lots of cards

[idiotekniQues]

well i am going to morocco in 2 days for 11 days.

taking my 30D w/ 17-55EFS, canon 100mm macro, canon 70-300IS, sigma 10-20EX, tripod, cable release, polarizer, 3 batteries.

i have eight 8gb cards (mix of extreme III and ultra II) and one 16gb extreme III.

i have a 500 gb mercury on the go drive.

i figure i can take 10K RAW shots with all those memory cards. every time a card fills up i will back it up to the hard drive via laptop. i will leave the hard drive in my luggage and keep the CF cards on me at all times so at least i will have redundancy.

im debating buying a second 30d body for backup at this point.

how do you all feel about bakcingup your ability to shoot and also your digital photos?

 

[angry hampster]

Taking a ton of equipment on a trip is a real pain in the butt. If something breaks, just buy a new replacement over there.

 

[jpeyton]

You're taking far too much equipment.

Yes to the spare body. I always travel with two, just in case one decides to break or get stolen.

Yes to the backup hard drive. Back up to it nightly, and keep your files on the memory card for redundancy. I used my laptop's internal hard drive for backup on a recent vacation.

I have a strange feeling you'll end up using two of those lenses 95% of the time, and probably shoot 2000 frames total (not counting any bracketed exposures).

To illustrate how high your shooting estimate of 10,000 frames is, let's think about your trip:

You'll be traveling for 11 days. 24 hours per day, minus 8 hours for sleep, is 16 waking hours (on average).

16 hours per day times 11 days is 176 hours. 176 hours times 60 minutes is 10,560 minutes.

So to shoot 10,000 frames, you would have to take at least one picture for every waking minute for 11 days straight. This is highly unlikely, since a good chunk of your 16 hour days will be spent traveling from location to location, eating meals, enjoying the scenery/culture, etc.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i shot close to 4k shots in china for 10 days. and it was a college course trip. so there was a good amount of time dedicated to classwork, plus we had such a vast itinerary, we spent a shitload of time in transit, passing by many beautiful photographic opportunities where not a frame was used.

here i will have a rental car. i figure on at least double the shots. plus i plan on doing a decent amount of HDR shooting/bracketing.


i decided to buy a 40d body only tomorrow on lunch break. so with this memory, figure on 8k shots.

i may be overestimating for sure. however, it is quite easy to pop off 100 shots within like 15 minutes on quite a few occasions. for example, in the hectic street shot nature of the souks in marrakech and fez.

edit: buying replacement canon gear in morocco is a pretty silly suggestion.


and yes, i will probably end up using two lenses primarily. the 17-55 and the 70-300 mostly. but the 10-20 will be worth bringing. so will the 100mm macro, though probably the least of them all by a large margin.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I say just take what you're comfortable with carrying. Since you're not hiking around, weight is not too much of a concern.

 

[OulOat]

The more equipment you take the more likely you are to damage or lose the equipment. I would advise getting insurance if you haven't gotten it already. Also, good luck sorting and touching up 10k photos.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: OulOat
The more equipment you take the more likely you are to damage or lose the equipment. I would advise getting insurance if you haven't gotten it already. Also, good luck sorting and touching up 10k photos.

I doubt he'll process more than 20%. Even 10% is a good haul; that's 1000 finished/processed photos, which is overkill for even an 11 day trip.

 

[idiotekniQues]

my china gallery can be found here

www.simplyathos.com

i have about another 100 that i will put up. there is a private gallery with about 100 shots of my colleagues with the giant pandas out of the about 500 i took in 30 minutes of them posing together.

i am quite picky with what gets processed fully. if i get 10% of say 8K shots that i feel are worthy of processing ill be happier than a pig in digital shit.

sure i know the more i take the more i can damage. but its simple, i need those lens ranges. why would i goto morocco with 2 lenses? you buy the gear to use it when you need it. what better photographic opportunity than morocco. yes, be careful, be smart with it, etc.. dont change lenses in a sandstorm, etc... but that doesnt mean go with one lens on a once in a lifetime trip.

im not going to iraq anyways.

 

[Munky]

Overkill, IMO. I hate carrying a lot of gear, it just takes away from the fun of the trip, so two lenses would do just fine for me.

 

[idiotekniQues]

you guys are weak

i'm a skinny fella. i just take on my think tank steroid belt 3 lens pouches plus the lens on my body. its so easy to carry and does not create heat on you rback like a backpack would.

the onlyl lens that i could leave behind is the 100mm macro, which i will do. but 2 lenses on a belt pack and body in hand?

if you cant carry that on a huge trip, you should just get a point and shoot and call it a day.

 

[randomlinh]

Some of us like to not worry about our gear on vacation =) Unless it's your job, or you are specifically going out to shoot, I find carrying more than a body+lens, and maybe a small prime, to be more annoying than not. But that's me. And why I want an Oly E-P1 =)

 

[LikeLinus]

Honestly, how do you really enjoy Morocco if you're carrying all that gear and worrying about taking 10,000 photos? Doesn't sound much fun to me. I can totally understand taking the camera and (2) lenses, but it sounds like you're going to spend most of your time taking pictures, instead of just actually enjoying the experience.

That's not a vacation...that's a job.

 

[arrfep]

Originally posted by: idiotekniQues
you guys are weak

i'm a skinny fella. i just take on my think tank steroid belt 3 lens pouches plus the lens on my body. its so easy to carry and does not create heat on you rback like a backpack would.

the onlyl lens that i could leave behind is the 100mm macro, which i will do. but 2 lenses on a belt pack and body in hand?

if you cant carry that on a huge trip, you should just get a point and shoot and call it a day.

5D+35L > *