Two week backpacking you have some real issues: Weight, Bulk, Battery Life, or Film carrying
If battery life is not an issue - Olympus Pen EP1 with a small wide angle
If film carrying is not an issue - 35 mm Olympus wide E
I will say that every extra ounce after a few hours sucks.
My absolute favorite right now is my Polaroid Land 210 with plenty of polacolor/fujifilm. Would love to get a macro adapter for it. The Nikon could stay at home.
@phillyphotos@grizzlysghost Agree with these two. Two weeks and every ounce counts. Battery life taken into consideration there are some good lightweight solar chargers too for phones. I'd love to have my dSLR with me but I would not love to carry it. So maybe put it in my wife and kid's packs along with the extra lenses. ;)
@aprilmilani As a backpacker myself, I wouldn't think about bringing my dslr kit out. Weight, weight, weight. I'd take our nice little canon P&S. I'd probably end up throwing my heavy kit in the lake by day 2. :)
Now if someone wanted to sherpa my gear, definitely my Simga 10-20 wide angle and my light little 35er. I'd leave my 70-200 beast at home.
I took my D300 with battery grip and 80-400 and 18-105 kit lens and 12-24 on a trip to the boundary waters in N. Minnesota. Most of our time was on lakes in canoe with some hiking. That was way too much.
Depending on your trip a P&S is probably your best choice but I would leave behind an extra shirt or two to be able to bring my DSLR w/ 1 lens and waterproof/water tight bag.
I have to say, I feel like I'm betraying my Nikon but when room is short, I just take my little point and shoot Olympus, and of course Im never without my iphone :) Have fun and we cant wait to see your pictures!
@archaeofrog LOL. You have a Cabin T1i and Rangoon 18-270 mm? I assume this is some kind of voice to text equivalent of a Canon T1i and Tamron 18-270 mm. :-D
Since it was backpacking, I would take my Panasonic Lumix LX-3 as it is very well made and tough, has a wonderful Leica lens and is light and compact. Much better IQ than a p&s, much smaller than even the smallest DSLR.
I do that basically every time I travel... one camera, one lens. The body would be a canon 5d and the lens would be either a 24-105mm or a 100mm macro (amazing what you can do with that lens).
If it wasn't backpacking or the like it would be easy; city - Nikon D800 and Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 VC, rural Nikon d800 and Nikon 70-200 VR. A second lens with those would be the one of those I didn't have already.
But backpacking, means I have to carry it all day so weight is an issue. Again I would go with the Nikon D800 and the 24-70. The 70-200 would be half a kilo too far. I would miss the iq and fexibility of the D800 not too take that. It has the added advantage of excellent battery life (>1000 shots) if you don't chimp too much and be careful with live view and flash. I have a few spare batteries as well so as not to need a solar charger if I aim for a max of about 600 shots per day ( I do quite a bit HDR so the shot count mounts up quick)
The weight I save by not taking the 70-200 would be sacrificed to contribute towards taking a lightweight tripod.
If it wasn't backpacking, it would be the Nikon D700, 24-70mm 2.8 lens, one extra battery, 1 extra card. But, backpacking? No access to power? Guess it would be the Olympus E-PL1, one wide to tele zoom, 1 extra battery, 1 extra card.
@emsabh we are like photo twins. @fueast just be careful not to drop it, I have to replace the kit lens now. @mdfphoto I would contemplate not bringing a hair brush, let alone a dslr. @grizzlysghost oh, yeah, the emergency phone would have a camera on it, but all the panos would kill my battery.
If weight was not an issue I would take my 60D and 18-200 lens. I did this in late 2011 when I did a high altitude trek in the Himalayas. I carried a small kit of tripod, DSLR, 50mm and 18-55. The kit got fairly heavy on my back pretty soon. Was lucky that we were traveling with ponies so the kit got bundled on one pretty quickly. The camera also got heavy around my neck often enough. Having said that not sure if I would want to travel with a p&s. I would want to a camera what I had fairly good control over, even if it was a lighter mirrorless Canon M or Olympus Pen
I would want to take my Canon Rebel xs and the 18 to 55 lens but because of the weight issues of backpacking, I guess I would just take my Nikon point and shoot camera.
@abhijit I agree about using a neckstrap for long periods of time. Something like a BlackRapid classic strap (or some DIY variation) distributes the weight better but may not work the best while carrying a backpack.
Well, back in '99 I spent two weeks backpacking in ANWR. (That's the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska, USA.) That was in my film days, so I took 100 rolls of 36 exposure ISO 200 film, my Canon 1N body, a 24-70mm lens, and a 170-500mm lens, and 5 Canon lithium batteries for the 1N. The entire kit weighed a ton, but it was a once in a lifetime trip.
@4umfreak mine is broken... it IS the good one.. my favoritist go-to lens... from what i have read on line it is fixable, but not sure how much it will cost and haven't had time today to call to find out...
Go light or you'll regret it. Something small like your phone or like a Coolpix that has a bit of a zoom plus you can do videos. Can you get a solar charger? Oh and a good case for it and a small flexible tripod.
My son walked the AT from Georgia to Maine and used throw away cameras that he sent to a friend of his to get developed and then the kid put his pics into his journal. Worked great.
I would take a Nikon 7100 (the absolute greatest cropped sensor camera on the market today) and the Sigma DC 18-250.
I don't have either, having a 5100 and a Tamron 18-270 for my general purpose shoot anything lens. Which are adequate, especially the camera, but the lens needs quite a bit of Photoshop sharpening and lens distortion removal at the ends of the zoom range and the widest apertures allowed. The Nikon "super general purpose zooms" are just too heavy to carry for 2 weeks. As for the APS-C choice for the camera, there are just way more choices for a multi-purpose zoom than for a full frame camera. which makes sense actually. The multipurpose super zooms are really not a professional's tool, although the Sigma does really do a great job even for enthusiastic amateurs.
I would take my OM-D EM-5 for weight and weather sealing, as well as my Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 for it's rugged build as well as speed. It's a nice balance between weight, weather sealing and speed for dealing with low light conditions, all the things you worry about while backpacking :)
A difficult question, because I never just take one, and will you have the capacity to recharge batteries if it is digital. If taking digital I would take PEN and 9-18mm ultra wide. Otherwise I would take Olympus OM-1 with 50mm prime lens and sneak in the 28mm in pocket. I would probably take a small point and shoot such ad the XA-2 or Lomo LC-A. In a couple of weeks I am going trekking in Utah and plan to carry a large format camera plus lenses and film as well as 35mm cameras, and maybe a medium format. The llamas will be carrying our other gear!
@aprilmilani Yosemite can be tough hiking in the back country. You will appreciate one camera and a wide angle though. Also you can rent a camera and lens from borrowlenses and they have pick up locations in California (I picked up in SF last time)
@cameronknowlton@phillyphotos I have until Sept to hash all of this out. We are doing a few other trails before this so I can see what works and what doesnt. So keep the ideas coming please...And Thank you=)
@aprilmilani I hiked there and Sequoia a few years back and being from the east coast we have almost no altitude so even being in hiking shape it was still a bit of an ass kicker for me. I will say be careful, on waterfall trails, stay away from the edges because they give.
Take an Olympus PEN or a olympus OM-D with 12-60, or 14-15Omm lens. These are small, compact and lightweight. The OM-D with 12-60 is fully waterproof. By using these kinds of cameras it then enables me to take and enjoy film cameras that are also not heavy. Don't forget thirty six shots on a roll of decent slide film can be hard to surpass when your digital batteries run out. I have trekking packs by Kata for this purpose. The tendency with digital is to overshoot anyway. I am with @phillyphotos on the importance of acclimatizing. Altitude sickness can be a real drag.
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If battery life is not an issue - Olympus Pen EP1 with a small wide angle
If film carrying is not an issue - 35 mm Olympus wide E
I will say that every extra ounce after a few hours sucks.
My absolute favorite right now is my Polaroid Land 210 with plenty of polacolor/fujifilm. Would love to get a macro adapter for it. The Nikon could stay at home.
Now if someone wanted to sherpa my gear, definitely my Simga 10-20 wide angle and my light little 35er. I'd leave my 70-200 beast at home.
I took my D300 with battery grip and 80-400 and 18-105 kit lens and 12-24 on a trip to the boundary waters in N. Minnesota. Most of our time was on lakes in canoe with some hiking. That was way too much.
Depending on your trip a P&S is probably your best choice but I would leave behind an extra shirt or two to be able to bring my DSLR w/ 1 lens and waterproof/water tight bag.
cries
Compact: Sony RX100. Smaller, lighter and almost as versatile.
But backpacking, means I have to carry it all day so weight is an issue. Again I would go with the Nikon D800 and the 24-70. The 70-200 would be half a kilo too far. I would miss the iq and fexibility of the D800 not too take that. It has the added advantage of excellent battery life (>1000 shots) if you don't chimp too much and be careful with live view and flash. I have a few spare batteries as well so as not to need a solar charger if I aim for a max of about 600 shots per day ( I do quite a bit HDR so the shot count mounts up quick)
The weight I save by not taking the 70-200 would be sacrificed to contribute towards taking a lightweight tripod.
@fueast just be careful not to drop it, I have to replace the kit lens now. @mdfphoto I would contemplate not bringing a hair brush, let alone a dslr.
@grizzlysghost oh, yeah, the emergency phone would have a camera on it, but all the panos would kill my battery.
My son walked the AT from Georgia to Maine and used throw away cameras that he sent to a friend of his to get developed and then the kid put his pics into his journal. Worked great.
If you dont care that much then just take your smart phone.
Me I couldnt just take a smart phone... It would have to be a DSLR with something like 70-200.
I don't have either, having a 5100 and a Tamron 18-270 for my general purpose shoot anything lens. Which are adequate, especially the camera, but the lens needs quite a bit of Photoshop sharpening and lens distortion removal at the ends of the zoom range and the widest apertures allowed. The Nikon "super general purpose zooms" are just too heavy to carry for 2 weeks. As for the APS-C choice for the camera, there are just way more choices for a multi-purpose zoom than for a full frame camera. which makes sense actually. The multipurpose super zooms are really not a professional's tool, although the Sigma does really do a great job even for enthusiastic amateurs.
;)
We are planning to packpack through Yosemite. Im not one to carry just one camera or lens. This is a once in a life time hike. Im so torn on what to bring. Thank you all have giving me great info. I want to take it all. Weight is a huge factor. I dont think I could just do a point and shoot or iphone. @peterdegraaff I wish I could have a llama. That would change everything=). Im still very open on ideas.
leave the film at home... cannisters are bulk, film cameras are unreliable, and shots are lost. embrace your inner Rebel.
And extra batteries! And memory cards!