Great post! We don't use all of this, but have a similar list. We are a 3 laptop family, 3 years into our open ended world tour. We do lots of videos so like to have a video camera with us as well and we are fans of Canon ( all 3 of our cameras). We often go off for months at a time with just a daypack each and that includes at least one laptop, cameras and homeschool supplies! We love the Targus backpack and ofen carry 2 laptops and all photo gear in it. It has gotten tons of use from the Sahara to Norway fjord country and one of our best purchases. With a kidlet the refrigerated zipper pocket is a bonus for keeping healthy snacks cool for our picnics. We have a mac pro and a macbook which we use most, but also glad we have a PC vaio laptop as sometimes it is handy to have a PC for various reasons ( plus most of kidlets educational CD's don't have mac version).

Great list. We use similar equipment to what you mentioned above except we are Canon Fans ourselves. A good addition can also be a 2X tele-converter for your long lens. We like our Lowepro camera bag (a backpack that also carries our Macbook Pro) We have a Canon HD video camera as well. So, like you, we love our gear! Cheers. Deb and Dave

Epson has a fantastic “Multimedia Photo Viewer” that’s basically a hard-drive with a screen and a card reader for the most common memory cards. I’ve had mine for 5 years now and it’s been all over north america as well as a bit of central and so far it keeps truckin. It’s an alternative to a laptop and easier space-wise too.

And crumpler bags are awesome!

Hi Audrey, thanks for sharing the tips. I wonder though, do you carry a tripod?

Adri, we do carry a monopod, but do not carry a tripod. We did carry a small tripod at the very beginning of the trip, but found we didn’t use it much so we dropped it. When we started doing spherical panoramas, we picked up a monopod that is pretty light and easy to pack in the bag.

Hope this info helps!

Aw, c’mon. HCB used a lot less, and his method is still viable (refer to Salgado).
So, a Leica 3f with a collapsible 50 mm Summicron in one coat pocket and film in the other. A lightmeter if you can’t eyeball it.
Ça suffit!

That Epson device is neat but a bit overpriced, with roughly that amount of money you can get a netbook, which is slightly bigger and has more features

I’ve been lugging a Canon 500d and Tokina 11-16mm around on a couple of long distance hikes, but now i’m looking to optimize space and weight with a micro 4/3rds based system.

Sensor size is a lot closet to a slr than on a compact camera, and you have enough controls to shoot hdr, and panoramic shots. I can also get a good ultra wide zoom, and I see that panasonic has a fish-eye on the roadmap.

I think now’s the time to downsize. Thoughts?

I just returned from two months in Turkey and Central Europe and had a setup similar to Audrey’s. I packed a D700, a few lenses ( a ‘walk around’ 24-120mm, a great 17-35mm, a longer 70-300mm, a backup 35-70mm, and a 50mm with and extension tube for macro). I also carried a Gitzo carbon-fiber tripod with a Manfrotto hydrostatic head. I only used it twice in the two months, but cheaper, lighter ones won’t support a pro or pro-consumer DSLR (don’t even consider them!). I added a few smaller items: a polarizer, a shutter release, many CF cards, an extra card reader, and two spare batteries.

I also brought a small Sony Vaio, two 1/2 TB Iomega drives (you need two – ‘one is none,’ as they say) that easily held my 6,500 photos (a jpeg and raw image for each) . I also burned two sets of DVDs from time to time, and sent one home. My bag is a two-piece LowePro (padded case on the bottom, day bag on top) with the branding cut off.

It was a bit much, but I wouldn’t have carried less. Small point and shoots don’t hack it if you’re serious, nor does a single or no (!) backup of your photos.

A hefty list indeed, thank god you aren’t carrying video equipment TOO . . . as I do My list: Nikon d90, four lenses; Sony HDR FX-1 video camera, with beefy video tripod; Canon G12 point and shoot – over 10mp; Hero Helmet Cam; Zoom sound recorder = Total Coverage

Granted I don’t (and can’t:) move much, but I find that once all is said and done, when I’m back home, editing stills and film, I forget all about the load.