MJ_Photo38
Veteran Member
Not trying to be rude either, but it's not because you have the passion that you should burden yourself with 5kg of gear in your back pack all the time. Especially if you're travelling.I hope I'm not being too rude. Last month, I hiked from Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo. This is a pretty tough hiking path. I took the Z8 along with the 70-200 S, 20 1.8 S, 180-600, filters, a tripod, and other gear. The way back was a bit hard, but I was rewarded with high-quality images. If you have real passion for what you do, then you don't mind a bit of suffering.
If you aren't too old and don't have health issues holding you back, it might be better to spend time improving your fitness and mental toughness rather than trying to save as much weight as possible.
Both of the shots you have shown use, though impressive could have been achieved with a micro four third camera and multishot modes (which are now able to be used hand-held).
Sometimes, when you travel you're not alone, or you're not always with other photographers that have the time to put up with your BS.
I regularly do long hikes and some trekking, and yeah, sometimes I will carry my heavy gear with me, but more often than not, when I do, the image quality benefits it gives me are marginal.
In my trekking bag I have enough space for a bottle of water, a few bars of cereal and a compact camera. So that's what I take with me, and a lot of my favourite shots have been taken with a camera this small.
I found that I enjoyed my travels much more when I was carrying smaller cameras and minimal setups (like a micro four thirds and a couple of lenses, or an APS-C camera instead of my full frame gear), because it stops being a burden and a source of worry in regards to how much it costs.
Did I endure the suffering carrying my full frame gear to the top of mountains? Yep, I have. Did it matter that much? Nope, it didn't.
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(G.A.S. and collectionnite will get my skin one day)
