I am something of a nut and have possibly gone overboard, but I have considered all the things I hope to do while in Africa and worked out a Plan for the trip and all my fancy junk. I have a Wenger padded computer backpack that will actually hold ALL of my stuff, and a few things for others.
My list of stuff:
- HP Mini netbook and charger
- Nikon D40 camera with batteries and 2 chargers (just in case!)
- 70 to 300mm zoom lens
- 18 to 55mm zoom lens
- 35mm lens
- Canon HD Video camera and charger (I may get a second battery)
- 3 2gb SDHC media cards (Netbook, camera and video camera all use sd cards
- 16gb SDHC media card
- 32gb media card
- 320gb external hard drive
- usb smart media card reader
- Apple iPod (Hey, its a LONG flight!)
- Book(s) (To read)
I will also be carrying in that pack (for others):
- HP Mini Netbook and charger
- Sony HD video camera and charger
- Canon digital snapshot camera
- 2 pairs of binoculars
This will, of course, be my carry-on luggage for the air travel portion of the trip.
It will be quite full of course, but all of the stuff DOES fit securely and is not uncomfortable when worn as a backpack.
Two tripods will be in my other luggage going on the plane, but once there my tripod will often be attached to the pack as well.
I will be staying in lodges or hotels every night, so not exactly a “roughing it” trip, and this is apparent with choice of “stuff” I think. Other trips and locations may require other choices. For one, I am not bringing my cell phone or cell modem (incompatible service). Trips with less of a weight limitation for luggage might make a desktop replacement laptop a better choice than my netbook to edit and render photos and videos during the trip instead of archiving them and doing it all when at home!
A trip that is REALLY roughing it would probably mean just cameras and batteries (and maybe a charger for each battery type in case you do find power.) A few weeks in Land Rovers and sleeping in tents every night might make charging a laptop daily difficult.
Modern electronics can enhance a trip in many ways: music for long flights, maintaining contact with those at home (or elsewhere) and ever more durable and accurate records of vacation activities. But unless you are actually filming a documentary, don’t forget that the idea is to DO things, and try and get some records of it; seeing and doing things outside of the normal daily grind is the main point. Try not to get so bound up with taking pictures that you miss something you may only see on tv for the rest of your life.
Personally, I spent a good chunk of change on my video camera expressly for this trip, and if I can get 15 minutes of truly decent video out of it, I’ll be satisfied.