ULTRALIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

[wayno]

For the dedicated ultralight backpacker, photography has always been something of a burden. You spend hours and hours working out ways to shave grams from the weight of your shelter and clothing, cutting off labels and extraneous pieces of cotton, repackaging food, and carefully weighing spoons in order to find the lightest one. And then, having finally got your pack down to sub 6kg levels, you grab your 1.2kg of (minimised) camera equipment and curse the day you picked up your first instamatic and pushed the button on a slippery slope towards ultra heavy image perfection.

http://www.backpackingnorth.com/blog/20 ... hotography

[photohiker]

Amusing, but he is still talking about a 1.2kg DSLR.

Anyone interested in reducing weight left their DSLRs at home years ago.

[icefest]

Amusing, but he is still talking about a 1.2kg DSLR.

Anyone interested in reducing weight left their DSLRs at home years ago.

I'm expecting much more cameras like the A7 in the future; lighter, less material, less moving parts.

[wayno]

it was an april fool joke, why else would he talk about saving a gram by taking the label off and the more you read the more ridiculous the article becomes

[photohiker]

it was an april fool joke, why else would he talk about saving a gram by taking the label off and the more you read the more ridiculous the article becomes

55% Could try harder.

It's not easy to do an April Fools article well. I didn't read it all but it read like nonsense from the start. The object is to suck people in, anyone walking LW is already highly unlikely to carry heavy camera gear unless they have a very good reason.

[Supertramp]

Yeah part of the reason I don't carry my gear when hiking, my camera body & one lens weighs over 3kg's!!

[GPPJ]

What is that one lens? a 70-300mm zoom?

A plastic 50mm, eg f1.8 nifty fifty Canon?

I would be most tempted to take my faithful f3.5 20mm prime, a nikkor, years old but its gold.

Most would go for a zoom I suppose.

[GPSGuided]

This!

[GPPJ]

Ironic - why wasn't the pad sketched I wonder?

[Supertramp]

What is that one lens? a 70-300mm zoom?

A plastic 50mm, eg f1.8 nifty fifty Canon?

I would be most tempted to take my faithful f3.5 20mm prime, a nikkor, years old but its gold.

Most would go for a zoom I suppose.

The lens would be the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM II, I don't think I would want to risk not having a lens that isn't water resistant.
If I was to go lighter, I'd take my 17-40mm, but the setup would still weigh 2 kg's!!

I wouldn't bother with the nifty fifty these days, I'd get nearly as good photo's from my phone.

[Mark F]

You could always try the binocular retina system with on-board storage. Main problems are the conversion of images for others to enjoy and no zoom. But Gps's offering provides a add on solution to these shortcomings.

Zero weight, zero cost. The perfect SUL solution.

[GPSGuided]

It's interesting isn't it? Walkers of past years could only sketch what they saw. I wonder how the experience is altered by the fact that one would need to sit down, study every detail of a scene and transfer it all to paper? Versus point and click a button and then move on.

[GPPJ]

Um, no, point shoot is old hat. Join a photography club - its a sport nowadays. DSLRs are everywhere - so many retiree dream treks snapping portraits thru Tibet, Thailand, Tanzania, Trinidad. Everyone wants to be Steve McCurry.

[headwerkn]

I've pretty much come full circle.... well, almost.

Started out dragging several kilos of all-metal film SLR and several prime lens....eventually got a modern digital SLR with a couple of zooms... got sick of weight, bulk and risk to a few grand's worth of gear... bought a cheapish point and shoot... realised I got better images from my phone, so just used that (comes along on hikes for emergencies and backup nav anyway)... have now realised I take very few photos (most are panoramas) due to the iPhone's fixed lens... so I'm literally a week away from throwing down cash for a EOS100D, will probably carry a 18-135mm STM and be done with it.

Given how much weight I've managed to shed from going UL in the first place, I can afford the 900gr or so for a 'proper' camera setup. Photography has a been a passion of mine for a long time, so it hardly makes sense to come back from a great trip only have to a few panos and a couple of average 28mm equiv. snapshots of the trout I've caught.

[icefest]

I've been in a similar boat, headwerkn, and have just bought the A7. It'll get tested over the weekend with a 15 year old Nikon lens, while I'm waiting for the sony e mount lens to come.