Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Gadgets and gear

My previous post segues quite nicely into this one, in which I thought I'd go into a bit of the gadgets and gear I'm taking along. I know when researching for this trip that reading about what other people packed or used to get the footage they did was a great help, and saved me a considerable amount of further research. I also fondly recall on my last trip in 2008 talking about how my new phone for that trip was pretty special, in that it could "send and receive emails". Amazing! I'm sure I'll look back on this list in the not-too-distant future and laugh at how primitive this all this stuff is.

DSLR Camera
I went for the Canon 550D based on the advice of some friends, user reviews, and the fact it fitted into my price-to-quality/features range perfectly. The ability to film at a very high-standard is an excellent feature, as well as its comparatively compact size.

DSLR Lenses

The lenses were much more difficult for me to come to a decision on. I wanted to take a maximum of three lenses in order to travel light, whilst also trying to give myself as much flexibility and diversity as possible. I compromised on image quality to some extent in getting the 18-135 as I wanted a lens with a better zoom capacity. A friend has the Samyang, which is an excellent lens for the price, and the 50mm pretty much speaks for itself as the must-own default Canon prime lens (or so I was told).

Point and shoot camera

It was very hard to decide whether to get this, or whether to get the Panasonic Lumix, but I opted to go with the TX10, as I could get it slightly cheaper, and also because I felt while the Lumix was more sturdy, the other features of the Cybershot are more beneficial to me. As it will be the camera I'll be taking out when my DSLR is not practical, the compact size was an important selling factor.

Laptop

This is probably my favourite tech item I own. Ultra portable and sleek, looks a gem as well as running very well. I haven't put it under too much stress processor wise, but I'm hoping it'll stand up to do everything I need it to do while I'm abroad. My only regret is not getting the model up, which has a bit better specs, but that sort of feeling is going to come through with any piece of technology you buy, no matter how much you spend.

Other tech items
In terms of entertainment, I'm taking my my iPod and Kindle, for storage I'm taking a small pocket Western Digital Passport, and a few other photography items (release cable, gorilla pod, etc).

That just about sums it up! Less then a month until I leave now, exciting times.

Mark

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