- Round The World Trip in 2012
- Round The World Trip Initial Planning
- Round The World Trip Destination Wish #1: Trans-Siberian Railway
- Budgeting for a Round The World Trip
- First Item Purchased for Round The World Trip
- The Departure Year is Finally Here
- Round The World Trip Delayed for 1 Year
- Round The World Pre-Trip To Do List
- Crafting a Savings Plan for a Round The World Trip
- Leaving on a Round The World Trip in 2 Months
- Camera Equipment for My Round The World Trip
- Five Weeks Before Departure
- New Gear for Round The World Trip
- Cocktail of Travel Immunizations
- Change of Departure Date and Destination
- Itinerary for First Month of Round The World Trip
- Packing for a Round The World Trip
- The Departure Day is Finally Here
It’s been almost a year and a half since I got my DSRL and since then I have taken over 10,000 pictures. Being an ultralight hiker, if you would have asked me 2 years ago if I would ever consider taking 5+ pounds of photography equipment around the world, I would have definitely said no. But now that I’ve had a taste of the possibilities available with a big camera, I just couldn’t go without it.
I have narrowed down my photography gear list to the following:
- Nikon D5100
- Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 (recently bought)
- Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
- Nikon 55-200mm (recently bought refurbished for very cheap)
- Gorillapod SLR Zoom with Ballhead
- Marumi DHG Super Cirular Polirizer Filter
- Generic Shutter Release Cable
- Nikon ML-L3 Remote Shutter Release
- Nikon Lens Cleaning Pen
- Nikon MH-24 Battery Charger
All of that comes to a whopping 6 pounds or 2.72 kg, which is insane to me since I cut the handlebars off toothbrushes to save weight. I really don’t know how excited my body and ailing knees will feel after a few weeks of carrying all this. I figured that if I changed my mind, I could always just sell all the gear on the road.
The 6 lbs don’t even include the camera bag that I still need to get. Another item on my long pre-departure to-do list.
Comments (8)
I just can’t get my head around carrying all that camera weight. Please tell me there is a camera you could recommend that is an old “point and shoot” or something a little lighter at least for us less committed photographers. Thank you. Enjoy your blog. I hope to be traveling by October 2014.
Hi Linda. I would recommend the Canon S120, or the older S110, which I have seen on sale for $160 recently. It only weights 7 ounces and it’s small enough to fit in any pocket. It can be fully automatic, but it also has some advanced features like a fully Manual Mode, and the ability to save images in RAW format. Because of the manual mode, this is a good camera to learn the fundamentals of photography, but if you don’t want to, you can just leave it in Auto Mode.
I have the older S95 and I was perfectly happy with it until I got into DSLRs.
Thank you for the tip. I will check them out. There are so many recommendations on line it all becomes very confusing and difficult to sort out. So appreciate the help.
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I’m glad to hear I’m not the only crazy person planning to takes pounds of photography gear on a round the world trip. My biggest dilemma is deciding whether or not to take my tripod and ball head or just get a Gorillapod. One of my main motivations for quitting my job and traveling is the opportunity to photograph various places around the world so I fully understand carrying the extra weight.
Yes, I think when it comes to photography, ignorance is bliss. I was perfectly happy with my Canon S95 until I got a DSLR. Now a third of my total backpack weight is photography stuff. But I feel like I don’t have a choice. I’d rather take an extra lens than 2 extra tshirts. The Gorillapod I have does have a ball head, It’s obviously not as good as a full size tripod, but I really don’t want to carry one of those.