6 months of traveling Asia / Heavy nerdy packing list
6 months of traveling Asia! wohooo! A dream is coming true.
For those who don´t know me, I am a Nerd when it comes to photography and technology. There is nothing more exciting to me than having free time to spend in nature or crowded cities, hunting with my camera what catches my eyes. As you can imagine I got confronted with a dilemma that probably all long term tourists have. Finding a balance between having with you everything you really need while travelling and reducing the weight as much as possible to avoid back ache.
As you can clearly see I am totally bad at finding this balance ^^
I will try to explain to you why all those things are necessary for me to unfold my creativity on site. Lets start with the most important things from the top left:
I-pad pro: 478g – the perfect screen to fly the mavic pro. Also Anna is using it together with the keyboard to write her Blog. And i love to sketch on it with the I-pencil.
Macbook Pro: 1830g – As I produce tons of photos and also Videos day by day I could not resist to take my Macbook with me to handle all the data. Also I will accept some remote jobs from time to time – f.e. architectural visualisations to keep my wallet bulging.
DSLR Timer: 150g – one really important tool to take long time exposures and timelapse movies.
Spare Iphone: 180g – always good to have – I am good at breaking or loosing my phone.
Actioncam GoPro Hero 6: 118g – I bought it just 2 days before we left. I was sad for not being able to have more than 30 fps with my Canon 5D III, also no 4k and no underwater possibilities. With the Hero6 I got what I wanted with just a bit of weight.
Powerbank Anker PowerCore+ 20100mAh: 581g – This powerbank is quite heavy, but totally worth carrying it around the world. With the USB-C connection it is possible to load even my Macbook Pro.
RAVPower 16W Solar charger: 449g – with this helpful and foldable invention I can load up the Powerbank when I am lost on the beach.
Drone Mavic Pro Platinum: 740g – my favorite toy. Every flight is an adventure, i felt in love with aerial perspectives and smooth tracking shots. Also the remote, 2 spare batteries and 4 packs of spare propellers are packed.
2x Lumecubes: 748g – This little, quite expensive, waterproofed light sources are a new toy to me. I have a mount for the Mavic, so the plan is to use the 3000 lumen to light up a scene while taking a long time exposure with my camera. So excited to paint with light in my photo composition.
Camera Canon 5D III: 945g – I carry this thing around for almost 6 years now. I enjoy this camera a lot. 2 extra Batteries are enough.
Lense Canon 70-200mm 2.8 L: 1450g – This lense is huge and heavy. Not suitable for travellers. But anyway I could never leave this beast at home. It is my favourite lense.
Lense Canon 24-105mm 4.0 L: 670g – This lense is a great allrounder. But I mostly use it for long time exposures during daytime, because I have some nice ND filters which fit on it.
Lense Sigma 20mm Art 1.4: 945g – This lense is quite heavy for its size. But it is just the perfect lense to take photos in dark environments – especially for taking pictures of the milky way – so much looking forward to! 🙂
Extender Canon EF 2x III: 227g – This one was hard to decide. I use it very rarely, but sometimes its just fun to use it. With the 70-200mm I get 400mm, which I imagine to be very useful in regions like the Himalaya.
Tripod Manfrotto Befree: 1400g – When you are into photography you will know how essential this tool is for taking pictures in the dark. Longtime exposure photography is the supreme discipline!
Audio Recorder ZOOM H4nPro: 294g – I realised the importance of high quality sound when cutting videos. As I play around with music a lot these days I planned to record sounds of urbanity and nature to create music with it.
Sensor Leap Motion: 32g – This infrared sensor is a wonder of technology. I already used it in some interactive music and light installations. It lets you control midi signals by hand gestures. I took it with me to program some new synthesizer sounds with it. And maybe… maybe we will find a jungle rave somewhere, where I can spontaneously do a light or music installation. You never know 🙂
Hard drive Samsung SSD T5: 80g – This tiny and robust Solid State Drive is perfect to have enough disk space with you without getting to heavy loaded.
Portable Backpack Matador up beast28: 558g – I got this backpack recommended by a friend – thanks Berno. I really love this tiny backpack as hand luggage or backpack for day trips. It offers enough space for my 15″ Macbook, the drone, one extra lense and provisions. Highly recommended!
Hammock Ticket to the Moon: 600g – One of the most important things for a relaxing holiday. Since many years I am a big fan of this companies hammocks. Sometimes it even helps you out to have a comfortable train ride when the seats are full.
Cable Salat: weight unknown – All the listed equipment is useless without power or the possibility to transfer the data to my Laptop. Nowadays there is tons of different cables. USB, mini/micro-USB, USB-C, Adapters and many more.
Dry bag XXL: 80g – Mostly used to transport dirty, used clothes I bought this bag to be safe when transporting my equipment on little fishing boats.
Cable Salat: weight unknown – All the listed equipment is useless without power or the possibility to transfer the data to my Laptop. Nowadays there is tons of different cables. USB, mini/micro-USB, USB-C, Adapters and many more.
Mosquito Net Ticket to the Moon: 450g – To be totally independent when travelling it is obligatory to have a mosquito net for the hammock. When the only hotel in town is not worth the money, just say goodbye and sleep on the beach 🙂
Of course I know that I am a little crazy to take all this stuff with me. But that´s how I like to travel, packed with everything I need to realise my ideas. Do what you love and the back ache wont hurt too bad.