G Dan Mitchell Photography

(Formerly titled “Summer 2007 Backpacking Photography Equipment “)

I do a fair amount of backpacking each summer, often spending at least three weeks on the trail in the Sierra Nevada. (This is in addition to other non-backpacking trips to the Sierra and elsewhere. It helps to be a “gainfully unemployed” college faculty member during the summer. :-) I’ve been a backpacker for over four decades, and I’ve evolved a backpacking photography setup that works well for me.

A few years ago I had worked out a pretty good back-country photography kit based on the Canon 350D/XTi. For many photographers there are real advantages in using one of the smaller cropped sensor bodies – less bulk, less weight, smaller lenses, and quite fine photographic quality. However, I switched to full frame and acquiring a full-frame 5D forced me to think more carefully about what I carry.

While I would like to have all of my gear with me, the load would be unmanageable. (At least at this stage of my life. When I was young, strong, and foolish in different ways than I am now, I would sometimes head out onto the trail with loads weighing up to 75 pounds.) Ironically, while I have lightened my load of backpacking equipment considerably during the past few years – moving more in the “ultra-light” direction – my photographic equipment load has increased. The bottom line is that I consider very carefully what I carry, considering the upsides and downsides of each piece of equipment and occasionally making compromises if I think a piece of gear can be left behind.

Here’s what I carry these days:

• Canon 5D Mark II (formerly a Canon 5D) – Heavier and bulkier than the cropped sensor body, but worth it for the higher resolution and the better small aperture performance.
• Canon 24-105mm f/4 IS L lens – This is a great standard lens for my purposes. I’m not necessarily a big telephoto shooter so 105mm is enough for most shots. The 24mm wide end is also wide enough for many situations. Having IS means that I can more successfully shoot handheld when necessary – as is often the case when I’m on the move. The f/4 aperture is fine, especially in combination with the IS. For this type of lens, the weight and size are not too bad at all.
• Canon 17-40mm f/4 L lens – While the 24-105 stays on the camera most of the time, the 17-40 is my preferred lens for much landscape work, often done early or late in the day when I’m not carrying the backpack and can therefore more easily work slowly and with a tripod. Since I generally shoot this lens in the f/8-f/16 range it provides great sharpness and DOF.
• 77mm circular polarizing filter – This size fits both lenses.
• Two 8GB CF cards – I carry two, but rarely need to use the second one.
• Batteries – I take a lot of photographs sometimes, and I also like to do night photography. I don’t want to be caught short, so I typically carry at least three batteries and sometimes more. However, I never used more than a couple batteries so I may reduce the number in the future.
• Velbon El Carmagne 540 carbon fiber tripod legs – While this setup is smaller than what I prefer to use in other situations, it provides a good combination of decent height, stability, light weight, and small packed size for backpacking. Because it has four leg sections it packs fairly small and easily stows on the outside or back of any of my packs.
• Acratech Ultimate Ballhead – This tripod head weighs only about one pound and works very well – this is a great backpacking ballhead.
• Lowepro Toploader Zoom AW bag – I use this with a chest harness to hold the 5D plus the 24-105 (with hood), along with most of the other photo gear. The bag is sturdy and includes a raincover – though the whole thing can go into my main pack in case of significant weather. (The 17-40 could ride in the backpack in a smaller Lowepro lens case, but most often it fits crosswise into the bottom of the Topload bag.)
• Canon remote release
• Assorted accessories – Lens cleaning cloth, sensor brush, blower, Philips wrench, etc.

I never have had the courage to weigh the whole mess, but I think it is somewhere in the 12 pound range. By the standards of my ultra-light backpacker friends (whose total base load may be 12-15 pounds!) this is an outrageous amount to carry. On the other hand, fellow photographers may be wondering how I managed to get by with only two lenses and a small tripod! (In August 2008 I met a fellow at Moraine Lake in SEKI who was carrying two Nikon DSLR bodies and four lenses! Later that summer I met an experienced Yosemite back-country photographer equipped with three complete systems: full-frame DSLR, medium format digital, and large format film! He had arrived with the assistance of a pack train…)

I do miss my full size Induro C313 tripod, but not nearly as much as I expected – and certainly not enough to carry the extra bulk and weight. In most cases the smaller Velbon will go high enough, though I do need to stoop a bit to see the viewfinder. It is sturdy enough and very flexible in terms of its adjustment options.

I usually do not miss my longer 70-200mm f/4 L lens, much less my even longer and heavier 100-400mm zoom. I may have missed a very small number of shots by leaving them home, but I’m generally far more interested in wide angle in the back-country. (Truth be told, I do occasionally take the 70-200mm f/4 on shorter trips when I’m willing to carry a bit of extra weight. I might take the 100-400 if I were headed into an area where knew that the extra reach would be needed – but I would begrudge the weight!)

The large Lowepro Topload bag with the chest harness is (pardon the awful pun) a mixed bag. It really is a fine product and the chest harness system is effective. You can even use it as a virtual shoulder strap by disconnecting a couple of the four strap attachment points. It is great to be able to fit virtually all of my photo equipment into one sturdy, weather-resistant, manageable and accessible bag. There are downsides, though – not the fault of Lowepro, but just the result of trying to accommodate all of the needs of the backpacking photographer with one bag. One unavoidable issue is the size of the bag, especially when carried on the chest. In rough country it is a disadvantage to be unable to see your feet. I have become adept at looking around the sides of the bag in many situations, though I have to be more careful of my footing in rough country. During extended cross country sections (such as class 2-3 routes) I feel more comfortable removing the bag and carrying it inside my main backpack.

I’ll add that while carrying the larger full-frame camera is worth the extra bother (and size and bulk) for me, many photographers will be very well served by a good crop sensor camera, particularly one of the smaller ones like the Canon “Digital Rebel” series or current versions of such cameras from other manufacturers. Frankly, unless you may make prints in the 20 x 30 range a good crop sensor camera is capable of producing excellent results. Not only are these cameras potentially lighter and smaller, but equivalent lenses can also be smaller and lighter. There have been times when I wished for a digital version of one of the old high-end rangefinder cameras with a couple small lenses. (I still hope that we’ll eventually see a high quality, affordable APS-C sensor rangefinder camera with either a good zoom or a few good primes.)

All of this having been said, am I contemplating any significant changes to my backpacking setup? In a word, no. For my purposes this system works very well.

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G Dan Mitchell :: Aug.26.2007 :: Commentary, Equipment, Popular :: 10 Comments » (Join the site to leave a comment.)

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