I don\'t like to carry gear. I have a kit of a variety of 1DmkIV and 5DmkIII bodies and a full complement of L lenses including a 300 f2.8. For pro sports the fast cameras and long lenses are a necessity. But generally speaking I carry only the minimum I\'m going to need, especially when traveling.
In 2005 I shot a story in Vietnam of US vets returning there. We were in country 10 days and I carried only a Nikon D70 with an 18-70 kit lens and two Canon Elph point and shoot cameras. I didn\'t miss my other gear at all. I gave one of the PS cameras to one of the vets because his died. I took a flash and never used it.
A couple of years ago I did a story on the \"air bridge\" to Afghanistan flying supplies from the US to Europe to Afghanistan and back. I carried a 5DmkII with 16-35 and 70-200 and a 30D in the bottom of my ruck carried solely as a backup. I never used the long lens or the 30D. I also had to carry a sat phone and laptop (and clothes, sleeping bag, etc) and seriously considered ditching the 30D overboard halfway through the job just to reduce weight.
I\'m a Canon user now and the go to kit is a 5DmkIII with a 24-105L. If I were doing the Vietnam story again today, I\'d carry only a 5DmkIII with a 24f1.4 and an 85f1.8 and a couple of good PS cameras as backups.
In the days before digital my travel kit was a Leica M with a 50 and 21mm lenses. I miss those days.
LarryK
Apr 12, 2013 at 09:02 PM
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