High Sierra Topix

flyfisher70 wrote:

I curious what you guys are carrying with you.

varies by trip. The longer the hike, the less gear comes along.

For shorter trips, I'd bring:

FX DSLR body, 24-85mm, 70-300mm, 20mm and/or 14mm, add a small Benro carbon fiber tripod with small ballhead, or in winter my customized ice axe with tripod screw. Polarizer, ND100 filter, gradual ND filter, wibal white balance card, some cleaning cloth, spare battery, wireless remote release. If I plan to shoot video, I bring a decent microphone, even more batteries and SD cards. If I plan on long star track exposures, I bring some handwarmer packets to keep dew from forming on the lens. Some gaffer tape to protect the body and tape up some seams to ghetto weather proof the body. I

On longer trips, I usually just bring the zoom lenses, or a 20mm, 50mm and 105mm, all vintage manual focus glass. On a really long Muir Trail hike, I also bring the camera's battery grip so I can use AA lithiums at resupply depots to swap out batteries without having to recharge or use overpriced proprietary camera batteries. In the past I have packed special lenses in resupply buckets and then used them on the second half of long hikes, when you're all used to the weight and two more pounds won't make much of a difference.

Other times, I just bring a small point-and-shoot and hope I won't come across a photo that will make me regret that choice

Like Peter, for trips that the forecasted light looks bland, or I'm going light, or for trips that have a primary "adventure" focus (backcountry skiing/mountaineering) I take a smaller sensor camera(Rebel) with a 17-200L and that's it. Of course every time I do this, I end up wishing I had my 5d due to something I want to shoot wider, or a money shot. In those cases I end up shooting to stitch. Several of the panos in Walk the Sky were shot this way and have held up quite well to enlargements of 4'.

On trips where the photos count, it's the 5d II and my go to landscape lens; 17-40L. I carry a little (old aluminum) gitzo tripod that is undersize for the camera, but light (48" 2.7#) (it would be lighter if it were carbon, I carry a fullsize carbon tripod on shorter trips). I always use the timer/mirror lock to take care of any vibration. Polarizing and nd6 filters, remote release. Depending on how I'm feeling when I'm packing, I may or may not take the 70-200 as I very rarely shoot landscapes in that range.

I am a selective shooter so battery life is fine for me over week. On longer trips I throw in a second fully charged battery.

While still much heavier than a point and shoot, it is WAY lighter than the 4x5 rig I used to lug around

KathyW wrote:I've been playing with an Olympus OM-D E5 for the last couple of months. I've been dragging it around with a Zuiko M ED 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6 lens. So far so good, but it's a big learning curve for me because I moved up from an Olympus XZ-1. I'm hoping that I'll have some idea how to use it by summer.

I have the Olympus OM-D E5, and the book/guide by David Busch helps me to navigate the nightmarish menus and manual of the camera. ISBN 978-1285429960 Once I got the camera setup the way I wanted, it became a much easier camera to use.

richlong8 wrote:

KathyW wrote:I've been playing with an Olympus OM-D E5 for the last couple of months. I've been dragging it around with a Zuiko M ED 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6 lens. So far so good, but it's a big learning curve for me because I moved up from an Olympus XZ-1. I'm hoping that I'll have some idea how to use it by summer.

I have the Olympus OM-D E5, and the book/guide by David Busch helps me to navigate the nightmarish menus and manual of the camera. ISBN 978-1285429960 Once I got the camera setup the way I wanted, it became a much easier camera to use.

I did pick up that book, and it has helped. Thanks for the info you posted on the other thread too. DOF, Aperture....so much to learn - fun but sometimes frustrating.

When I first started hiking, I lugged around my wife's 5D. Although I liked the picture quality, the weight was a big issue for me. I am of the belief that if you leave your camera in a bag, then sometimes you miss out on great shots because you do not have time to pull the camera out or just don't feel like stopping at that moment. So when I hike, I generally like to have my camera out and around my neck, which was very grueling with the 5D especially on hikes with a lot of elevation gain.

Last summer, I bought an NEX-7, and I absolutely love it. It is so light that I can hike for hours with it around my neck and I never notice it is there. It has the exact same 24.3 MP sensor as a Sony A77 DSLR, so the quality is great. I barely notice a difference between the NEX-7 pictures and the 5D pictures although I will admit I am not a super sophisticated photographer. I take pictures for my personal enjoyment and for posting on Flickr, so the photo quality meets my needs. I have used it to take HDR photos (both single raw and bracketed), and have been happy with the results. Not having an input for a wired remote shutter release is annoying, but there are work arounds.

The only lens I use with it now is the 18-55 mm kit lens. I have read good reviews about the 10-18 mm lens, and I almost bought that lense, but I decided to save my money because I have read that Ziess is coming out with a E-mount 12mm lens this summer. It should be amazing for landscape shots. (I think Sony is also coming out with a new version of the NEX-7 sometime soon)

larroyo33 wrote: I have read that Ziess is coming out with a E-mount 12mm lens this summer. It should be amazing for landscape shots. (I think Sony is also coming out with a new version of the NEX-7 sometime soon)

you mean this one? Start saving.

http://lenses.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/c ... t2812.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I looked at the nex cameras for a while, but since the weight savings of the body with F-mount adapter is negligible to me (I would bring the same lenses I already own), I chose an FX DSLR instead. Glad I did - FX sensors with 14 stops dynamic range are worth carrying around, at least until Sony releases the FX nex. Rumors indicate it will cost a lot if it does indeed arrive.

I bought the Sony NEX 6 recently. I had been using a Sony dSLR. I am delighted. It is so small and light that I carry it all the time. Since it has the same size sensor as a typical dSLR you give up nothing there. You just have to decide how much you are willing to spend on lenses. The feature set is unbelievable. I hadn't realized how many useful new features have been developed since I bought my last camera. And Sony has really improved on their noise levels at high ISOs.

I didn't think I could adjust to an electronic viewfinder, but I am. It helps that the Sony is such a good one. I looked at the Nikon 1 series. I could never get use to their EVF.

I think my dSLRs are going to gather a lot of dust in the future.