Backpacking in Europe

winger

Ok so I am making my first trip to Europe in a couple of weeks.
And we are doing the backpacking/hostel thing, so stuff is going to be light.

That being said what should I bring for camera equipment, what would I be sooo bummed if I left at home.

Currently I am thinking my 20D (just got a 40d, figured leave the brand new body at home).
Maybe my 10-22 and the 28-135 (or whatever it is, I call it my all purpose lens).
flash, and I was thinking of picking up a gorilla pod.
Of course CF cards and batteries, I am leaving the laptop at home. Althought I just got a hugh pocket sized external drive that i might bring, so i could just find an internet cafe and do a memory swap there if necessary.

I figured what ever camera stuff I bring I will be keeping on me at all times, so I am trying to keep it light. Other than that I dont think I will have too much of value on me. Besides my ipod (which is chalk full and cant really be used as an external or maybe dumping some music for the trip might make it work it just to do that? thoughts)

Ok enough rambling. Tips?

Richard

winger wrote:

Tips?

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. I don't know what your shooting habits are, but unless you have dozens of CF cards, I think a portable drive is a must have. One other tip...almost all of Europe runs on 220v 50 cycle current (except for Spain, which runs on red wine). Most power supplies these days are smart enough to switch automatically, but check your chargers to be sure.

Have a great trip and if you are planning to visit Madrid, get in touch.

Regards,

endsoftheearth

Light Travel in Europe
I'm thinking your 28-135 will be your best friend for the whole trip. Especially if you really want to travel light. The wide zoom will also be helpful, especially in Europe. You might want to consider one of the Epson Multimedia storage viewers (P-4000 is great) It'll hold a ton of images, is small with a large screen for viewing. You're right to keep it simple and light.
Bill

OsirisPhoto

Drop in by a photo store and get your images burned onto dvd for backup - easy to post home for extra backup.

winger

Oh thanks, these are all very helpful tips!

swintonphoto

Can always load your images to smugmug while you are gone for safe keeping

Moogle Pepper

Where in Europe are you going?

I would definitely take three charged batteries. I was lucky that my battery died after I left Dingle in Ireland.

I think the 10-22 and the 38-135 will do fine for just traveling.

As for the storage problem? Fairly common! haha!! I just bought a laptop for storage and... work. But my laptop is fairly portable. The epson portable storage is kinda pricey, but something worthy to look into.

gluwater

For storage only, no viewer, I would suggest the Hyperdrive Space. It is very fast and I like the feature that you can verify your data during transfer. I have the P-2000 also and like it but if you are chimpping on it the battery drains very quickly. You really need to charge it every day or two. The Hyperdrive on the other hand you can transfer at least 20GB before it needs a charge.

Van Isle

what's the focus of your trip, i.e. are your buddies going to be happy waiting for you to prep and take shots, switch lenses, balance the little tripod? Consider what you WANT to do and what you will ACTUALLY do as far as photography goes. And if you aren't taking the 40d on this trip, when are you going to use it?

I'd take the 40d, the big zoom lens, and add a flash in to the mix. AND I'd probably take a big tripod and the wide zoom. If I'm "doing" photography, I'm doing it right. If I'm "just" snapping shots and packing light, then I'd pack a small P&S. It makes no sense for me to be in between with all the heavy gear to sort-of take "pro" shots, but not really "all" the gear. i.e. using the wide angle lens without a rock-solid tripod...YMMV. It's not like you're hiking with this stuff, you're just packing it from the bus to the cab, the cab to the hostel. Hostel to train, train to hostel. Etc.

Have fun! You can always grab more gear if you need to once you're there.

VI

ivar

winger wrote:

Tips?

If you are in the Netherlands come and say hi

Foochar

gluwater wrote:

For storage only, no viewer, I would suggest the Hyperdrive Space. It is very fast and I like the feature that you can verify your data during transfer. I have the P-2000 also and like it but if you are chimpping on it the battery drains very quickly. You really need to charge it every day or two. The Hyperdrive on the other hand you can transfer at least 20GB before it needs a charge.

Another option to look at is the newer Hyperdrive Colorspace models. These models include a color screen that allows you to view your images and they can view raw files as well as jpgs. They are also substantially less expensive than the Epson models with similar capacities. One thing to think about depending on how paranoid you are about data loss is that if you only have your pictures on one device, be it memory card, external drive etc. you have a single point of failure for loosing your images. For increased peace of mind you may want two external storage devices to load your images onto, so that if the hard drive in either one fails you don't loose your images.

Art Scott

If you are really comfortable with both bodies then I would take both with lenses attached and yes as stated above a full sized tripod......I actually hiked all over the Czech Republic with a heavy bogen tripod taht when attached to my back pack stuck a little to hing for easy entrance into trains and buses...so now I have a 4 section Giottos.....do also add the flash as there will be times you will kick yourself if you don't.......also warn you friends that your photos must be treated as if your shooting for Conde Nast or Nat'l Geographic...it could very well be a once in a lifetime trip and you do not want to upset over all the snapshots and not having the pro quality you really wanted...................................

winger

Excellent, excellent!!!
So to answer a couple of questions my trip includes, flying into Berlin, renting a car and driving to Klon, then taking the train to Brussels and then another train to Amsterdam, then back on a plane to home. So there is going to be alot of moving, which is why I am reluctant to take my big honking tri-pod. I just got a grollia pod that I think will do nicely for night time stuff and wide angles. But I am a sports shooter/ wedding photographer by nature, so shooting free is not a problem for me (except when we get to really loooong exposures). And it would be nice to dump my 70-200 for 10 days or so for a change. I love my wide angle lens but dont get to use it much for sports.

I am comfortable not bring all my gear, the reason I dont want to bring my whole bag is its heavy and I already have a backpack with my stuff for 10 days. I figured if my gear gets lifted, my 40D and my work horse lens is at home, and well that is what I make my money with and can replace the 20D and the other lens. We are going to be in and out of so many places, so that is where the concern of carrying all my equipment comes from. As for the comment about when am I going to use my 40D, yeah dont worry it gets a work out, I think my 20d is screaming for retirment but I plan to work that thing till it DIES. I defaintly WORK my equipment.

This is my first backpack trip and my first trip to Europe, I am trying to go light so my most fondest memory isnt me dragging my bag to the train and some one running off with my 40d.

Good idea about the burning the discs, thought, one of the girls I am traveling with is in the netherlands for the semester, so she could proably bring her laptop to amterdamn and I could burn photos to a CD there, or Berlin (she is not doing the Brussells part of the trip).

Thanks so much for the tips and ideas!!!! I am so looking forward to this trip.

OsirisPhoto

Sure you already have this covered, but just in case... have bullet-proof equipment insurance so you can concentrate on shooting images without worrying too much about losing anything due to theft or damage. I've missed out on a lot of opportunities when travelling because I didn't.

jonh68

If you get some pictures you really like and would be disappointed in losing, you may want to take some CD mailers and make two copies: One to keep with you and one to mail back to yourself if you can't get them uploaded.

Art Scott

Since camera equip was always with me, I did not worry about losing it and igf my clothes got stolen from any hostel.....welll there are enuff place to buy what ever you need...just befpore coming home was all items in a small anount of bleach to get that overy worn look soi you aren't askerd tpo produce a sales reciept.............

colourbox

swintonphoto wrote:

Can always load your images to smugmug while you are gone for safe keeping

Yes, that can a good option...but only if you are in an Internet cafe with enough upstream bandwidth. It is actually not a lot of fun to be sitting in a cramped, noisy Internet cafe watching slow progress bars while uploading a 4GB card, while watching other people outside the door spending the same hours enjoying the town. (And if you want to back up Raw, you will need to find a site other than SmugMug to upload them.)

The shorter your trip, the less you want to be spending your limited time in front of dirty old "Windows 98" PCs that could have keyloggers recording your passwords. You may find it more time-efficient to use the places that burn your card to CD or DVD, go sightseeing, pick up your finished backup discs, and mail them home.

Zanotti

CF cards are so cheap now, I have to think you can just buy enough of them to cover this kind of trip.

Before you look at external devices, take your best CF price and divide it into the cost of the device - I think you'll find that simply buying more cards is cheaper.

Shoot jpeg and 4 gb cards are good for thousands of shots. Would you have brought this much film?

Skip the tripod, buy a bag of rice or beans upon arrival and use it as bean bag. You'll be on the move so much, you wont use either of them anyway.

Have a great trip, its beautiful over there!

Z

Photoskipper

If possible, bring both bodies so that you don't need to switch lens. Second body can serve as backup if one of them have any problem.
Remember to use a camera backpack to organize and protect the gears. The airport security staff seems more relax to backpack, you may have luck to carry more than the legal hand-carry weight. My usual carry-on backpack is about 15 kg.
The plugs in Europe is different from US, so bring along the multiple adaptor for your charges.
It is a matter of how you take the photos. Taking RAW will take up more memory, Jpeg will save a lot of space. If you are heavy shooter, you need the harddrive or more CF card. I spent 18 days in Swiss and Italy, got about 3000 photos and almost 20G. I had my laptop and Epson P2000 with me, so I could screen the photos before stored it. My 6 days business trip with just one day free and some early morning sunrise shots in Barcelona, I got like 10G to bring back.
The stuff in Europe usually more expensive. so try to bring as much as you can and try not to buy over there.

DoctorIt

Yo Winger, glad to hear you're getting pumped for your trip!

Someone mentioned it above, and I'd like to reiterate it, because its at the core of why you haven't seen me post a photo in ages. WHY are you going on this trip... to travel? or do be a photographer?

You have a good eye, cameras are so capable these days... just think back to before you "worked" for photography, when we'd just stroll around campus and snap at anything. How many good photos did you get back then? I bet LOTS!

If I were going backpacking in Europe right now, I'd bring a G9 (or insert favorite high-end p&s here).

Most of all, have fun.

ian408

To add to what Doc said. Motorcycle trips? Pocket sized camera. Most times,
nothing else.

I Simonius

take the 40D and insure it well
forget the extra flash
take both lenses
forget the tripod

( you said you wanted to travel light)


have fun!

ChatKat

Really light
I love to shoot and I love to travel and see the world through my lenses. But that said, I find that after a week or two, I tend to get tired of shooting and changing lenses and the weight of it all. Three years ago I bought the 18-200 Tamron Di lense for my 20d and it was wonderful to cover all the bases in one lense. It wasn't really bright enough, and some shots were not quite a crisp as I'd have liked and I did miss some shots.

Now I have the 5d and I sold that lens with the 20d body. I am going to Europe in June and I really don't want to take two heavy lenses - I do have a 24-105 4.0 is and 70-200 - 2.8 is. I will be short with the 105 and the 70-200 is too heavy plus the long white lense might not be a good idea. I am looking at getting the Tamron 28-300 and taking a 50 1.4 with me for the times I need more light in museums and churches where no flash is allowed. A laptop awaits me for downloads and I do try to upload to SM when I can as a 2nd back up. Keep your used cards separate from your other gear and well marked as used even think about a pocket camera. I also take a Canon S80 which is a good alternative occasionally.