Photography/Videography Equipment - Am I Crazy?

Hey everyone,

Me and a friend are planning a one year RTW trip and I am having a hard time deciding how much equipment is worth bringing and at all reasonable. A very big part of the trip for me is documenting it with high quality photos and video. Ideally I would like to put together short videos as we go for a travel blog and then an actual documentary about the adventure when we get back.

Initially I was planning on bringing a video camera (Sony NEX VG30), a DSLR (Nikon D5000) with 2 extra lenses, a glidecam, laptop (15" Macbook), GoPro and the necessary accessories. As the trip gets closer and I start experimenting with packing everything up...two things worry me; it being unreasonable to carry for such a long trip and the financial blow I would take if it was to get stolen (approx. $10000 worth of gear total). I am by no means wealthy and use it all for work, so losing it would be quite a blow...but half the motivation for me to take the trip is to do something creative with it.

Is it insane to bring that much gear? I think I could deal with carrying it, the bigger concern is theft. I'm having a hard time finding anyone to insure it, and even if I did I'm sure it would cost a fortune.

As far as where we are going; the only confirmed countries are New Zealand and Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. We plan on spending a lot of time in Southeast Asia and South America, but we have yet to decide on all the specific countries.

The other option I'm considering is selling off some of my gear and buying a dslr (thinking the D600) that shoots great video as well so I'm not bringing two large cameras. I don't really have the funds for this but think it's my most reasonable option.

I would love to hear from anyone that travels with a lot of gear and any tips/recommendations you might have.

Thanks!

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..

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.

Thanks for all the responses!

I've decided that I'm not willing to risk losing all the gear I mentioned. I've been mugged before while travelling so know the risks are definitely out there. I'm going to refurbish an old Macbook instead of bringing my new one, it's quite slow for video editing but I am starting to doubt I'll actually have much time to spend editing along the way...so it should do the job.

The D5000 does shoot video, but not full HD and I have never been happy with the quality. I think I'm going to leave it home with my VG30 and get something a bit better at doing both photo and video. Right now I'm looking at the D7100 instead of the D600, it saves some money and by not jumping to full frame I can continue to use the lenses I have. A bit of a compromise but much more reasonable.

I agree that audio is going to be really important. If I stick to the DSLR route, I think I'm just going to get a Rode mic to mount to the camera. Hopefully this does the trick. I was considering an external recorder with some lav mics if I do any interviews...but again I think this might be excessive.

"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."

I have definitely suffered from this before...but finding a balance is just something I will have to do during the trip. Documenting it is very important to me.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

I think your decision is wise. FF offers a few benefits, but very few are often of use for travel photography IMO. Plus they tend to be bigger and heavier to use.

Limiting the equipment and also limiting where and when you use it. In tourist areas everyone will have a camera so its generally safe. I've never had a problem, but i don't use my laptop often in public places either.

Mounting a microphone to the camera can mean that the microphone will pick up the whirring noise of the zoom lens and camera handling noise . also an external mic can be placed in positions to avoid wind noise. You don't need a recorder with external mics , just one of the small ones with built in mics. Its no problem to carry but it will mean at the end of your trip it will be a bit of a job matching up all the video files with the audio files.
Full frame with high definition can also generate very heavy files , A review of Canon's latest small DLSR said it uses up 4 GB after only 12 minutes video shooting time regardless of high definition setting. !! By constrast my advanced compact can shoot 20 mins and only use up about 3 GB. Another thing to consider is possible problems recharging your camera if you go somewhere with no or unreliable electricty.. Some cameras have USB charging so you can plug in AA battery pack as last resort.

there is a divergence of opinions.

The price for memory is now very low and the size of memory sticks is growing rapidly.

Uploading and transferring may involve some minutes whenever you are near an internet
connection but if you don't plan to do multiple RTW trips you might wish to have more
audio & video to edit for the remainder of your life rather than less.

The issue of sync for the various files is something worth considering. If this is easy/interesting
or fun for you ...there's your answer. If not... well its another consideration.

Have a happy and safe journey.

And that statement - ""The more recording stuff one brings, the more one will use it" is too black and white .

Maybe it would seem less black and white if you looked at the sentence that preceded it in post #4

Some of my rules of thumb:

The more recording stuff one brings, the more one will use it.