I am starting to plan what photo equipment to bring to Mali.
The first item is easy, my camera bag. I plan to bring two bodies (5D and 5D-II), three lenses (24-105 f/4 + 70-200 f/4 + 35mm f/1.4 + 1.4x extender), one or two flashes (580EX-II), and lot of memory cards (more to come on this.)
In my suitcase, I will also bring Invisible Dust cleaning materials, batteries, extra lens caps, and NO tripod.
I am most unsettled on the download stuff. Karen and Dale have been advised against bringing a laptop. Nonetheless, I am inclined to do so. With the laptop, I will download to a LaCie rugged and to the laptop itself. However, I will also bring my Epson P5000. And I may bring enough cards so I do not need to reuse. My 5D-II raw images are 26MB so I can get 600 images on a 16GB card. If I plan for 3500 pictures, I would need 96 GB. 16GB Sandisk Extreme III cards are $90 from Amazon; I would need to buy three more of them. I need to think about this. As I write all this down, I wonder if I am being too conservative.
We will have five days without electricity including three in a row. I am bringing a third battery for my 5D-II. Between my two cameras, I should be able to shoot over 2000 pictures without a charge. And if I do not download for the juice free nights, then no issues with anything else.
I am still thinking about i should bring to protect my camera equipment from the dust and dirt.
PS- all my photo equipment is summarized at http://www.jamespatton.com/Equipment.html
Food…
While the rest of you are thinking about photography, clothes and visas, I’ve been thinking about food. Rosemary suggests that it gets pretty boring there, so perhaps we could bring some along for snacks. Here are some ideas:
Coffee: I will bring a coffee press and a couple of pounds of coffee. Anyone who has a cup can share.
Peanut Butter: Rosemary suggested that peanut butter in tubes would be good. Do we need crackers too?
Cheese and Mustard: My favorite memory of a snack was when Nevada pulled out a waxed Gouda cheese and a small squeeze bottle of Dijon mustard on a bus in Guizhou. It was orgasmic.
Candy: Something like M&Ms that would melt in your mouth, not in your backpack.
Any other ideas? Maybe everyone could just bring their own fav to share!
By: Liz on September 30, 2009
at 9:28 am
I agree with the “bring treats” notion. When we were in Cuba the peanut butter, crackers, granola bars etc. really hit the spot after some of the bland Cuban food. On our earlier trip thru Africa we would buy peanut butter at the local markets and the vendors would give it to us in a giant leaf which they would wrap up. This time I will just take a small jar from home: )
By: Dale on October 4, 2009
at 4:13 pm
if you really worry about dust and dirt protection and want something a little more reliable than a “plastic garbage bag”, then consider a water proof sac such as would be used on a canoe/kayak trip. These bags are durable, come in a wide variety of sizes and material weights. You put the item in the bag, rool down the top and snap it closed giving you a water/air tight storage bag. If we are going anywhere in tippy boats, where there was any chance of capsize, they would be particularly handy.
By: Dale on October 4, 2009
at 4:23 pm