Umesh Bhatt

I recently traveled to India, and carried with me a lot of gear. Here is a quick report on that.

I carried all of the following camera equipment in one Think tank Ultra light backpack:

• D300 camera, Sigma 10-20mm, Nikon 35-70 f2.8, Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR, Nikon 85mm f1.4
• Canon G9, Lensbaby, Expodisc, Singh Ray Vari-ND filter, Wolverine 40GB backup
• Chargers, ebay Triggers, SB-600, Macbook, Batteries, Cleaning solutions, CF & SD cards
• Plug adapters, Extension cords, iPod Touch, Lacrosse BC-900 charger, 3 sets of NiMh batteries
• Lexar CF/SD reader, Flashlight, Rain cover for camera & TTP, Phottix remote camera release
• Markins Q3 ballhead, Lenshoods for 70-200, 10-20 & 35-70 lenses

Yes! all of these equipment fit very comfortably into one TTP Ultra Light bag. It was very heavy to carry around and weighted a ton, but i think i could have squeezed in more if required (I actually carried back a Canon 10-22mm lens in addition to all the other stuff (A funny thing happened on the way back. The Customs officer in Mumbai, when inspecting the bag under X-ray, asked for a manual inspection of the bag, and specifically pointed out to the Canon lens for a hand inspection. I guess the X-Ray machine somehow identified that all the other lenses are Nikon mount and this one somehow did not belong there.)

In addition, i carried my Domke F803 as well – and served the purpose very well. I mainly used this bag during my travels and for the street. It could easily carry the D300 (with lens removed), Sigma 10-20 mm, Nikon 35-70mm & 70-200mm lens. The front pockets sometimes additionally carried Sb-600 and the Vari-ND filter.

• The Sigma 10-20mm was the most used lens during the entire trip. It pretty much stayed on the camera most of the time.
• The 70-200 mm was the 2nd most useful lens, with its reach – it was most useful to capture people from a distance.
• The Expodisc was the most useless piece of equipment i carried. I did not use even once. So were the eBay triggers. I had no use and these could have stayed home.
• The Singh Ray Vari-ND filters were extremely to cut down light on two occasions when i had to shoot people in broad day light under hard natural light (12 noon to 2pm). I typically like to shoot people with wider apertures.
• The lensbaby – i used it a few times, although i am now bored of its effect.
• I found that the range of 50-70mm most suitable for close up portraits (from the 35-70mm lens). I realized that i could have lived very well without this lens for the entire trip.
• The $6.00 OpTech rain cover proved very useful and wisest investment ever. I was able to continue to shoot in some heavy monsoon rains, even though the front of the lens was pretty much wet. The Domke canvas bag held up great in rain as well – water pretty must slips off the bag like it was made of plastic!
• People photography in India is very very easy. One can simply trust the camera into people’s faces (even strangers) at extreme close range (10mm lens) and they can take it with no problems. To most westerners – this is surely invasion of privacy! Of the 2000+ shots of people in public, i was refused once (Inside a Mall, by its security guard who indicated that the Photography is prohibited according to the “rules”. I did manage to take a few shots with my G9 though despite the warning).
• The customs officers in Mumbai had no issues with me bringing in $10k+ worth of camera equipment. On the other hand, they wanted to be 100% sure that i am not carrying two laptops.
• An ideal street photography camera would have been the controls and capabilities of the D300 in the form factor of G9. The G9 proved its limitations in street photography (decisive moment type shots) and action shots. Otherwise, the G9 was most enjoyable shooting events – when it worked flawlessly with the SB600 attached on its hot shoe and synced at 1/2000th second (can go up to 1/2500, but i was happy)
• My supply of 1 8GB card, 1 4GB card, 3 2GB cards, 3 1GB cards proved to be too little during my 2 day photo shoot road trip. I had to rely on using the G9 exclusively for the last few hours of the trip (I used 2 4GB SD cards for the G9).
• Although i carried a tripod (Feisol 3441S) – i used it only on 2 occasions. Both are in an early mornings in public places for nature shots. While the tripod itself was not the issue (very nice form factor, weight and size were nearly as comfortable as a gorillapod) it attracted too much attention (with like a million people walking the street at any given point of time) and from security guards/police when used in public tourist spots.
• While the bags i used during shoots (Domke) was very comfortable and quite usable, I would have liked a bag that allowed me to store it with the lens attached for quicker access, and possibly store one extra lens (70-200 VR lens). Not sure what kind of bag is suitable for this.
• The Sigma 10-20 mm was a very challenging lens to shoot with – in terms of getting the right exposure. Not sure if this was specific to my lens, or all lenses have the same issue. The other Nikon lenses i had gave consistently good exposures (Matrix metering).  For the 10-20 mm lens, i had to constantly monitor the histogram, change either the exposure program from Matrix to Spot, or apply an exposure compensation manually and re-shoot. In most cases, the Matrix program yielded under exposed images, and the Spot with over exposed.
• I was very relieved to find that all of the chargers supported international voltages (120-250V). All that I used was one local plug converter plugged into an extension cord, to which all of the other changers were plugged into.

Well, thats all i can think of for now. When i do – i will add more to this post.