Micro Blog: 19th August 2011 (Travel)

Alright, on to the second half of what has worked and what has not during the NZ trip. I have to once again state that what has worked for me may not work for you and vice versa. You have to weigh out your options and pack what is appropriate and hopefully this and the previous micro blog entry will shine some light on this issue.

Sirui R2204 w/Kirk BH-3 ballhead/ Sirui T1002 w/Sirui G20 ballhead:

Almost everyone who has been out in the field with me knows I am quite a Sirui fan. Ever since they appeared in the local market a few years and I was given one of the first set to try out, I was hooked. They feel solid and not that far from the much more expensive Gitzos. There is really not much difference in them other than the price and as a matter of fact, I have found them a little more lasting in saltwater conditions. The Sirui tripods worked superbly well and the 2204 was reliable enough that the T1002 never saw much action.

For the ballheads, instead of my usual Arca-Swiss B1 which will soon need some serious repair due to corrosion and rust, I opted for the Kirk BH-3 and the Sirui G20 as my main heads. The Kirk was never a letdown and the G20 sat quietly on the T1002. Just a side note, the G20 is a solid head that I was never hesitant in using a rather hefty setup on (at least for landscapes: 5D Mark II w/ 70-200 2.8 IS and filter holder).

Markins L-Bracket:

Markins, a Korean brand well known for their ballheads came out with a narrow range of L-brackets specifically only for the 5D Mark II without battery grip and D700 without the grip as well. I had previously invested in the Reallyrightstuff L-brackets when the 5Ds still had their battery grips but saltwater corrosion ruined both grips and I decided then it was not worthwhile replacing them. Perhaps the day when conditions are perfect for a 3 hour long exposure will I then get new grips for them. For now, portability is a priority and since L-brackets are made for specfic camera configurations, the RRS brackets were obsolete and I chanced upon the new Markins brackets. Fitted them in and they were in place without any movement which is excellent. It was only when I used the remote cables did I realise an issue....the sides of the bracket was not thick enough to accommodate the cable's head. Thus, the bracket was not sitting well on the Kirk BH-3 while in portrait mode. What a letdown!

Update: Time for slapping of the head...my head! Headed down to TK Foto Technic in Singapore where the friendly staff are always a welcome and met up with the young boss, James and mentioned the problem to him. Turned out that the bracket could actually be slid to the left a little more and voila! The remote cables were sitted within the confines of the bracket nicely now and the bracket was now a perfect fit for the Arca-style clamps.

So thumbsup for the Markins bracket. It worked perfectly and it was totally user error on this one.

Allen Keys:

Plenty of them. Two in the Computrekker Plus AW and one in the Thinktank Skin set and 2 in the HPRC casing. These little guys are a must for tightening the screws of both the tripod legs and camera plates. Must be said that once tightened, they rarely come loose but hey, who knows?

15 inch Macbook Pro:

My portable workhorse. I do not really do intensive work on this as the Mac Pro residing at home makes those processor-intensive tasks a piece of cake. For backing up and reviewing of images, the MBP shines. With Photo Mechanic which is typically known as the fastest RAW viewer in the market (at least for Mac users, Windows users will be looking at Breezebrowser as well) for the first general view of the days work, I rate the keepers and copy them to a folder labelled "Shortlisted". The files in "Shortlisted" are then imported in Aperture where I make adjustments to the referenced files. Exported as 16-bitt Tiffs, the files are then opened in Photoshop for cloning of dust bunnies (Aperture can do that but I just much more comfy with doing that in PS), resizing and sharpening. Masking and blending will wait till I get home.

FW800 2.5 inch Drives:

With most Macs, we have the ultra-fast FW800 ports (thrown out by Thunderbolt which however have not that many devices supporting it as of this blog entry) and FW800 is my port of choice for both photo and video work. These drives have dual FW800 ports which allow for daisy chaining and makes up for the single FW800 on the MBP. Highly recommended casings. Each drive is a clone of the other so 2 copies of the files are available at any one time.

Western Digital FW800 500GB drive:

One of my older drives, it is still running well and it is a duplicate of the larger drives above. If space runs out on this, then the remaining files will head into the next device, the Nexto Drives. That said, the WD was working flawlessly. It only has 1 FW800 port so it lies at the end of the chain.

Next OTG 500GB Drives:

A discontinued product. These 2 pieces of kit is excellent for backing up the files On-The-Go (OTG). Reading both SD and CF cards, they are durable and amazingly easy to use. The newer versions have received rave reviews as well. A good to have though if you have a laptop, 2.5 inch drives may be a more practical item to have around. That said, this work great as a standalone so if laptops are not an option, splurge on these guys!

Lexar FW800 CF Reader:

A solid CF card reader with dual FW800 ports which means I can daisy-chain another FW800 reader to it. The cards are however a little tough to get into the slot as compared to the Sandisk. Definitely a second choice to the Sandisk although file transfers were never an issue and were really fast as well.

Sandisk FW800 CF Reader:

A smaller reader when compared to the Lexar, the Sandisk takes the card in easily and no problems with it at all. It's fast and reliable.

Sandisk USB2.0 Multi-card reader:

It is weird to say this but this seems to be the fastest USB 2.0 reader I have ever used. It seems to transfer the files just that tiny bit slower than its Firewire cousins. Very reliable and will highly recommend it if you are a Macbook or Windows user.

FW800 and USB cables:

Bring plenty of them. Cables can fail and having only one will somehow encourage something bad to happen.

Lowepro Computrekker Plus AW:

When this bag first arrived a couple of years back, I was both impressed by its capacity and weight. Emptied, it weighs much less than a Nature Trekker AW but holds much more gear. Not compromising on padding, I was sold on it. A couple of months later, I bought another for my video kit. Fully loaded, the bag weighs a ton but the padding on both the shoulder straps and back proved to be thoughtful additions and made the weight much less of a strain.

With a voluminous front pocket where I store lens hoods, a water bottle (emptied before boarding), extra clothing, a raincoat, etc and a latop pocket where I had the MBP, I looked somewhat like one of my pet tortoises. The bag is however well within carry-on dimensions even when fully-loaded so that was never an issue with any airline I have flown on.

The bag was out everyday throughout the trip and handled every bit of abuse and weather thrown at it. The raincover never saw any use as the material itself could handle a light drizzle.

Thinktank Skin Set:

The Lowepro is great for getting gear around but my preference for working out in the field is to have a pouch system for holding a spare lens and filters. The Thinktank Skin set was just the ticket. With a multitude of configurations where I can choose a particular pouch for a lens, the system works really well. So with the Lowepro safe on the beach, I will usually head out with 1 or 2 lenses and the filters in the Thinktank setup. Without this system, I would be lugging the Lowepro everywhere and how easy will it be to get that lens out from a backpack while knee-deep in water?

HPRC Casing:

Purchased for the India trip, this is now a must-have for the long trips. With ample space for the harddrives, power supplies and extra batteries, it is well-worth the initial cost. Some have commented about the gaudy yellow I have chosen.

So that is all to it. The gear list is definitely scalable to one's needs and my equipment suits mine and fits my budget. You will need to figure out yours and if given a choice, I would actually choose to give up the space of one lens to bring one or two more harddrives. I am just that paranoid and remember, less can really be more when it comes to choosing gear but that does not apply to your backing upon images!

See you in the next micro blog entry and as always, any questions can be directed to my email.