In search of a Light weight bag pack for a safari

Chizuka wrote:

john isaacs wrote:

Chizuka wrote:

I will be going on a safari in Tanzania and I am looking for a backpack that will be

1) as light as possible (because of the 15kg weight restriction on ALL luggage i.e. checked luggage + carry on). If the bag weighs too much, it will take away valuable weight for me.2) it will be my carry on bag, so besides camera equipment, it needs to be able to hold a few clothes items, an ipad, all chargers, toiletrie, etc. 3) i will be carrying the following gear: Lumix G9, PL 100-400, Oly 40-150 Pro, Oly 12-40 Pro, Oly em10 mk2, and probably the Panasonic G85 (if I buy it)4) I really would prefer not to pay more than 200 $ US for it.

Thank you all for your help and advice.

My first thought is to weigh everything else you want/need to bring and see what you have left for a bag (or whether you are going over even without a bag).

I am in the process of doing this.

My second thought is to not bring cameras that use different batteries/chargers. At this time, you are considering three incompatible cameras. I would buy a second G9, or at least a GH4 (uses same battery).

I am still thinking about the second camera I will bring (buy). I would LOVE to have a second G9 but I cannot afford it. I agree with you about the batteries issue but right now I lean towards the G85 because of the Built-in Image Stabilization, the focus stacking, the higher continuous shooting rate.

Finally, look for padded inserts and use a regular hiking backpack. I did a weight restricted trip and used a Lowepro Omni attache style bag for my camera gear and an REI backpack to carry the Lowepro and clothes/accessories. The Omni's have been discontinued for a long time now, and may actually be too heavy for you anyway (the Omni Sport is only .7kg but it's not bit enough for the bodies.

I am seriously considering that option i.e. padded insert and a regular backpack. I need to do some measurements to make sure that the inserts would fit the backpack I would use.

I've done weekend trips with just a Mountainsmith Borealis for everthing ($200, 2.5kg) but again you would have difficulty fitting all your gear in the camera compartment.

Finally, the suggestion of just wrapping the lenses is a good one; get the wraps with velcro in appropriate sizes. I don't do that because I prefer the organization a regular bag provides, but then I have a lot of bags of different sizes.

I am not sure if you are saying that I should wrap the lenses and put them in the checked luggage, but I do not want to do that. If that is not what you mean, why would you wrap the lenses if they are in a camera padded insert. Right now, I don't have padded inserts in my current backpack and I have made myself some wraps for camera and lenses (like pouches from dish towels).

thanks a lot John for all your suggestions. Good to hear your opinion on those subjects.

No, I was suggesting that you can wrap the lenses instead of using a padded divider.  Or you can get a padded divider for the lenses and wrap the camera bodies.

Check amazon for padded cases; there are a lot of different shapes and sizes.