Message text written by INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Herb, I'm curious about the type of equipment you use. It appears that to do the outdoors/landscape stuff you might be doing a considerable amount of hiking and such. What do you consider a reasonable type of kit for your type of work?
Thanks for sharing, Bruce< obviously, what i carry depends on what i am going to do, so i will have to describe that too since i carry different kits depending on how long i think i have to carry it and how far away from home i am going to be. it also depends on whether main point of trip is photography or not and how much other gear i have to carry. i haven't gotten to the point where i have a regular partner coming on trips who is willing to carry some of my gear in addition to all theirs so that i can bring more camera equipment. for short to medium day trips up to perhaps 8 miles in the summer and 5 miles in the winter over moderate terrain, i'll carry my full kit. that means my Nikon digital camera with its wide angle accessory lens, spare battery for it, and, if i think there is going to be good wide panorama possibilities, my Kaidan VR pan head with its levels and protractor and add the fisheye adapter to shoot 180 degree full frame images. my film side is my ZX-5n with the FA 24-90, FA 50 Macro, FA* 24, Sigma 15-30, FA* 80-200, and Tamron 2X extender. right now, i am shooting almost exclusively Provia 100F and i bring about 8-10 rolls of it depending on how much i think i might run into. if the day is low contrast, i replace many of them with Velvia. my filter set is a skylight and polarizer to fit my main lenses. only the macro doesn't have anything right now and i both don't use it that much and haven't got around to buying an adapter ring to fit the larger sized filters. the FA* 24 and FA 24-90 take the same filter size and i have most of my filters for them. i keep an ND8 and an ND1000 filter in the kit for the waterfall shots. i also have a Cokin P filter for my gradient ND filter. i only have one right now and plan to get some more. if i think there is a need, i'll bring my Super Program body with a second type of film in it, usually Velvia or else something ISO 400. i rarely bring a second body though and i really would like to make it another AF body if i could. i use a Velbon Chaser-4A tripod with a Velbon 253 ball head. it's good light tripod but one day i will replace the legs with a CF set and the head is barely adequate for the weight of the FA* 80-200, so that will need replacing too. however, i want to stay under 4lb if i can because it's a long way to go carrying 2 extra pounds. i have one of those beanbag things with a tripod thread in it. i use the remote release a lot, so that's in there. then there is cleaning stuff and spare batteries. all this fits into/onto a LowePro Rover AW backpack with several accessory pouches. total weight is not quite 30 lbs, then i add lunch, water, spare jacket, Swiss Army knife, flashlights, and it gets to be around 40 lbs. moderate terrain to me means nothing i have to climb using my hands, less than 2000 ft elevation gain, and nothing tricky to cross, like a swamp. i'm a small guy and 40 lbs is a lot for me to carry. that plus i sometimes do off trail stuff and that means a GPS unit too. any day trip longer or more difficult, i'll switch to my regular hiking backpack and cut down a lot. i drop down to the digital camera with the wide angle adapter and spare battery. i'll bring the ZX-5n body with the FA 24-90 and the FA* 24 and have the skylight and polarizer filters. i have a very light Cullman compact tripod and the beanbag. extra water and safety gear occupies the other space. if i really think i need it, i try to make room for my 80-200 and strap a cheaper but more normal size tripod onto the pack. the one i used to use broke when i fell on it on a recent hike, so i don't have that anymore. it will have to be replaced. i should get one of the lesser expensive 80-200s to cut weight. if i do, then i would bring it more often. if i really think that the weight will matter, i will drop the FA* 24. these are the two kits i use when i know i am going somewhere mainly to photograph. if photography isn't the main activity, all i will have with me is my digital with the wide angle adapter and a spare battery. i might bring the Cullman compact tripod if i think we're going to want a group picture. some hikes i go on with groups like that. the only multiday hiking trips i have done recently have been before i got back into film. they were done digitally. in the gap between when wasn't using an SLR anymore, i had a Pentax 35-90 WR P&S i used for while. then i switched to digital. it's only when i started getting inquiries about using my photos for magazines and newspapers did i decide to resurrect my 35mm film equipment, decided it was inadequate, and upgraded to AF stuff. all of the AF film gear i have described is at most a year old to me. for what i do, manual focus and weight of the older gear, which i still have some, slow me down and make it harder to get the pictures i want. i don't use them unless i have to. i am now used to and like to work with auto everything with complete manual override. nearly 10 years of shooting only with auto everything cameras convinced me that automation performs very well and that they freed me to spend my time concentrating on the image. for a while, i gave up the option of manual override. i bought it back this spring, but i seldom need to use it. my web site: http://www.bestweb.net/~hchong Herb...
