Four months out ‘in the field’ - what do you need?

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Four months out ‘in the field’ - what do you need?

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Started 2 years ago by Pseuds
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Pseuds

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Hi all, my first post! Have read a lot of posts and internet guides and can’t find any to answer my main question. My background: I’m 28, English, I did some photography at school with a lovely all manual film Nikon and spent some happy times taking photos and developing them in the darkroom, but nothing too serious. I have been too busy to enter into the digital era, but am now taking the plunge. My old man has shot Nikon all his life and currently has a D300, which I was impressed with and made me think of doing a bit of research. I’ve been reading NRs a bit (OK, a lot, I got caught up with D7000 rumours, then launch, then reviews etc) and have read lots of articles on ByThom, DPReview etc. Basically I’m rusty, but have read the D7000 manual online and wasn’t fazed by it, just looking forward to getting hold of it. I don’t think it will be too long before I am in a competent amateur comfort zone. I’m interested in landscapes, portraits and wildlife photography.

I am off to central Tanzania for 4 months in the new year, which has prompted my action. I will be living for the majority of the time in a simple house in a village, with occasional trips to a town, so am effectively out “in the field” for 4 months, with no camera shop, resources and only limited access to the internet.

I’ll be busy for most of the time, I’m out there doing a research project, so will be travelling to lots of different villages by 4x4, as well as doing some work at the local health centre (I’m a Paediatrician) but I’ll have my camera with me pretty much the whole time. I’m mostly interested in photos, but I will probably play around a bit with movies. I would quite like to make a mini documentary of the research project, for example, but it would only be for fun. As an added bonus, I will be only about 4 hours drive from three game reserves, so am hoping for plenty of weekend trips. All in all, a good opportunity to learn digital photography.

So, my Question: What do you need for 4 months in the field? I’m after specifics (ie brand and model) if possible. I will be learning to use the stuff as I go along, but without the option of going to a camera store to get things as I realise I need them as I become more proficient. I have a good starting budget, but it’s pretty much killed by the camera, more specifically the glass. I am going with the “buy the best glass you can afford”, school of thought, rather than incremental upgrades.

So, my plans:
Camera: D7000.
Lenses: Nikon AF-S ED 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G IF DX VR ,
Nikon AF-S ED 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II (We all shoot Nikon because of the glass, right?)
Nikon 35mm f1.8 DX

With the same amount of money I could get the D700 with 28-300 f/3.5 – 5.6, but I would prefer to get the 70-200 f/2.8 and eventually sell the D7000 and the DX lenses and move to FX with the D800 in the future. I think the D7000 will be easier for me to learn on.

My thoughts on other stuff:

Teleconvertor- thinking about second hand for safari, not sure on 1.7 or 2.0x magnification.
Memory cards- two 4gb enough?
Tripod- as good as I can afford, weight is going to be an issue
MacBook Pro- I don’t own a laptop, so am planning on this, will need this for research project as well as photo storage.
Software- Can I get away with the new iPhoto and post-process with software when I return back, or is it really worth just getting lightroom +/- CS5? I would prefer to defer buying software if I can.
Flash- SB 600
Filters- don’t know where to start or what I would end up needing.
Lens cleaning stuff- I read Thom Hogan’s article about this, is that what most people do? What specifically do I need? I am a bit paranoid about this, as I will be so isolated. I thought seriously about just getting the D700 with the 18-300 f3.5 – 5.6 for this reason alone, but changed my mind. How much of an issue is this likely to be for 4 months?
Books- Any must have books I should take?

Err that’s about all I can think of. Am I missing anything? What’s the longest you guys have been out in the field? There was a post on the forum where one chap was a war photographer, so the conditions there would be a hell of a lot worse than what I will be dealing with.

Thanks for any answers on any issue. I am sorry for the long post, hopefully any answers will be relevant for all new DSLR photographers.

Posted 2 years ago #
broxibear

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Hi Pseuds
You seemed to have it thought through, the only things I would suggest is double your cards at the very least as two 4gb cards are not enough. Just from a security point of view you need a couple of back ups...get four, keep three with you and leave one wherever you're staying incase you lose any in the field.
Some people like filters as protection for their glass...others say it interferes with the lens, personally I use skylight filters as protection.
As far as cleaning I'd get a LensPen Lens Cleaner and a Giottos AA1900 Rocket Air Blower both cost under £10 from warehouseexpress.
Be careful when swapping lenses and avoid doing it in a dusty place...yeah I know Tanzania's dusty but you know what I mean.
Forget CS5 as Lightroom will do everything you need...but you can worry about that when you get back I guess.
Have a good trip...and don't delete images when looking at them in your lcd, wait till you get back as they often look very different on a monitor.

Posted 2 years ago #
kithic

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Don't forget an extra battery!

Posted 2 years ago #
Ron

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Don't know what kind of power they have, but be sure to check out if you need a convertor so you charge batteries, both camera and laptop.

Posted 2 years ago #
kanuck

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AS far as the tripod goes you wouldn't regret a carbon fiber Gitzo for the money. For that long in the field the weight won't drive you nuts and its very sturdy and just works constantly. I love mine!

Posted 2 years ago #
poster

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I would most likely stock up on toilet paper. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a middle of nowhere in Tanzania with nothing to wipe my bottom.

I would suggest, an all around zoom lens plus a fast prime. The less stuff I have to worry about being lost or stolen the better.

Posted 2 years ago #
NikoDoby

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Please use the forum search. There are lots of discussions about what to take (gear/ lenses)on such trips.

http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=1158
http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=2635
http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=1712

Posted 2 years ago #
gelu88

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Insurance!

there is a pretty decent chance that all your gear will be robbed, especially since you are in a known location for extended periods of time.

on that note i would also get multiple external hard drives and/or USB keys. depending on how many pictures you take. Backup all your data and keep them in different locations, that way if one place gets robbed/catches fire/ washes away in a flood, etc you have others.

One thing that i have not heard others discuss is a camera bag.

I would recommend having multiple bags. One good big one to hold EVERYTHING, and another that you will take with you. The latter should not look like a camera bag at all, check companies like think tank for examples.

This week in Photo, a podcast i listen to regularly, had an episode specifically on how to shoot in Africa, its worth a listen.

http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/twip-153-exposing-africa/

Posted 2 years ago #
tcole1983

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I personally would take 2 8GB cards. You won't want to switch all the time especially if you are out for the day/days at a time without returning home to take the photos off. That way you could mainly shoot on one card, but have a backup also. Depending on format you will only be able to fit about 250 RAW format photos on the 4 GB card.

Posted 2 years ago #
warprints

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In addition to the suggestions above, be sure to take a protable backup drive, and try to keep it very separate from your laptop - If your laptop is stolen, lost, etc., you want your backup in a very different place.

Posted 2 years ago #
adamz

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i would go for the d700 + 28-300 vr lens (if Your budget will allow get 35/1.8 too - it works on fx with slight vignietting), it's quite decent, not to big, with good IQ. apart from that I would probably get at least one spare battery. as for the software... well, iPhoto is not enough if You gonna shoot raw - go for aperture if You wanna stick to mac as it's cheaper than lightroom+cs5 combo. You can add NikSoftware software (viveza, sfpro, define... ).
cards - at least two 8gb cards
mac - well... I would probably go for macbook pro 15 or 13
if u think u need more reach, go with the new d7000 instead of d700 and add wide lens (probably tokina 11-16)

Posted 2 years ago #
Mike Gunter

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Hi,

I might be the photographer that was doing war coverage, however it was a long, long time ago, with mechanical cameras on someone else's dime, and I did have some causalities.

I second a backup drive or two. I recommend Lacie's Rugged Hard Disc drives. They aren't expensive and can be bus powered and have multiple options for interfacing to your computer. I would get two for redundant backup of your shooting and your other data.

In correspondent work, we tried to cover wide, normal and telephoto in black and white and color (this was a while a go). We carried six cameras with 3 prime lens and a film stock with for B&W and for color. Today zooms and digital makes it a lot easier. Your wide seems a bit weak. I think you'll find that a lot happens at the wide end, too. You might add a 10-24mm zoom lens.

Don't forget that you need to carry everything comfortably and wisely. Get straps and cases that make sense for you. You will want cases that allow you to get to your stuff quickly and easily, and protect it from grit and grim (something that is often counter-intuitive). You might break down and have different cases for travel and shooting. Straps are a really individual thing. I'm old school and use Op/tech's wide foam strap.with quick release snaps on each side. I'm entering what is called the 'golden years' - an irony not lost on anyone who is at that point - and am being have some shakiness in my hands use a tripod for most of my shooting and will often remove the strap if I will shoot for more than 6 hours.

Learn how to clean your sensor. My guess is that, although the D7000's sensor is self-cleaning, it can and will get dirty in that environment. I have had to clean my mirror many times. Again, the cameras didn't belong to me - thankfully.

Tanzania, if I'm not mistaken, is one of the more pleasant places to go in Africa, but since you are a physician you may be going to one of the less fortunate parts of Tanzania. While I would never tell a doctor to wash his hands, I would remind him that until the 20th Century, wars were generally lost to infection and disease rather than to tactics and maneuver. In the 11 or so war zones that I have been in over the years, potable water has been challenging to get.

For most of your shooting, I would recommend RAW at least, and if you want to add JPEG, that would be fine, too. I would tend to keep everything and sort it out later.

You might want to read up on both shooting technique and software technique. I'll look up some titles and PM them to you. There are some really good handbooks that offer insights to photography that aren't difficult reads, too.

Take a lot of pictures at a lot of angles and points of view. One thing that you might try to do is look to create a theme in your shooting. I would strongly recommend that. Try to tell a story in your pictures.

Most of all, have fun.

If I can be of any help, please don't hesitate to ask,

My best,

Mike

Posted 2 years ago #
Pseuds

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Thanks so much to all of you for the suggestions, I really appreciate it.

I did a search Niko, but found none of those threads, so thanks for that, they have some helpful stuff on them. That said there are suggestions on here not mentioned... Toilet paper for one... ;)

Card's: Unanimous I need more. Will do.
External hard drives: I hadn't realised how cheap they are now, those Lacie's Rugged Hard Disc's look just the job.
Cleaning stuff: LensPen Lens Cleaner and a Giottos AA1900 Rocket Air Blower, have researched them and they look great.
Extra battery: I figured I would nearly always have electricity, so I can charge, but I can see you don’t want to be out somewhere interesting when it runs out.
Convertors: I will need quite a few for all our lab kit, this is in hand.
Tripods: it looks like the carbon fibre's are worth it and no one complains about Gitzo's apart from about the price.
Insurance: I will have university insurance, but I have been reading about the UK Nikon's Extended Warranty. You get 2 yrs free (I note it's 5 in the US...), then you have to pay for a third, but if you do, you get covered for accidental damage and theft for all three years. I'll look into this and do the sums to see if it's worth it and what the exclusions are.
Software: Lightroom vs Aperture hmm...
Bag: Some good suggestions, I was just going to get one, a travelling type for when I'm in the 4x4 and have it in a cheap distressed bag when transiting and on holiday trips. I just need to choose wisely. I'll think about 2 when I get all my stuff and can visualise what I have.
Gelu88: Thanks for the heads up on the podcast from thisweekinphoto, it was great, it's now linked to update stream to my iTunes :)
Mike: Very interesting reply, yes it was you I was thinking of from a previous post. I'd appreciate some reading suggestions, 4 months without TV or internet need to be well planned for! I'm sorry about your bad D7000 (another post), I'm sure it's just a limited problem, when they eventually arrive over here I'm reserved to 'pick up in store' so I can check it out.

Thanks again...

Posted 2 years ago #
kanuck

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yes warprints BACKUP DRIVES very important for extended trips in the field. Mark Gunter, which war did you cover? Just curious :)

Posted 2 years ago #
Mike Gunter

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Hi all,

@kanuck, I was a combat photographer in Vietnam during the war in 1969-70. Largely dull and boring with scattered brief moments of sheer terror. As a reporter in the states I also worked on a small hot-metal press daily newspaper before it went off-set, something that is so fashioned, I'm not sure how many people understood the sentence I just written. I've spent time with a wire service and a major daily, too, between breaks in my Army service while I was finishing my education.

I've been to other hot spots, too, as a soldier - El Salvador, Bolivia, Colombia and many others.

@Pseuds, Gitzo makes terrific tripods, I have one and like it. Carbon Fiber would be the way to go if the budget allows. Try to focus on your story, whatever that is. Since your a pediatrician, I would assume you have an interest in children's health and well being. It would make sense to at least start there and work from that premise forward.

Don't forget you'll need two flashes, probably SB700 and an SB900. They will be essential.

You are there for some purpose - some splinter of that purpose could easily be the leitmotif for your pictures in essay form. It sounds exciting.

My best,

Mike

Posted 2 years ago #
Gareth

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What Mike said about learning how to clean your sensor if pure gold.

This is probably the best piece of advise you will get!

You have listed lens cleaning equipment.

When you take your lens off dust will get into your camera body. The dust will stick to your sensor. Every photo you take after that will have dust pathces on it.

Don't change your lens unless you have to.

Learn how to clean it.

The sensor cleaning kits from Just ltd look good. This is a delicate process though. I have a official nikon kit, but it only takes an hour the get nikon to clean it under warranty, so i haven't used it yet.

this is part of the video that comes with the official kit.

[+] Embed the video | Video Download Get the Video Plugin

Text-Link:

HTML-Link:

BB-Code:

Embed:

Posted 2 years ago #
kanuck

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Wow we are lucky to have you on our forum I think Mike.

Gareth, do you use a rocket blower by any chance?

Posted 2 years ago #
Mike Gunter

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kanuck said:
Wow we are lucky to have you on our forum I think Mike.

Thanks, Kanuck, but like I said, 'hot metal press' means something different than heavy metal music. ;-)

So old that paint (like the hot metal) had lead in it...

My best,

Mike

Posted 2 years ago #
Gareth

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kanuck said:

Gareth, do you use a rocket blower by any chance?

I use a blower, it's not a rocket, but it is good.

I use the blower on my lenses and occasionally inside the body. I also use 99.99 lint free tissue and lens cleaner on my lenses.

The problem with using the blower in the body is you may actually blow dust onto the sensor.

A handy tip (pun intended) is if you have spots in your viewfinder that aren't in your pictures, take your lens off.

You will see the mirror (if it's not locked up), look at the bottom of the viewfinder and you will see a little glass element. Look very hard in good light and you may see little black spots on it.

They are easy to carefully wipe off with a dry cotton cue tip. Or some lens cleaner works if then are stubborn, but can be hard to dry.

No more black spots in the viewfinder.

Posted 2 years ago #
kanuck

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Good idea I find with the FX sensors its a common problem to have dirty sensors it seems. I know with a larger sensor obviously it will be harder to keep clean, but I find that it gets dirty almost right away epsecially if you changing lenses a couple of times. I guess this is why a lot of people use two bodies to avoid switching so much. Good post though Gareth.

Posted 2 years ago #
aetas

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Have you left yet. If not good luck and to answer your question one week. Thats it. I try to keep my photo excursions to a week or less because thats about as long as I feel like hiking.

Posted 2 years ago #
fw

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I would suggest the D700 + 28-300 and the cheap 50/1.8 for low light situations.

The 70-200 VR is a GREAT lens but it's large and heavy and not something I would want to carry with me for travel photography. The 28-300 is a superzoom with it's limitations but combined with a fast prime like the 50/1.8 it's a great combo if you want to travel light and don't have to change lenses too often.

The downside with the D700 compared to the D7000 is that you won't get the video feature. Personally I don't care about video for DSLR's but that's just me. :)

I'd also bring AT LEAST 1 extra battery and 4x8GB memory cards.

Posted 2 years ago #
fw

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Dammit. Just noticed that it's an old thread. Hope you haven't left yet. :)

Posted 2 years ago #
monty11

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Well he did say he is leaving in the new year.

I would add to this list of suggestions one book: Les Stroud's Survive. You never know what might happen in a place like that, so better be prepared. If you have an iPhone (doubtful you'll be carrying it around over there), then there's also an SAS Survival app.

Good luck!

Posted 2 years ago #
studio460

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I have no experience on such long junkets, but here's what I've been doing recently. On casual outings, I've been taking two bodies: my new D7000, and my old D90. The D90 gets a super-wide, permanently stuck onto it, and the D7000 gets a longer, faster lens (in my case, a 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8 or 105mm f/2.0).

This two-body approach worked extremely well for me because I always want both a super-wide, just to establish the landscape or environment I'm in, and also a fast, short telephoto, for people and portraits, especially if I know I'll always be able to get relatively close to my subjects. Although I also own longer, faster zooms, I wanted to pack light that day, and stowed a 70-300 zoom in my jacket pocket (mainly because it's so compact). I never happened to use it on this particular outing, so my time spent changing lenses was pared down to zero.

Your mileage will definitely vary, but I would at least make a hinting suggestion that you consider a lesser (D40-ish) new or used body, in addition to your primary body, as either a back-up, or for use as your "permanent wide-angle" camera. At least, that's what I plan on doing on my next "expedition."

When in my "photojournalism" mode (as I would be on an expedition such as yours), I think my typical "day pack" would generally consist of two bodies, an ultra-wide, a short tele, and one longer, fast zoom:

1. Super-wide: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DX (perma-mounted to my D90).
2. Fast, short tele: either the AF 50mm f/1.4D, AF 85mm f/1.8 or DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2.0D.
3. Fast, longer zoom: AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR I.

And lastly, as I mentioned in the, "What's in Your Camera Bag" thread, I wouldn't be without my two staple supplies:

1. Rosco lens fluid.
2. Rosco lens tissue packs (perhaps, substitute with a Mikros microfiber cloth in your case).

I never leave the house without 'em. Also, a good monopod!

Posted 2 years ago #