knowledege is power?

gear

i'll be spending 6 weeks in malawi, away from home, i won't have access to electronics stores or repair shops, electricty will be available often, but not always, i won't be able to have stuff shipped to me. i won't have single base of operations and will move around a lot. basically i'll have only what i can take with me the day i leave, if something breaks it stays broken untill i get back.

main camera

nikon d700: basically a d3 in a d300 body (has auto sensor cleaner, doesn't have 11 fps, 95% view finder instead of the d3's 100%, has only one compact flash slot)
sigma 24mm f/1.4 EX DG ASPCHERICAL: wide angle fast lens. a little soft at 1.8 (but certainly good enough for a3 prints), slight back focusing which the d700's AF fine tune fixed (+19).
nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED: wonderful wide/normal zoom. heavy and expensive but built like a tank, excellent image quality, constant aperture.
manfrotto tripod + gitzo head: light weight and robust.
3 x EN-EL3A: batteries, what do i need to say?

how about the MB-D10? pros: it'll double the battery power of the camera (but not any more than just walking around with a second battery in my pocket); it'll allow the use of AA rechargables (which i'm carrying anyway for the strobes) or the more powerful en-el4a. cons: €200 for the grip and €100 for the en-el4a.

i'm contemplating taking a Nikkor 17-35mm 2.8D, but with the 24mm 1.8 and the 24-70mm 2.8 i'm not convinced i need an extra lens just to get the 17mm-24mm range (as cool as that would be). did i mention it costs €1500?

backup camera

nikon d200: wonderful camera. too bad the d700's high iso is so much better.
sigma 30mm f/1.4: really sharp, fast, normal (on a DX sensor), built like a tank (weighs about as much too).
nikkor 18-200 vrII: don't really plan on using it, but i have it so i might as well take it. besides, i gotta have at least one tele zoom don't i?

storage

8 x san disk extreme 4gb (32GB total in flash): compact flash drives.
4 x san disk 1gb SDHC: for the 'kids with cameras' cameras and the digital recorder.
2 x freecom toughdrive 160GB: external hard disks.

if i wanted to i could take 4 freecoms with me, they're not very heavy, and mail one to myself every week or two. that way if all my gear gets stolen or destroyed (very unlikely, but possible) i'll still have everything i've done up to that point...

computer

msi u100 wind + charger (installation)

lights

1 x sb-800: powerful, small, light weight, well built, iTTL-everything, expensive
2 x vivitar 285: powerful, light weight, not small, not built especially well, full manual, cheap
3 x cybersync (1 transmitter + 2 recievers): small, light weight, cheap(ish)
2 x lowepro studio clamps: instead of taking light stands i'm taking clamps and i'll improvise.
2 x westcott 43" collapsible reversable white satin umbrella: great light weight ultra-portable umbrellas.
1 x rayflash ring flash: portrait/macro

looks like a lot of stuff, but you'd be surprised how small and light that set is considering that it's equivalent to a small studio.

power

3 x nikon en-el3a and 2 chargers
1 x nikon en-el4a and charger
maha 801D AA smart charger
16 Powerex and 16 Sanyo Eneloop NiMH rechargable batteries.: a lot of AAs. fortunately everything i have, even the d700, can be run off regular AAs

i've decided that it's not worth the money, but should one ever need to solar power their gear take a look at the brunton solar roll 14.

bags

gura gear kiboko: surprisingly big, very light weight, very well built, camera bag.
my 8 year old duffle bag: it hasn't fallen apart yet...

real person stuff

passports + color xeroxes of same (no other id)
deutsch bank atm card
cash
2 x small combination lock
notebook
pens
1L water bottle
4 days of light clothes
one nice pants+shirt
big fluffy black beach towel (aka background, aka pillow, aka camera tripod)

things i should have taken

flashlight
ipod
gaffer's tape (or any kind of tape really)
first aid kit (at least band aides and some medical gauze)
swiss army knife. i'm not sure I can actually fly with a swissarmy knife, but if i can (even if I have to check it) it's really useful to have.
a black camping towel. i really should have brought my own towel.
coffee + moka. it may sound trivial, but i feel a lot better if i can start the day with a decent coffee.

what was a good idea

the netbook: having a small, lightweight, long battery life laptop is very useful. it's also nice that it's cheap enough that i don't need to worry too much about treating it well, and surprisingly it's held up nicely.
the ring flash: with this sun i really need fill light, the ring flash isn't an umbrella, or even a softbox, but it's a million times better than straight on camera flash and easier to carry around and setup than other modifiers.

what was a bad idea

the netbook: i had a lot more down time than i was expecting (though looking back it makes complete sense that i wouldn't be busy 100% of the time), it would have been nice to be able to do some post work now.
the third flash: i've used the two light kit, but the third light is overkill (i would still have taken the second umbrella, but i could have left the flash, the batteries and the cybersync at home).
lariam: next time i'll take malarone, these nightmares are not fun.
the shoes: if you're going to spend weeks on end walking around with a heavy back pack it's probably a good idea to have some comfortable shoes. or sandals...
the jeans: I brought 4 sets of clothes, 2 shorts, one pair of jeans, one pair of slacks, 3 t-shirts and 1 shirt. It turns out that I can wear dirty pants a lot longer than I can dirty shirts. Next time I'll bring 3 (or 2) pairs of shorts/jeans and 5 or 6 shirts.

what broke

I consider my tools to be perishables and while I don't intentionally mistreat anything I'm not going to waste too much energy, and I'm certainly not going to mis-out on a picture, just because it might damage the gear (though I certainly do pay attention to the lenses and bodies in a way that I don't with the triggers or the umbrellas). So having said that here's what I'm managed to destroy on this trip:

the en-el4 battery: left it in a black plastic bag under the sun. i'm not 100% sure it was the heat that killed it, but it doesn't hold a charge anymore.
one of the Vivitar 285HVs: I'm actually surprised it lasted as long as it did. The flashes have been rained on, sat on, they've fallen off the back of a matola (pick-up truck) and landed on rocks, the wind has blown them over numerous times, and it was finally this that did (one of them) in. It was on the tripod with an umbrella, the wind knocked it over and the foot, which is of plastic, snapped. The flash flew off the swivel and the base hit a rock and cracked. I don't know what broke exactly but it doesn't fire either with a sync-cable or through a hot-shoe.