A bunch of Travel advice needed!

[GoodVendettaPhotography]

My girlfriend and I will be traveling for 6 months this coming spring and here are my questions/concerns:

1. I have a 5d mark iii which I love, but since this is a once in a life time trip, I'm wondering if an upgrade to the 5DSR would be worth it. It'd be nice to come home and blow up huge prints to put on my walls and hopefully host an exhibit of my work around town. Or I guess I could go with the new 5D4. Any thoughts? I'll be doing mostly landscapes.

2. I'm gonna be carrying roughly $15,000 in my bag so is there any kind of world travel insurance that could cover me if my gear was stolen? I'm thinking of buying a tracking device and sewing it somewhere hidden into my bag. I really hate that my big as tripod gives me away.

3. Should I buy some kind of major cloud service so I can just dump everything I take onto their site so I don't have to worry about losing my photos at some point?

any input would be great!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mikehit]

5D3 vs 5D4 vs 5DSR - only you can answer that question, made more difficult at the moment in that the 5D4 has not even been released let alone reviewed in any detail. And it depends on what you mean by 'blow up huge' - you could save a grand or so by stitching panoramas.

My gear is covered on household insurance new-for-old with body and lenses classed as separate items up to 15,000. have you checked your house insurance details?

Regards back-ups, is cloud uploading quick enough when travelling (it depends partly on where you are going) - connections may not always be as fast as you are used to so could be inconvenient. ? If you are taking a laptop with you, then you could write images to jpeg and upload the jpegs to the cloud and keep the cards; and/or use dual card slot and mail one copy home when it is full.
Or laptop plus HDD for back-up?

 

[expatinasia]

1) I would take what you have now rather than buy something new. You know it works, your comfortable with it and this won't be your last trip (hopefully).

2) Where are you travelling? A tracking device sown into a bag will only help you find the bag - I would not bother. You should contact insurance companies where you live and speak to them about insurance and check the small print. I travel a lot and you just have to be careful. My camera hardly ever leaves my body.

3) A cloud service is a great idea. If you were to lose your kit at least that way you have the images stored somewhere. You could also buy an external HD and back up to that too and carry that in a separate bag. And if you wanted to triple back up you could use the cloud, external HD with a few TB and a micro SD card with 128 GB or something.

Sometimes though, it is more important to enjoy the travel moment and let your mind take the pictures rather than worry about angles, etc.

Have a nice trip.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

As to camera, any of the cameras will do what you want. I'd have a second camera along, since cameras do die. It might be a small camera like a M3, but it would do in a emergency.

Homeowners insurance, if you have it, is the first place to check, they may not cover items stolen from a room or car, or lost overboard from a boat, so you need to see if they will increase their coverage.

As for saving images, it seems unlikely that many of your stops will have fast enough internet to upload images. Large SD cards are cheap, just fill two with your images (Duplicates), mail one back home and keep the other with you. A Lexar 128 GB card costs $38. Or use smaller cards and send them home more frequently.

https://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Professional-128GB-Rescue-Software/dp/B012PL6R0S/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1472608014&sr=1-6&keywords=sd+memory+card&refinements=p_n_feature_two_browse-bin%3A13203834011

 

[expatinasia]

As for saving images, it seems unlikely that many of your stops will have fast enough internet to upload images.

How do you know where he is travelling to?

 

[nc0b]

I took a Western Digital Passport Wireless with me to Easter Island since I had no room for a laptop. You insert an SD card into the slot and it automatically copies files from the card to the hard drive. It makes a new directory each time you insert a card. Recommend you experiment with it long before your trip. I always ran it on AC power as I had a problem with it running on its internal battery. Could have been operator error. For a 6 month trip you will want a laptop, but this offers another backup option. There are 1and 2 TB models. I didn't come close to filling the 1 TB model on a 17 day trip. Cannot imagine a 6 month trip!

 

[Mikehit]

I have been looking at these myself recently:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AQUMZRA/ref=s9_simh_gw_g147_i1_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=03EHQTS83FHN00C43CNP&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=6a6cc5dd-a0e9-4c0d-9260-d64d035f3a65&pf_rd_i=desktop

Apparently you can connect wirelessly to a tablet as a controller and copy images from a card to either memory stick or external HDD. Then you can view your images on the tablet. It depends if you want to edit images while you travel.
I have not taken the plunge yet but as our netbook is getting old it is a consideration for the future.

One thing I am uncomfortable with regards the WD drive option is that I can't see the images to know they have downloaded correctly.

 

[tomscott]

Ive just travelled the world for a year.

1. 5DMKIII was awesome, 5DS is great but possibly overkill if you already have the III. You do have to be so careful with them in comparison especially for documentation work and fast paced environments and its worth roughly twice the amount. 5DMKIII will do the trick unless your desperate for a new body.

2. I took 5DMKIII 7DMKII 24-105mm 100-400mm MKII 16-35mm F2.8 MKII 11" MBA 2x4tb hdds and a 1tb SSD which were split in different bags this with a couple of extras weight about 12-15kg as my day pack... then I had a 25-30kg pack for my essentials. It was too heavy on many occasions and I wish I had packed lighter but in the end I used all the equipment in the different continents I was in. My main objective was wildlife, landscape and documentary work. My GF also had a 70D 18-135 a 55-250mm and a go pro hero 4 Black so we had a lot of gear with us.

Analyse your gear and ensure you need every component. My first trip I took a 5DMKIII 24-105 16-35 and 70-300mm L half the weight, half the gear and perfect for 90% except wildlife was really disappointed while in the amazon so decided to go bigger this time and with a crop camera which worked wonders!!! 7DMKII was a brilliant camera for the wildlife aspect.

First trip I took a 128gb iPad Mini 2 and a UDMA colorspace image loader which worked brilliantly, had an extra 2tb which i moved the raws from the UDMA when I had a computer to use double backup. Shot jpg to the SD and raw to the CF and transferred the jpg to the iPad and raw to the UDMA and used PS express to edit them o the iPad and it was great! But i had some issue with the colour of the iPad, edits looked great on screen but when posting on here they looked way more saturated to the forum which I was told about big time lol! Also struggled with the file system everything just goes in the photos app so hard to organise.

This time I found the laptop was amazing but I traveled 15000km in an offload truck across africa and the laptop just wasn't strong enough the screen hinge gave way because of the bumps and the dust basically destroyed the screen. Managed to get it all fixed under warranty but i went to some incredibly hostile places like incredibly dry deserts and rainforests and your gear has to survive. The cameras were great and the iPad was bulletproof, now with Lightroom supporting Raw it could be a useful tool. But at the time just jpgs then I had to edit the raw again at home for better results.

I have insurance as a wedding photographer anyway but to add £5000 of worldwide cover with my home cover and £5m liability insurance it was £400 itemised but obviously the above was worth more than £5k its expensive so take what you need not everything. $15k sounds like you asking for trouble especially if your main concern is landscape. Also most worldwide cover won't let you have more than 3 months at a time. But there is a stipulation that its 3 months as you arrive into a new country.

Be street smart and you will be ok a big tripod is a big look at me sign... I took a SLR gorilla pod and it was fantastic, shot milky way etc had no issues the only problem is its a compromise but everything to do with travel it.

Also with a GPS receiver what you going to do go into the heart of gangland and get your gear back...? got to be realistic. Outside the US and the EU the police won't really care less and the police are usually involved in organised crime. While in bolivia at a train station a police officer came over to my group and we were all stood around the bags he asked to see our tickets and someone came in and stole a bag. The police wouldn't help and wouldn't let us see the CCTV so that was the end of that. Also if you have anything stolen you have to have a police report for insurance purposes. My girlfriend had her phone stolen in Kenya, we had to bribe the police to take us to the correct police station, fill out the correct paper work and stamp it. The cost was roughly 5x their yearly salary.

Be street smart and you will be fine.

3. Depending on where you are no chance with internet speeds. My 2 months across africa I got wifi 2-3 times that was usable. Even my 3 months across the US the hotel wifi wasn't fast enough even through you had to pay for it in 99% of the places. If you can get more than 1gb per night you would be lucky. I was shooting maybe 16-32gbs per day and cloud services are just useless. Get 2 hard drives of the same size say 4tb and duplicate them everyday. Then store them in separate bags.

Think carefully about your bag selection. I got the 16kg day bag on every flight as a day bag simply because it looked like a day bag. You also need a bag that is not only a camera bag but also able to take your daily essentials. I ended up with an F Stop Loka UL, you can put different sized camera sections in. I put a large on in and still had about 1/4 of the bag for storage and it took my laptop comfortably in it. Super lightweight at under 1kg which is impossibly rare for bags with a metal structure. With both bags it was still a struggle to carry both. It also has an opening only at the rear and is a self contained bag so I used Carabiners to strap the interior bag into the metal structure of the bag so if anyone did cut the exterior then they wouldnt be able to pull it out anyway. It kept my gear safe and i had no issues except the top compartment does not have its own separate section so things fall down the side of the ICU. My previous lowepro bag had a separate velcro section which was great but it only had room for one camera and 2 lenses.

There is a lot to think about and it took me a good 2-3 months and a 5 months trip previously and still got aspects wrong but its hard with so many shooting opportunities!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get your visa applications sorted. We had an absolute nightmare with some of ours each country is different and some are worse than others. Indonesia for example as a UK resident we get 2 months free, but i stayed for 10 weeks. The first leg of the trip was africa for 3 months so we got into with the embassy and said can we send the passports and get a visa dated for XYZ they said ye ye send it down so sent the passports to London which is an 800 mile round trip for us and they sent it back with the date dated as it arrived back so it was 3 months out of date by the time we got there and cost £100. Anyway rang they were having non of it, had to get a visa dated within a 3 month period which we couldn't do. So we went to africa had no issues then traveled SE asia no problem. Turns out the law had changed in the time between home and arriving in Indo. We got to indo had to pay for a tourist visa on the door for 2 months when we get that as a part of our nationality... then we had to at some point get a visa booster which allowed us to be there for the extra 2 weeks. The process takes 3 days and pretty much means your in the office for 3 days I was on a trip so I didn't have 3 spare days so we had to pay an exit fine. Ended up paying £100 for the original visa non refundable, $70 for the 2 month visa on the door then we had to pay a $250 fine on exit each so for me and my girlfriend it cost nearly $1000 dollars for absolutely no reason. Please be careful and ensure you know all the ins and outs before you travel!!!

Pics removed

Cheers Tom

 

[Mikehit]

Great post, Tom.
One thing I loved about travelling was problem-solving on the hoof even if at the time it is a pain in the neck, and yours has got my appetite whetted again...damn you.... ;D

 

[lion rock]

Seeing the world is wonderful!
Tom, your photos are great.
GoodVendettaPhotography, hope your visits/travel will be exceptional.
My own New Zealand visit this December may be cancelled :'( because of family visit.
-r

edit:
When I visited Scotland last May for 2 weeks, I brought a number of CF and SD cards for my 5D3 and 7D2 and just stored the full cards away and use new ones when full. In the evening, I review the .jpg files on the SD cards on my iPAD for quality. There were over 4 32g and 64g CF cards fill of raw images for the 2 weeks.

 

[sootzzs]

Wow! Great advice and photos, Tom.

I guess the best advice for such a long trip is think carefully of what gear you might need according to where you travel to. You don't need 150-600mm lens if you'll be photographing 90% of the time landscapes.

Of course you can never predict 100% what gear you'll need at specific timepoint, but if you do a lot of trekking (as I've learned the hard way on my trip to Nepal few years ago) it better be covered for 80-90% of cases but enjoy the trip, than 100% covered but cursing every step you take up the mountain and not really wanting anything but a bit of rest.

Tom, I actually wonder how do you post process such a huge amount of photos only at the end of a trip. It seems to me that it will take another year (if not more) and a lot of sleepless nights. I had a 3 weeks trip to Scotland last year and still have some unprocessed photos I can't find time for. Bringing an average (not too expensive) laptop and do as much post as possible during the rest periods on the trip seem like the most logical solution for me. Even if you risk to trash the laptop by the end of the trip.

Cheers and have a great trip!

 

[chauncey]

Gee Whiz Tom, those are great images...too bad your ego felt the need to show them on someone else's thread

 

[Loswr]

Gee Whiz Tom, those are great images...too bad your ego felt the need to show them on someone else's thread

+1, a link to a gallery or even another thread would have been appropriate. One or two images would have been fine. Bombarding the thread, not so much.

 

[tomscott]

Classic CR here we go..

Especially Neuro you need to sort yourself out you've become such a miserable poster instead of the great advice you used to give. Bores me to death the constant sarcastic negativity you portray. Very rarely I post because you chirp up and add your sarcastic manner to every post I make.

Sorry posting images upsets you guys... Its a photographic forum and its a travel thread and wanted to get the OP excited about his trip and maybe some inspiration. Wish someone had done that for me when I was about to head out into the world on a trip of discovery. Instead I got nothing but negativity.

 

[sootzzs]

Classic CR here we go..

Especially Neuro you need to sort yourself out you've become such a miserable poster instead of the great advice you used to give. Bores me to death the constant sarcastic negativity you portray. Very rarely I post because you chirp up and add your sarcastic manner to every post I make.

Sorry posting images upsets you guys... Its a photographic forum and its a travel thread and wanted to get the OP excited about his trip and maybe some inspiration. Wish someone had done that for me when I was about to head out into the world on a trip of discovery. Instead I got nothing but negativity.

I have the feeling that the original poster would prefer people who spend their time in writing sound, detailed advice, even if he doesn't feel comfortable with their photos on his thread, than just an empty, useless sarcasm.

I would, at least.

 

[tomscott]

Photos removed.

 

[Loswr]

Especially Neuro you need to sort yourself out you've become such a miserable poster instead of the great advice you used to give. Bores me to death the constant sarcastic negativity you portray. Very rarely I post because you chirp up and add your sarcastic manner to every post I make.

Sorry you feel that way, but I'm sorted just fine. Thanks for expending one of your rare posts replying to mine.

Photos removed.

Do please put a link to the images if possible, they were great it just seemed to be overkill.

 

[Mikehit]

I have the feeling that the original poster would prefer people who spend their time in writing sound, detailed advice, even if he doesn't feel comfortable with their photos on his thread, than just an empty, useless sarcasm.

I would, at least.

Well...speak on behalf of the OP (who I am sure is perfectly capable of making their own mind on this matter) about the unacceptability of posting photos and then accuse someone else of empty sarcasm. Instead of one post you find unacceptable there is now a diversion about forum ettiquete (and yes, I do realise the irony of saying that while adding my own post on the matter, so I will leave it there).

 

[sootzzs]

I have the feeling that the original poster would prefer people who spend their time in writing sound, detailed advice, even if he doesn't feel comfortable with their photos on his thread, than just an empty, useless sarcasm.

I would, at least.

Well...speak on behalf of the OP (who I am sure is perfectly capable of making their own mind on this matter) about the unacceptability of posting photos and then accuse someone else of empty sarcasm. Instead of one post you find unacceptable there is now a diversion about forum ettiquete (and yes, I do realise the irony of saying that while adding my own post on the matter, so I will leave it there).

Fair enough. It just maddened me to see someone spending their time on giving a thorough, helpful advice, being bashed for no apparent reason. Opinions may (should) differ of course.