G Dan Mitchell Photography

One of the reasons – though not the only one – I go backpacking, usually in the Sierra Nevada, is to take photographs. To do so I must balance the opposing needs of having the gear I need for high quality photography, the weight and bulk of the equipment, and the need to have reasonably quick access to the gear.

My kit has evolved over the years and especially over the past 2 or three years as I’ve gone from using a nice little digicam (Canon Pro 1) to using a DSLR, multiple lenses, filters, and tripod. Frankly, there are advantages to both. Too much gear interferes with the experience and, in many cases, with the photography. Too little (or the wrong) gear lowers the quality of the photographs I bring back.

This summer I somewhat minimized the gear I carry. While I own four lenses (which you can read about in by taking the Equipment link in the “Recent” section of the sidebar), this summer I only carried two on my several pack trips. Along with my Canon 350D (which puts 8 megapixels into a small, capable body) I carried only my Canon EF 17-40mm L f/4 Lens and my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 IS L Lens.

I can carry the body with either lens attached (usually the 24-105) in my Lowepro Topload Zoom bag, which attaches using a chest harness. The second lens (most often the 17-40) fits in the bottom of the bag beneath the camera, ready for quick lens changes without removing my pack. Filters and my shutter release cable are handy in side pockets of this bag. My tripod rides in an outside pocket of my backpack.

I worried that I would miss having my longer 70-200mm L zoom, but in actual practice I rarely needed it. (The story would have been different had I been carrying a full frame camera body.) Sometimes I wished that I had a wider lens than the 17-40, but I was always able to work around this.

The weight advantage is considerable, but the convenience factor may be equally significant. With more lenses I would have to stow one or more of them in my backpack – and to get at them I would have to remove the entire pack, find a place to set it, and search through the pack. In addition, since I carry a fairly small ultralight pack, it would be hard to sacrifice the extra space in an already tightly loaded pack.

And after taking three pack trips with this rig I can report that I’m actually quite happy with the setup. On a crop sensor camera, the range from 17-105mm covers a lot of ground, especially for someone who, like me, tends to shoot landscape more than wildlife.

G Dan Mitchell :: Sep.20.2006
Equipment
No Comments yet - click to comment