I became interested in Photography during the mid-nineties, and after a few years of 'happy snapping' ended up studying photography in Germany and England. For me, this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, hence I carry a fair amount of equipment with me.
I bought all of my current camera-gear during the planning-stage for this trip. Image quality, camera/lens dimensions and lens-versatility were all equally important to me. In 2005 (at a time Canon was the only brand to offer full-frame digital SLRs), I bought a Canon 5D kit. The rest of the gear followed bit by bit, and I'm now fairly happy with the current set-up.
Trip-Update: 50000km on these so-called "roads", all(!) the screws on the bottom of the camera have vibrated out. Not a major drama & a quick fix with gaffa tape. But if I had to do it again, I'd put some low-level LocTite onto the screws.
Strong-point for the camera: the focus is still perfectly fine – no front or back-focusing.
Every now & then I check for camera dust and if necessary I'll wet-clean the sensor with a Sensor Swab. Would be interesting to see how the new self-cleaning sensors deal with motorcycle travelling.
- Camera
- Standard Lens
- Wide-Angle Lens
- Tele-Lens
- Flash Equipment
- Miscellaneous
Canon 5D
Full-frame digital SLR, good for night-time shots & long-time exposures (low noise level), and in conjunction with my Sigma 12-24 lens it goes REALLY wide-angle.
So far, I've had no problems with the camera.
Canon IS f4/24-105L
Great walk-around lens. It's just that extra-bit wide-angle & tele than a 28-70. It's image-stabilized, and most wide-angle shots at 1/6 of a second are pin-sharp. Good for those 'blue hour' shots in the cities with lines of car lights. I've never missed a wider opening (f2.8): at f4, 105mm gives enough shallow depth-of-field for portraits. (If I had unlimited space in the bag and enough cash, I'd add an f1.2/85 though ;).
Sigma f3.5-4.5/12-24
The image circle big enough for full-frame cameras. Not a great lens, but results are useable - and that's what counts. In hindsight, a Canon 16-35 would have been the better option for image quality – then again, I sometimes use the 12mm setting.
During a fall from the bike, the lens was inside the aluminium panniers – next day, the focus was out. Had it repaired in a local shop in Nepal within 3 days ($40). Every since then, I keep all the gear in the tank-bag.
Canon IS f4.5-5.6/75-300L DO (Diffractive Optics)
Lots of other options in this area (2.8/70-200 for example). In the end I went fot the 75-300, because it's smaller than the 'big white' lenses (pack-size is important inside a tank-bag) and it draws less attention.
There's a few 'amateur' 75-300 lenses around, but the DO-lens focusses a lot faster (an advantage for the odd wildlife-shots). Wide-open, the image quality can be a bit soft around high-contrast areas (because of the 'diffractive optics' design), but 1/2 stop stopped down, it's good.
I also carry a 1.4x (very small but practical item).
The only annoying thing about the 5D (and some other 'semi-pro' cameras from Nikon & Canon): it doesn't have a built-in flash-gun.
So I have to carry a Canon Speedlight with me. And whilst it's such a small item, also a wireless flash-transmitter (Canon ST-E2), so I can use the flash-gun off-camera. (If you wonder why one would to do that, check out the Strobist website/blog). Plus: a collapsible semi-translucent reflector (fits snug like a glove in the bottom of the tank-bag & also provides some extra cushioning for the camera), and a magic-arm attached to the bike's frame (after some off-roading, it really looks part of the bike, but it still works)
The wireless flash-transmitter has been particularly useful for some portraits we did with our host-family in Iran (here's a picture of Bahram & me and another one of Bahram posing for the camera). Very basic setup: my travel-partner was holding the flash-gun about 40cm away from the reflector (firing the flash through the reflector & angled about 25-30º to the models).
Canon Powershot G9
shoots RAW format & works with the ST-E2; little bonus here: the camera can do time-lapse videos by taking a picture every 1 or 2 seconds. A few times, I've attached it to the bike's handle-bars (via a RAM-Mount) & the resulting videos are quite fun to watch (depending on road conditions a good amount of camera-shake "adventure" ;)
Memory Cards & Spare Batteries
Careful with those cheap 'SanDisk' cards from eBay – most of them are fake! Read-write errors, slow transfer speeds,... really not worth it.
Camera-chargers (the one for the 5D is from SterlingTek & allows charging from the 12v bike-output)
Polarizer Filter
Angle-Finder
Perfect for motorbiking & reasonably cheap (yet rare) on e-bay. I can use the camerw without taking the helmet off, and it helps the compositions I think. Looks a bit weird, but good for quick road-side shots. Maybe time to get a new camera with 'live view'...
All the camera gear apart from the flash-gun is carryied inside the tang-bag. The BMW F650 is a single-cylinder motorcycle, and like all 'thumpers' produces a fair amount of vibration (mostly at the rear of the bike, hence a top-case is out of question for me).
The tank-bag provides quick access without having to get off the bike or doing my back in. But what's more important on a long trip like this: The tank-bag receives the least vibrations.
The tank-bag is not completely water-proof. So I've customized it a little: I used an old sleeping-mat and some silicone-glue (builders market) to make up a water-proof 'inner lining' for the tank-bag, about 1/2cm thick. For some extra cushioning, I added a layer of foam (2cm, old peli-case). Camera & lenses are inside another individual bag/lens pouch each.
On the back of the bike, I've carry a waterproof Ortlieb-bag with my clothes. The strap of that bag attaches to the tank-bag. For longer walks, the tankbag can be used as a back-pack.
Possi's solution: He took a Lowepro camera-backpack and converted into a tank-bag by fitting the right zipper. That said, I'm fairly happy with my big 'Touratech' tank-bag, because it's more flexible & has a map-holder.