I optimized my equipment over many years for light travellling situations and rough conditions (ie hiking and motorbiking). For these two purposes I found the following equipment ideal (items are ordered by importance): Nikon FE2 (built solid as a tank, TTL-flash mode, very precise and works under all conditions I would survive; It also has mirror lock-up (via self timer) and is the perfect camera if you have time for your shots. By the way: I had to laugh a little bit when I followed the discussion about exposure compensation on the F5 in snow: I simply set my FE to +1 and I know that everythng will be ok - with the fancy F5 you first have to experiment what the camera will do...) Sigma MF 70-300/4,5-5,6, metal version Very sharp, great colors, almost no distortion (unbelievable as compared to the new Nikkor AF 70-300) and little vignetting if stopped down. Tokina MF 28-70 sharp, good colors, light but a bit fragile. Unfortunately the Nikkor MF 28-85 is not much better but much heavier. Nikkor 20/2,8 MF or Tokina 17 MF On every journey I use it several times and it's alway worth the shot. Nikkor 50/1,4 for available light situations. As you can see, these is not a very fancy equipment (although I also own the 2,8-zooms and other nice parts). The reason is, that far away from civilization, one has to optimize for roughness, weight and volume. The trick is to use the appropriate equipment at the right time: Stopped down on a tripod on the one hand or handheld with long exposure times on the other hand you will not see any differnce between the cheap and the expensive lenses. But: they will become superior if you use large apertures, be it for asthetical reasons or to reach short exposure times. In short: on a hinking tour I don't care about prestige or fancyness, but about weight. Have fun on you future tours! Christian
