, so how to carry it as cabin baggage, whilst also not taking up all the space (especially if you’re going long haul). I have three bags I can choose from and each does a different job. I have a LowePro rucksack designed with all the compartments for lenses and the camera, it then has a small amount left at the top that you can use to put your toiletries, change of clothes or book for the flight, but not very much. It doesn’t then easily double as a daypack if you’re out and about unless you only really need your camera kit and a bottle of water.
The other option is a shoulder bag (mine is Muffin Top) that literally fits the camera and two lenses. If you know exactly which lens/es you want to take, it works really well, it’s not cumbersome and might slip into your carry on, or you could probably pop it under the seat in front. The negative side is that it does only take two lenses so no good if you are unsure what you will need, it doesn’t fit easily into another daypack, so you do have to use it as a shoulder bag, meaning you need a further ‘daypack’, and it is a shoulder bag which is irritating if you have narrow shoulders as it falls off…a lot. A further negative is that it is so old I can’t find it online. I ‘think’ I may have bought it when I lived in the States, so that was nearly 20 years ago.
The final one I have is the Gear Up creator bag XL from LowePro. It has no way to be carried separately, but it does take my camera and at least three lenses inside a padded casing. I then managed to fit that into my daypack, so it worked pretty well.
iPhones and Go Pros obviously take up far less space, but I find there is a lot of ‘extra stuff’ with the GoPro so I have bought a cheap hard case that I think is meant for cables, but it fits all the junk in there perfectly and can go into my hand luggage. iPhones don’t need much space, but for Norway we found that a quilted pouch was essential for protecting the battery life and I met a woman on a trip last year who had a silicon cover for her iPhone with a strap that looked super useful for protection. I also have a waterproof case for it which I have used if I’ve been out on a boat, but some people are confident with theirs and use it in water…I think I am just too chicken to trust it not to let in water.
IPhones and their android counterparts are so good these days that I guess using a DSLR and all the ‘kit’ it needs is probably an unnecessary extra. Personally unless I needed to use my zoom, one thing that I think my camera surpasses the iPhone for, then I will probably stick to the phone. I’d love to hear your thoughts though.
