Photography/Videography Equipment - Am I Crazy?

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.

And that statement - ""The more recording stuff one brings, the more one will use it" is too black and white . The opposite can also happen and you end up using the equipment less than you thought and later wish you had taken more pictures. You can also say this about anything . If you take some games or chessboard you will spend too much time playing , if you take music player you miss out on experiences because you are lstening to music , if you have internet acess you will spend too much time on the net , if you bring musical instrument you will play too much and miss out on other exeriences and so on.

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.