Good luck!

I no longer use the 10D, but I still have the Tamron lens and will sell it. If you’re interested in a used lens (in excellent shape) at a very good price. Contact me through my web site.

Brent

Bring an extra battery, perhaps even two, for everything that needs one. Bring a world adapter for your charger’s plug too.

Bring lots of memory cards if you can. Because …

I used a memory card backup device with a display on it to avoid having to bring a laptop and it worked great but I wanted to be extra safe so, as much as possible, I also left images on the memory cards so I’d have two copies.

As far as RAW vs JPEG it is not an easy decision. I came back with just over 2,000 images and I don’t have a ton of time to spend working on them. It took me months just to whittle them down to 600 keepers. I shot JPEG. If I had to process every image after I got home I’d still be trying to find time to get started. That’s me though. You may be a more conservative shooter, a professional that needs maximum accuracy and flexibility or someone that has time and likes to use it processing images. On shorter trips I set the camera to shoot both and use the RAW files for any images that didn’t come out right otherwise.

Weight matters. This is especially true for lenses as glass is heavy. Quality also matters. I’d carry a reasonable wide to tele zoom but also bring at least one fast lens for indoors, night, etc. Otherwise you find yourself cranking up the ISO to the point of lots of visible noise and / or trying to handhold at speeds you can’t.

Depending on how much you’ll be moving (packing, unpacking, lugging stuff around) a tripod may or may not be practical both because of weight and size/shape. Bring one if you can. Go with carbon fiber if you can afford to. Don’t bring it if you already know you won’t use it. I use a carbon fiber mono pod when I know a full tripod just isn’t going to work for me. If neither is going to work, then go for an Image Stabilized lens at least.

I like to stop into a gift shop and have a look at the postcard selection when I get to a new place. This gives me both ideas of the “classic” shots of a given area but also gets me thinking about other ways I might represent something so it doesn’t look like everyone else’s photos. Get a shot like the postcard and then look for the shot not at all like it.

I also carried a small Canon point and shoot in a simple belt pouch for times when the SLR was too much to carry or too attractive to thieves. Took less than 10% of the shots on this camera but there are shots I would not have gotten at all. It was also a pretty lightweight way to have a backup in case of DSLR failure far from repair facilities or even stores to buy a replacement.

I agree with everyone that has said ditch the branded camera strap. Regardless of the “hey, come steal my camera or worse” factor, they just aren’t that comfortable in most cases. Get a good comfortable strap in basic black without flashy lettering. I favor the neoprene type straps that give a little but some prefer something with less stretch.

I love the comment by the person that shot 3,000 images in RAW on their honeymoon and had time to put them on the laptop, convert and keyword them everyday. My marriage might not have lasted any longer than the honeymoon if I did that. Did you marry another photographer?

As others have said, most of all have a great trip. It isn’t good to get home after something like this and realize you didn’t see enough of it without a camera between your eye and what you were there to experience.

On the plus side, an iPod is smaller and lighter than a laptop and even most other dedicated backup devices. There are some minuses too, though. First, iPods currently top out at 160GB. On a six-month trip, that might not be enough. Second, you need a fairly high-tech environment to offload your pictures and burn them to long-term storage: until then, you have a lot of eggs in your stealable, breakable and losable basket. Third, the transfer eats battery power on both the iPod and the camera. At a rough guess, my iPod can transfer about 2-3G of pictures per charge. You can spare your camera’s battery by using a card reader instead of a USB cable, but not all card readers work with the camera connector. So you will have to plan to be ‘on the grid’ every few days.

If you have the space and strength to carry a laptop with a DVD burner and a stack of blank disks, take one. You can use an iPod or a similar backup device as interim storage on side trips when you have to travel light, then offload when you get back to your local base.

In many places, particularly where there’s a big backpacker scene, cybercafes and camera shops will burn photos from memory card to CD or DVD for you. This can get pricey, especially with big memory cards, but if you don’t have a laptop, it’s a good option. If you can make two copies and mail one home when you reach somewhere with a reliable postal service, do it.

Take extra batteries, take extra memory cards, take a compact digital as a backup for when someone steals your DSLR or just for times when you don’t want to haul your main camera around. Take a cleaning kit, UV filters to protect your lens from damage, and a fallback lens.

Finally, take notes if you can so you can remember where and what you were shooting, and always take the extra shot: you won’t be back that way again.

Regarding Storage: A Laptop with a CD/DVD burner would serve you well. I would ship your burned discs to a storage PO Box or to a friend Stateside for safekeeping. Depending on how Mission Critical your photographs are you might want to ship via several different carriers and to several different destinations for storage. Keep a copy with you if you wish but ship a copy too. You could also go to a cyber cafe and upload your images to reliable on-line storage.

Regarding Equipment: Depending on how “once-in-a-lifetime” your trip is you need redundancy on your side. Cameras are electro/mechanical beasts. Things can and do go wrong. It is best to expect failure and plan for it. Do not let it take you by surprise. The last thing you want is to be thousands of miles from home on the trip of a lifetime, the likes of which you will likely not see again and have equipment failure. Bring backup cameras, batteries, storage cards and lenses.

Your DSLR (and computer if you bring one) require batteries. Bring a large supply. If rechargeable, bring at least four. If you have a charger don’t forget adaptors and transformers to match the country’s power and outlets wherever you will be going.

Finally: Have a great trip!!

Fiat Lux,

Bilka

Bring a PC formatted drive (if not lots of them), not Mac, back up to that and if you ever come across a internet café you can pay to have CD/DVDs burnt you can post home. Shooting RAW and trying to upload could be difficult.

Multiple copies, quick cataloguing and most open formats. You can spend the next 6 months sorting and correcting your photos and throw away the backups once your home.