Rodney Campbell's Blog

It’s a tough choice to select what equipment to take in your bag when you’re travelling overseas. You have to balance a number of factors including size and weight along with availability of the appropriate gear for the images you want to take and not exactly knowing what images you might have the opportunity to take

There was of course the camera itself

Nikon D600 D-SLR + Kirk BL-D600 Arca-Swiss L-Bracket

and I learn’t my lesson from our last trip to Bali (where I accidentally dropped and smashed the camera) and this time I took a backup body (in the checked luggage) – my old D7000

Then I had the camera backpack I was going to use to both hold most of my main gear as carry on luggage on the planes and whenever I went out to do some “serious” shoots:

Kata Bumblebee 222-UL Camera Backpack

This bag also let me carry my laptop on the plane – which made the bag extremely heavy but it was just to and from the planes basically

I knew I was planning to do some unspecified sunrise and sunset shoots at a number of locations so a few other items were a given:

Sirui N-2204 Tripod + Sirui K20x Ballhead – I packed this in my checked luggage
Phottix Aion Wireless Timer and Shutter Release
Nikon AF-S 16-35mm f/4G ED VR Lens
Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED Lens

and my filter kit:

Lee Filter Holder Foundation Kit with Lee Filters 105mm Front Ring
Lee 77mm Wide Angle Adapter Ring
Lee 0.9 (3 Stop) Neutral Density Hard Grad
Lee 0.6 (2 Stop) Neutral Density Hard Grad
Formatt Hitech 0.9 (3 Stop) Reverse Grad
Heliopan 105mm SH-PMC Multi Coated SLIM Circular Polarising Filter
Lee BigStopper (10 Stop ND Filter)

I also figured I was going to get the chance to do some indoor architectural work so I also brought my Sigma AF 15mm f2.8 EX DG Fisheye Lens

When I was just with my family going out for the day and visiting unknown destinations I basically used the 24-70 as my walkaround lens and sometimes it was just the camera and the lens and at other times I also took an additional lens (either the 16-35 or the 15mm fisheye). I also usually took a simple B+W 77mm Circular Polariser Filter (which I could attach to either the 24-70 or 16-35 as needed)

Before heading overseas I seriously considered getting the full frame Nikon superzoom (28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR) or maybe even the 24-120/4 as an all in one lens which would mean I could leave the heavy 24-70 and the 70-300 at home (I’d still bring the wide 16-35 for landscape work and the fisheye). In the end however the compromises of this lens for me didn’t outweigh it’s potential benefits

Some other things I also took included:

Giottos Rocket Air Blower
Rain Cover
Small single AA powered CREE LED zoomable torch
Nikon AF-S VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Lens – just in case I needed some long reach but I ended up only using this once. This may have also been because I generally left this in the safe in the hotel with the other equipment I wasn’t using that day – so not having it with me meant I didn’t use it. That said I rarely felt I didn’t have enough reach with the 24-70 – perhaps it’s the style of photography I’m into…

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