D70 in africa?

[Wulfman]

hey guys,

you can take this message as an early "good bye". I'll leave europe at the end of february and stay in tanzania for about seven months - working at a malaria research station, doing some fieldwork & stuff (hopefully some travelling). Internet connection won't be that good, so I don't expect that you'll hear much from me during this time.

camera & laptop are going with me, of course - and here it starts. that the d70 can handle cold - been there, done that. I know that there are some camera-bags which should protect against dust or/and have reflective elements (heat - seems a bit pointless to me?). worth looking into?

other equipment:

• UV-filter: check.
• dust removal/ccd cleaing kit: might be worth getting one.
• lenses: same problem as last time - would like to take some tele-lens with me, but space is restricted again. *sigh* well, I might think about it.
• storage: laptop - will replace the old harddisk (20gb) for something bigger and already bought a DVD-burner, that should do the trick. too bad that there are no dvd-ram drives available here.

anything else?
besides that: lots of vaccinations to take carfe of, still undecided on which malaria-prophylaxis to use (lariam, malarone, antibiotics).. etc. fun.

mfg
wulfman

[VJ]

I have a LowePro Dryzone: a backpack that is 100% waterproof and floats... Depending on what you want to do, it can provide a lot of protection.

Nikon has a new lens: an 18-200 VR

http://www.europe-nikon.com/details.aspx?countryid=20&languageid=22&catId=121&prodId=1104

It doesn't have a very larger aperture, but VR can help there; it looks to be quite compact (77 x 96.5 mm, 560 g) and and it isn't very expensive.

A polarizer might be handy at times (but it takes some fiddling and getting use to). Spare battery, CF cards (enough to let you last through the day).

Isn't the Plextor PX-608U available in Austria?


Jörg

[Wulfman]

the polarizer is always with me. batteries - check. the 18-200 - that would be an option. but I have some bad experiences with those superzooms, so I'm not too inclined to buy one. have you already used it? the 180/2,8 might be interesting though.

the plextor is an external unit - and my thinkpad (T23) only offers usb 1.0, which is a bit counterproductive.

thanks for the thoughts,
wulfman

[VJ]

I haven't used it, but it seems to get good comments by dpreview users. The only long zoom I have used is the 80-200 f/2.8, and it is HEAVY and big... Because of that - and its range - it is hard to shoot while handholding it.
The 70-200 f/2.8 VR gets superb comments, but is an expensive and heavy lens. I'm personally looking for something in the 55-150 range with VR...


I don't know if the Panasonic drivers are compatible with the thinkpad, but they have impressive drives in their range (no experience with them though):

http://www.panasonic-industrial.com/servlet/PB/menu/1111566_l2/index.html

They even have announced a blueray slim drive...
(slidirect sells them, again no experience with those guys)


Jörg

[spadnos]

You'll need completely different lenses and filters if you want to shoot in daylight and night time.

Another team of people did a shoot with our camera array in South Africa (on the beach), and the amount of light was incredible. They were using ISO 100 or 200 film, and the "correct" exposure was f22 at 1/2000 second. One of the guys made sunglasses out of two layers of ND6 gel.

I don't have any experience with the 18-200 zoom, but whatever the aperture range, it'll be fine for daylight shots.

- Steve

[KvHagedorn]

Bring back some good pics.. and don't catch what you're studying!

[az]

Keeping in mind what spadnos said, a grey filter might be a good idea for shooting at noon.

[Wulfman]

thanks for the idea with the filter, I'll look into it.

Bring back some good pics.. and don't catch what you're studying!

I'm already getting used to the idea of catching malaria - which will most likely happen sooner or later. it's not really practical to use prophylaxis for an extended time span, so at some point you just let it be and take malarone once the fever sets in.
as suggested by my new boss (!), I'm going to get insured with the "flying doctors", just in case. very comforting, really.

mfg
wulfman

[Wulfman]

finally - I'm leaving in 12 hours. 70-300mm 4,5-5,6 and polarizers in the backpack, no idea where to go after arriving on the airstrip, no understanding whatsoever of swahili... fun.

I might post pictures here, maybe even switch to the english language at some point.

see ya,
wulfman

[Helevitia]

Have fun on your 7 month trip and good luck! Bring back some good pics

[Wulfman]

http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0201599/ifakara/ifakara_aussen.jpg