My Backpacking Photography Equipment
(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 some types of 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.
- Multiple 16GB or 8GB CF cards – I carry at more than I think I’ll actually need since cards are light (and relatively inexpensive these days) and I’d rather not run out of storage capacity.
- 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, especially if I think I’ll be doing night photography and/or using Live View a lot on the 5D2.
- 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.
(Questions, comments, observations? You can join this site and leave a comment…)
G Dan Mitchell :: Aug.26.2007
Commentary, Equipment, Popular
14 Comments - click to comment
[...] I may try to post something else about my approach to hiking, packpacking, and other forms of outdoor photography later. In the meantime, you can read about my current backpacking photography equipment list. [...]
Ah, so you DO use the Topload bag from Lowepro… I was gonna ask you how you do it. In Torres del Paine, I’ve been fighting to figure out a way to do it so that I’m not walking around with the big pack and the camera swinging from my neck or held in hand if I don’t have hiking poles. My gear is similar, although I have the 20D (40D’s in the mail!) with the 10-22 and the 70-200 f4. Before I had the 10-22, I used the 17-40 on the trail, but nothing beats super wide angle for landscape work. Since some of my work involves taking pix of people on the trail, I also carry out a 430EX flash and the extra ounces of AAs for fill-flash work.
Anyway, I’m waiting eagerly for my topload harness to come in the mail, to go with my recently purchased Topload Zoom 2 (non-AW).
cheers from Patagonia,
gabriel
Gabriel: Thanks for writing… from Patagonia. I would love to visit there sometime!
It is really tough to figure out the best way to handle significant amounts of photo equipment on the trail. I can’t say that I’ve discovered a perfect way yet, but the current system seems to work pretty well. When I travel light (relatively speaking) I carry the 5D with the 24-105 attached in the Topload bag with the chest strap. I reverse the hood so that I can fit my 17-40 in the bottom of the bag. These are my two primary lenses for landscape photography – and often all I take for longer pack trips. With both of them (and filters, an extra CF card, and an extra battery) in the Topload I can shoot without stopping to remove any gear when necessary. Issues remain…
In very rough terrain I’m uncomfortable with the large Topload bag on my chest. For one thing, I cannot easily see my feet. While that might seem silly to some, anyone who has travelled cross-country over difficult country (say class 3 alpine passses) will understand. In these conditions I’ll remove the Topload and stash everything in my pack.
In addition, I prefer to use my tripod for landscape work. While I can get decent shots without it, I’m more likely to get very sharp results with it. Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a good way to carry it besides strapping it to the sides or back of my pack – and this means I have to stop and remove the pack to use the tripod. Ah, well.
I also carry a small fanny pack. Between the Topload and the fanny pack, I can do some pretty extensive travel and photography on non-hiking days as long as I’m willing to hand carry the tripod.
Can you point me to some of your photography?
Take care,
Dan
I have backpacked with my DSLR and there is surprising little info out there about this. My original plan was to use my Lowepro Rezo 170 AW bag attached to the front backpack straps by faux barbiners. Instead I used the strap and let it dangle from my neck in front of me. Not good. 6 hours of irritating swinging camera bag and a sore neck.
Instead of batteries, have you tried the solar rechargers? I have been tempted, but my luck there would be no sun that week or a surprise shower would soak it while it was in the sun charging…
I’ve seen the rechargers but haven’t tried them yet. I figure that the weight of the charger would have to be less than the weight of the batteries I carry for a week’s trip, and I don’t think we’re there yet. But I could easily be wrong, seeing how these things progress…
[...] described my current backpacking photography setup in detail elsewhere, so here I’ll focus on describing one key element in my solution, a Lowepro [...]
[...] have written elsewhere on this site about the gear I use, including the setup I use for backpacking, so I thought it might be interesting to show a photo of the gear in action, so to speak. This [...]
[...] Since the summer backpacking season is upon us – though it will be at least a few more weeks before I’m out and about in the back-country – it seems like a good time to post a pointer to a post I wrote earlier (and update every year) about my backpacking photography equipment. [...]
I hope Dan doesn’t mind, but here is a picture of his backcountry hiking mode with his Lowepro Topload…..
http://www.websailor.org/twg14/pictures/Mt_Whitney_August_2008/mt_whitney_august_2008_0406.jpg
Hey, Ernie (“websailor”) got a photo of me in full “would-be-ultralight-but-I’m-a-photographer” mode. Camera in the front, fully loaded backpack behind and (though you cannot see it here) tripod on the back of the pack.
There is another photo of me with backpacking camera gear – but no backpack – on top of Mount Whitney:
Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks for this great site. I have read your posts on pnet before, but I just came across this site through the sharpening page. Thanks for sharing your experience and the setup. I would like to share mine for the benefit of others.
I recently upgraded to the D700 (a full frame Nikon) and although I am only a daypacker (in fact, on many occasions I end up driving to the spot and hike the last bit) I have been trying to solve the weight puzzle too.
(Please allow me to clarify for the benefit of others, why a non-backpacker like me needs to be weight conscious: I either travel with the family (a child, an infant, strollers, baby bags, etc. included), or travel for work and extend my stay at the destination by one extra day (i.e., very light weight, air traveling). So right now lightweight daypacking is all I can do).
As new Nikon bodies allows one to use older primes, I have taken the lightweight, inexpensive, older-primes route. Among the 10 or so lenses, I carry a 20mm/3.5, 24mm/2.8, a lightweight 28-70/3.5-4.5 consumer lens that is slow but a surprisingly good performer, and a 135mm/2.8 on my trips. Amongst these, I found that I use the 20 and 24 extensively – and if I need the 35mm angle of view, I select the crop mode in the body while using 24mm. Currently I do miss the 50mm/1.4 or 1.8 prime, so the next time I travel, I may replace the only AF zoom with the 50mm prime, or carry both. I haven’t found much use for the tele’s but one never knows.
I carry filters, lens cleaning kit etc., but I never attempt to clean sensors during my trips – I save it for when I am back at home. I don’t carry my flashes on my trips either. However I do carry an external (small-ish) hard drive, ipod classic, cell phone, tom-tom gps, etc. on the trips. I selectively offload them at the hotel depending on the nature and duration of the outing (dawn/dusk/trails/mountains/ocean/whatever).
I currently have the manfrotto 055xprob and the 486rc2 combo for my tripod. It is super sturdy, but it is LARGE and HEAVY. And I have the lowepro Compu Trekker Plus AW to lug these around. The tripod is larger than the bag so I strap it on to the outside of the bag, but I am not always happy these days. I am also conscious of the attention these camera bags with strapped on tripods get.
Of late, I have been considering the benro travel angel series tripod, tenba messenger bag large, or the tamrac messenger 7 (i think). The Travel angel tripods folds down to 13-14 inches, weigh 2-3.5 lbs (depends on CF or aluminum), come with a small ball head that seems to be surprisingly stable with the d700 body and an older prime. (I don’t know about the holy trinity zooms though). The messenger bags can, in theory, hold a 15″ or 17″ laptop too.
My plan is to fit the body and lenses in the bag, keep the tripod on top of camera body and strap the cover shut. I intend to use additional velcro to secure it in place. If this works out well, ALL I will have to carry is one messenger bag that weighs about 10-11 lbs (as against the 20ish I do now). Of course, laptop is not included in this estimate. If this works out well, I may even rip the label off of the bag.
I will share my experience once I get the upgrades. Till then, I hope my research helps others in similar situations.
Thanks and best regards,
A.
Your idea about using non-photo bags is one that I think about as well – not in the back-country but when I shoot in urban environments and when I travel.
How many batteries go with you on a typical trip? That’s something I always wonder about, and usually overdo. I tend to bring two or three spares, and on most camping trips it’s a 50/50 chance whether I’ll need to use a second. The BP-511s really are good…
Also, what do you do about water? It’s been a while since I’ve been in the Sierra; I remember there being lots of water, but not always being able to predict where it might turn up. I got a purifier this past fall, and have been loving it … I still carry a bit of drink, in case I don’t run across a stream before I get thirsty, but much less now.
I typically have no problem heading out with just an ultrawide ( currently a 15 to 30, but this lens has seen better days ). It’s pretty rare that I find myself wanting something else out in the bush, although occasionally I’ve been able to put my 300/4 to good use. I find some of this depends on the setting – “Glacier for the scenery, and Yellowstone for the wildlife” – but for the most part, it comes down to mindset. If I set out looking for landscapes, that’s what I tend to notice.
Hi Forrest :
I usually use fewer batteries than I expect to. When I shot a 5D (with the PB 511 batteries) I would carry as many as four batteries – but I rarely if ever went through more than two, even on some quite long trips. That said, I’d rather carry the weight of an extra battery I don’t need than end up unable to shoot! Two things can increase battery use for me. First, I sometimes do some night photography in the back-country, and the long exposures eat up battery power very quickly. Second, I like to use the live view mode on my 5D2 for manual focus for many landscape shots – but this also creates a tremendous battery drain. It is easy to go through a battery in half or even a third as many shots with live view.
During most of the season water is rarely a problem – it would be rare to go more than a mile without seeing a lake, a creek, or a small rivulet. Later in the season some water sources can dry up in the Sierra, so it is a good idea to check local conditions at that point. (For example, Rafferty Creek, along a popular trail to the Vogelsang High Sierra camp in the Yosemite high country , often goes completely dry late in the season.) A filter is standard equipment these days.
The lens or lenses you’ll want, as you point out, depend a lot on your own personal preferences and what compromises you are willing to make – and how much weight you will carry. If I’m traveling very light I might use only a 24-105 on my full frame DSLR, along with a tripod and so forth. More likely I’ll also have the 17-40 along. On shorter trips and those where I want a bit more reach I add the 70-200mm f/4 lens.
Dan