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Five weeks through Africa with the CL -and backup.


jaapv

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Remote beach - fishing communities, City and townships, remote rural areas, Tourist spot Victoria Falls,  Safari through Botswana - wildlife. The luggage restriction will be down to 15 kg per person on some stretches, including handluggage and cameras. 

 

So: Focal lenghts from 24 equ. to 800 equ., at least one fast lens, redundancy, two bodies...

Not too heavy and compact. 

 

My solution will be Panasonic GX8, 15, 25 DG Summiluxes, 100-40 DG Vario-Elmar, CL, 18-56, 55-135, Summilux-M 24, five spare batteries , two chargers, SF40, odds and ends.

 

All will fit easily into a compact Hadley Presstop and weigh under 8 kg :) :).

 

It is a kit that I have been waiting for for many years. If there had been a compact TL 100-400 the Panasonic would have been replaced by a second CL body.

 

 

 

 

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I have that very same bag, I think. Mine might be the slightly larger version as it can take my macbook air 13" in the back pocket (just).

 

It will be interesting to see the offerings from Sigma regarding longer focal length lenses in L mount. Have a good trip.

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I spent 15 months hitching through Africa in the 1970's with a SLR and 50mm lens only. Never felt photographically deprived. If heading off today, dare say I'd feel it necessary to take a similar amount of gear as you. But probably in my Fogg bag....Have a great holiday.

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I can see that bag working as a transportation solution, but how do you manage on a day-to-day level. Do you have a smaller bag for trips during the day. Compact and light are relative terms - personally I'd rather have a smaller bag for selected kit in use.

 

My solution has been a F-Stop Loka backpack and insert for transportation as cabin baggage, and Fogg b-minor as a day bag - it also acts as a second insert in the backpack. If very dusty, I might take a smaller zippable Domke FX5-B instead, but then I don't use big lenses.

Edited by LocalHero1953
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Too much gear for me to pack around. ... :D

 

My simple CL + R28 + R50 kit plus four batteries, three 128G cards, iPad Pro 9.7, chargers, cables, etc all fits with plenty of room to spare in a Black Label Bag "Oskar's One Day Mark II" (equiv A&A ACAM7100) with room to spare for other travel necessaries. For a day bag, I just strip out all the other travel necessaries and it becomes a light and simple working bag. For the next long trip, I'll switch the 50mm for a 90mm and add the WATE or a T11-23mm lens. But then I'm quite unlikely to go on safari and need anything longer than a 135mm equivalent tele. :)

 

Regardless: Have a great trip!

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I can see that bag working as a transportation solution, but how do you manage on a day-to-day level. Do you have a smaller bag for trips during the day. Compact and light are relative terms - personally I'd rather have a smaller bag for selected kit in use.

 

My solution has been a F-Stop Loka backpack and insert for transportation as cabin baggage, and Fogg b-minor as a day bag - it also acts as a second insert in the backpack. If very dusty, I might take a smaller zippable Domke FX5-B instead, but then I don't use big lenses.

I have an old LowePro bum bag, about the same size as the small ones from Billingham. Hideous purple. though ;)

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Too much gear for me to pack around. ... :D

 

My simple CL + R28 + R50 kit plus four batteries, three 128G cards, iPad Pro 9.7, chargers, cables, etc all fits with plenty of room to spare in a Black Label Bag "Oskar's One Day Mark II" (equiv A&A ACAM7100) with room to spare for other travel necessaries. For a day bag, I just strip out all the other travel necessaries and it becomes a light and simple working bag. For the next long trip, I'll switch the 50mm for a 90mm and add the WATE or a T11-23mm lens. But then I'm quite unlikely to go on safari and need anything longer than a 135mm equivalent tele. :)

 

Regardless: Have a great trip!

Quite - I want 800. What would you do for backup? On such trips one needs redundancy. A broken camera or lens and the nearest camera shop 28 hours travel away?

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Quite - I want 800. What would you do for backup? On such trips one needs redundancy. A broken camera or lens and the nearest camera shop 28 hours travel away?

In forty years of traveling world wide with camera gear, I've only once had a failure ... And that was when I accidentally threw my Rollei 35 Classic off a bridge onto cobblestone pavement below due to the errant enthusiasm of a 6 year old striking my elbow as he ran past. Nearest camera shop was thirty miles away ... I drove there and bought whatever they had to use for the remainder of the trip (can't remember what it was). It wasn't a problem, although it was an expensive repair... :)

 

So I don't bother with carrying backups at all anymore *unless* I'm on a paid shoot ... in that case, I'd always have a spare, identical body. But I don't take paid shoots anymore, I've retired. If my camera dies while I'm on the road, I use the iPhone and don't worry about it. No photo is worth schlepping an additional and mostly unnecessary two pounds around all the time any more.

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I have had my problems in the past. I well recall an occasion when I went into the bush with R3, R4 and R5. Two weeks later I returned, with only the R4 working - on a part that I cannibalized from the dead R5.

Also an occasion when a 300-4.0 from my Canon failed  because an internal screw from the O.I.S. worked loose and blocked the aperture mechanism. And a fellow photographer - Canon- who managed to break his 100-400 into two separate parts just before a once-in-a-lifetime hike in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest on a Gorilla trek. He was more than happy to borrow my backup R4 + 135.

 

I may not be a professional, but take into consideration that such trips will cost more than the camera gear you are carrying. Not something you can repeat tomorrow.

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I have had my problems in the past. I well recall an occasion when I went into the bush with R3, R4 and R5. Two weeks later I returned, with only the R4 working - on a part that I cannibalized from the dead R5.

Also an occasion when a 300-4.0 from my Canon failed because an internal screw from the O.I.S. worked loose and blocked the aperture mechanism. And a fellow photographer - Canon- who managed to break his 100-400 into two separate parts just before a once-in-a-lifetime hike in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest on a Gorilla trek. He was more than happy to borrow my backup R4 + 135.

 

I may not be a professional, but take into consideration that such trips will cost more than the camera gear you are carrying. Not something you can repeat tomorrow.

I figure I've missed a literally infinite number of photo opportunities already anyway. If I miss a few more, what does it really matter? I do not have the desperate need to record everything I do other than with my eyes and mind... :D

 

I do photography to make specific expressions and say particular things, not to record every moment of life.

Edited by ramarren
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Remote beach - fishing communities, City and townships, remote rural areas, Tourist spot Victoria Falls, Safari through Botswana - wildlife. The luggage restriction will be down to 15 kg per person on some stretches, including handluggage and cameras.

 

So: Focal lenghts from 24 equ. to 800 equ., at least one fast lens, redundancy, two bodies...

Not too heavy and compact.

 

My solution will be Panasonic GX8, 15, 25 DG Summiluxes, 100-40 DG Vario-Elmar, CL, 18-56, 55-135, Summilux-M 24, five spare batteries , two chargers, SF40, odds and ends.

 

All will fit easily into a compact Hadley Presstop and weigh under 8 kg :) :).

 

It is a kit that I have been waiting for for many years. If there had been a compact TL 100-400 the Panasonic would have been replaced by a second CL body.

 

 

 

 

had1.jpg

 

 

had.jpg

Break A Leg.

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I figure I've missed a literally infinite number of photo opportunities already anyway. If I miss a few more, what does it really matter? I do not have the desperate need to record everything I do other than with my eyes and mind... :D

 

I do photography to make specific expressions and say particular things, not to record every moment of life.

Quite, but Africa, people and wildlife are a bit of a passion for me. For other parts of life, I agree. :)

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Not a problem, Andy. Backpack harness and 7.8 kg is nothing to the 92 kgs of checked luggage (mostly for distributing to local worthy causes) that Patricia will have me schlepping. In Africa there are always people eager to earn a dollar by carrying your stuff.

 

Anyway, the average photographer's gear on this kind of trip is mostly around 15 kg... :( I'm not even close.

Neil must have been over 20, and he only did a short safari. :lol:

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Quite, but Africa, people and wildlife are a bit of a passion for me. For other parts of life, I agree. :)

 

...Backpack harness and 7.8 kg ...

Anyway, the average photographer's gear on this kind of trip is mostly around 15 kg...

Whatever makes you happy!

My camera bag on this six week long trip weighs in around 3kg or so, all the rest of my luggage is one wheeled bag weighing 10kg. And I felt that was a bit too much...! :D

Edited by ramarren
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Not a problem, Andy. Backpack harness and 7.8 kg is nothing to the 92 kgs of checked luggage (mostly for distributing to local worthy causes) that Patricia will have me schlepping. In Africa there are always people eager to earn a dollar by carrying your stuff.

 

Anyway, the average photographer's gear on this kind of trip is mostly around 15 kg... :( I'm not even close.

Neil must have been over 20, and he only did a short safari. :lol:

While I understand the need to keep within tight weight restrictions for flights, it’s not the weight which would bother me. I would rather take my SL and 24-90 zoom or 16-35, 50 & 90-280 than all those lenses and cameras. I hate having too many bits and pieces when I travel. Most of my long trips have been backpacking when I was younger (3 months through SE Asia, 3 months skiing in Europe, sailing from St Tropez to Marmaris then traveling Turkey, 3 months through North & West Africa and 2 months in China) and for all those trips, I carried an FM2, mid-range zoom and 180/2.8 tele. Never had a breakdown.

 

After a while, I got sick of seeing my travels through a viewfinder and thinking all the time of angles of view and f stops and I stopped taking pictures altogether. Half the point of getting back into photography was the size and general discretion of the M camera. I admit, the SL was a lapse, but that does fill a very specific need. The SL (rugged & weather sealed) is a very useful tool, with one zoom.

 

Each to their own - it will be a great trip, I’m sure, Jaap. Have fun.

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I would love to lighten this by taking out the GX8 gear, adding a CL plus a 400 mm zoom.

Well, if I really needed it, I'd carry the Elmar-R 180/4 + 2x Extender-R ... with the APS-C crop factor, that nets a 560mm eqFOV with an f/8 maximum aperture. And it's reasonably small and light, performs well.

 

29024524155_ef478f1183_o_d.jpg

 

Sample photo at nine feet:

 

28557200167_fa5d3f99fc_o_d.jpg

 

(Can't seem to find the photo I posted of this lens assembly on the CL, but the photo above was made with the CL, not the SL.)

Edited by ramarren
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