Photography/Videography Equipment - Am I Crazy?

I thought the D5000 did video. Anyway that would be the first solution get a dSLR with video features you want.

A lot actually carry a laptop and dSLR so thats not uncommon. I take a dSLT a retina MacbookPro 15" with me. Secret is a good backpack to carry it in and be comfortable wearing all day.

Also think about what lenses you are taking. Yes nice fast lenses take nice photos but so do slower lighter lenses. Its all tradeoffs of course.

Gopros are small, but lots of accessories add up! I usually leave stuff like tripods and glidecams at home, they add weight. I have a gorillapod for basic stabilization of my dSLR when travelling and make use of trees/poles/rocks for further stabilization.

My suggestion is get the bag sorted and see how much you want to carry and decide. Many people get some pretty professional results with just a camera and a laptop.

It seems a lot of gear . Maybe you can manage without the lap top , and perhaps just use an advanced compact camera for shooting stills and videos. Some of the advanced compacts take really good videos and they are not as power hungry as DSLRs..
Another suggestion is to record the audio separately . If you don't already have one , digital audio recorders are not so expensive these days . You can synch the audio and video together by making reference sound - clapping your hands or saying 'one two three' or something and alternatively there are programs you can download which will synch the external audio with the camera mic audio , and you can remove the camera audio during video editing.
Camera mics are good enough for most people but they also record camera noise and wind noise , plus the sound will change as you move the camera around. The main thing is that the high quality sound will make big difference to your videos.

If you're using Final Cut X on your Macbook to edit videos, you'll find it has a neat feature to merge video and audio. That makes a good case that #2 makes for a small digital audio recorder; the built in microphones found in DSLR's aren't high quality.

Since the Nikon D5000 shoots video it should be adequate for your needs unless you're shooting clips longer than 5 minutes in length.

Some of my rules of thumb:

The more recording stuff one brings, the more one will use it. That can cause missing experiences, or not fully experiencing them because one is too focused on documenting them.

Majority of travel blogs I've read about long term travel in South America say they got robbed.

The more and better electronics one has the bigger the target one is.

Some of the best photos and films were made on equipment now considered as having immediately obvious low image quality. If there is art and soul in one's images they will transcend image quality. No amount of state of the art image quality can make up for a lack of art and soul.

The first time I held back from doing something I wanted to because I worried about cost or fragility of my electronics I decided to never again. Subsequent trips were with expendable electronics. Three year old gear can be picked up at bargain prices. Only pixel peepers would notice the difference.

Kamaaina do you mean the Final Cut X program will synchronise the audio for you well as just add it to the video? . One other point about camera mics is that if you are ever recording music mostly they are not designed for louder volume whereas the small digital recorders such as Zoom , Tascam , etc are able to hamdle high volume levels without distorting. On review I read made the general comment that compact cameras often handle auto focus tracking better than DLSRs and micro /4 3rds cameras.
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RE# itdontmeanathing
QUOTE - "The more recording stuff one brings, the more one will use it. That can cause missing experiences, or not fully experiencing them because one is too focused on documenting them."
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I think yes and no. The time spent documenting them may not be that long and once you have got that over with and have put the equipment away then you have the rest of the time to be in the moment and experience things. . It doesn't have to be a mutually exclusive thing where you can't do both . Some may get carried away but its really just a matter of having a sense of balance about it. Plus the poster did say its part of the purpose of the trip.

QUOTE- "If there is art and soul in one's images they will transcend image quality. No amount of state of the art image quality can make up for a lack of art and soul."
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Once again yes and no . The only time I got to visit Afgahnsitan I had an inferior camera because the good one had broken down . I really regret not having a high quality camera on that trip..

Its offputting what you say about South America's safety.. Perhaps thats a question for the Sth American branch about experiences and opinions about carrying expensive camera gear in the region.

Yes, Final Cut X can synchronize your video with a separately recorded audio track.

I'm pretty certain premiere elements 11 can sync audio and video as well. I picked that for $50 off amazon.

"The more recording stuff one brings, the more one will use it.
That can cause missing experiences, or not fully experiencing
them because one is too focused on documenting them."

Very wise

Traveller in South America (and Brazil in particular) get robbed.

The more electronics one has the bigger the target one is.

If that doesn't just say it all.
Happy travels.

In the case of videos you have to be a bit sparing as you will run out of power unless you have constant access to power points. Again its all about a sense of balance - its going a bit too far to say 'I had bettter not take this equipment or I may not be able to control myself ', you have also got all day to experience things. Plus the effort in getting out and setting up your equipment is also a restraining factor.
I would like to hear some opinions from those who have travelled in St America.