Southeast Asia Backpacking: Equipment

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Nymzee

New member
Hi, I've just recently purchased a Nikon D7000 body with a 35mm f/1.8 lens as my very first DSLR. I haven't had chance to practice with it yet but will soon - under 6 weeks - be backpacking around Southeast Asia (Thailand > Laos > Vietnam > Cambodia) with several friends and I'd like to take it with me to capture my memories. Now, as I'm a completely new to this, are there any "essential" pieces of equipment people recommend I take with me? I'm thinking of purchasing a UV filter to keep on the lens at all times. I'll be going during rainy season but I won't be using it in the rain and will find shelter to take the pics. So far I'll be taking:


D7000 Body
35mm f/1.8 Lens
Extra Battery
2x 32GB SD cards
Rocket Air Blower
Lowepro Urban Reporter 150 Bag (with silica gel bags inside)


Just looking for some helpful advice as I don't want to go out there and wreck my new equipment.


Thanks
 
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SteveH

Senior Member
Welcome to the forum!
It sounds like you have an awesome trip planned, and while the 35mm is a fantastic lens, it may not be everything you need - You may also need a zoom or something with a longer focal length.

I assume you have a laptop or something too? A pair of 32 GB cards will soon fill with RAW files (My D7100 will fit around 950+ shots on a single 32 GB card, using slot 2 as a second copy)

Also, for rainy season, I'd make sure you have plenty plastic bags, the plastic rain covers for your camera could be a good idea - I recently got a two pack for £5.

Have a fantastic trip, and make sure you post the pictures here!
 
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carguy

Senior Member
Welcome - sounds like a great adventure!

Travel light.

I agree with adding a battery charger. I'd have two spare camera batteries.
Small laptop or at least an external drive you can dump the SD cards to occasionally.
At least 2 spare SD cards.
Zip lock bags for your gear.
 
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Nymzee

New member
Hi all,

Yes I forgot to add the battery charger, will of course be taking that with me. Going to keep a battery fully charged so I can easily swap them around when necessary.

It seems like an external drive is going to become a necessary purchase - I'd love a new laptop but don't fancy splurging on a MacBook just yet.
 
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SteveH

Senior Member
Nymzee said:
Hi all,

Yes I forgot to add the battery charger, will of course be taking that with me. Going to keep a battery fully charged so I can easily swap them around when necessary.

It seems like an external drive is going to become a necessary purchase - I'd love a new laptop but don't fancy splurging on a MacBook just yet.
Click to expand...

A lightweight alternative for travel would be a cheap tablet (WIth SDHC card slot!) and an online storage account, then upload your shots every few days or when you have WIFI - Google drive storage is pretty cheap, $9 a month for 1 TB. That would save carrying a heavy, expensive laptop.
 
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Nymzee

New member
SteveH said:
Welcome to the forum!
It sounds like you have an awesome trip planned, and while the 35mm is a fantastic lens, it may not be everything you need - You may also need a zoom or something with a longer focal length.

I assume you have a laptop or something too? A pair of 32 GB cards will soon fill with RAW files (My D7100 will fit around 950+ shots on a single 32 GB card, using slot 2 as a second copy)

Also, for rainy season, I'd make sure you have plenty plastic bags, the plastic rain covers for your camera could be a good idea - I recently got a two pack for £5.

Have a fantastic trip, and make sure you post the pictures here!
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for your tips,

I was thinking about getting a zoom lens but haven't done much research yet into any affordable ones (I'm not cheap, just don't want to be one of those new hobbyists with all the gear and no sense of how to use them properly). However, I did wonder if the prime lens might just not be useful for some shots so I guess I could look into this.

Laptop, no. Maybe looking into an external SD reader as it'll be much easier to travel with - and hopefully cheaper than a new laptop (the one I have is wide, bulky and fairly slow since it's a gaming laptop).

Are there specific rain covers designed for covers? Had no idea.
 
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Nymzee

New member
SteveH said:
A lightweight alternative for travel would be a cheap tablet (WIth SDHC card slot!) and an online storage account, then upload your shots every few days or when you have WIFI - Google drive storage is pretty cheap, $9 a month for 1 TB. That would save carrying a heavy, expensive laptop.
Click to expand...

I have a Dropbox account which I was considering utilizing with an SD card reader if I was to go to an Internet cafe but outside of Bangkok and the larger cities that would be very unreliable.
 
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Mike150

Senior Member
Something you might want to look into is the individual country's Power specifications. It's been a long time since I traveled internationally, but every country I visited had a different type plug, or 50 vs 60 cycle. Make sure you have the correct plug adapter for your charger and laptop. I've found this site really helpful.

Plug & socket types - World Standards
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Nymzee said:
Hi, I've just recently purchased a Nikon D7000 body with a 35mm f/1.8 lens as my very first DSLR. I haven't had chance to practice with it yet but will soon - under 6 weeks - be backpacking around Southeast Asia (Thailand > Laos > Vietnam > Cambodia) with several friends and I'd like to take it with me to capture my memories. Now, as I'm a completely new to this, are there any "essential" pieces of equipment people recommend I take with me? I'm thinking of purchasing a UV filter to keep on the lens at all times. I'll be going during rainy season but I won't be using it in the rain and will find shelter to take the pics. So far I'll be taking:

35mm f/1.8 Lens
Extra Battery
2x 32GB SD cards
Rocket Air Blower
Lowepro Urban Reporter 150 Bag (with silica gel bags inside)

Just looking for some helpful advice as I don't want to go out there and wreck my new equipment.
Click to expand...
I'd *definitely* pack more memory than that; even with the ability to upload on a regular basis.

....
 
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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Michael J.

Michael J.

Senior Member
Cos of the countries beautiful land and Seascape, I would take a tripod as well. SD Cards you can buy here as well; just take enough money and don't forget copies of your purchase bills. You are crossing some borders and they may ask where you purchased your gear. Especially Thailand
 
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Nymzee

New member
I have a universal power adapter that works - apparently - in 150 countries so I'm hoping that will suffice as I've heard there are a few different plug types in Thailand alone.

I've purchased another 2x 32GB SD cards and if I need any more I'm going to hope Bangkok has them available (I'm presuming so). I wasn't aware of the border checks on purchases so I'll keep that in mind.
 
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traceyjj

Senior Member
When we travel (even within our own country) we always take my hubbys little netbook. So lightweight and portable (and cheap as its not a powerful one). I tend to copy my photos onto there... daily... if we have been somewhere really nice, I will also do a backup onto the external hard drive too.
 
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adityasoman

Senior Member
Look up the places and see the photo opportunities that you will have
35mm is an excellent lens.
As someone suggested there is also a lot of landscape.Try getting a wide angle lens if possible.Even the 18-55 does the trick if u don't need something really wide.
A good tripod and ML-L3 remote can be quite a combo !!

Most important is learn your camera.Which setting does what

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk 2
 
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