The Travel Kit Debate

I have traveled quite extensively for someone my age, Fiji, Bali, Malaysia, Thailand, USA, China Japan, Equador, Peru, Galapagos, Tibet, around most of Australia and hopefully Africa next year, or New Zealand - haven't decided yet. The big question is what to take photographically, often I am thinking about the gear im going to take long before I even know where in the country i'll be going.

A brief history of my travel kits:

Bali - don't remember even having a camera - I was 15 yrs old.

Fiji - Olympus Trip 35 - served me well

Malaysia/Thailand - old Contessa (great fun) camera and underwater disposable

USA - Canon EOS 500 SLR with 19-35 tokina, 28-80 kit lens, 75-300 cheap tele

China (first time) - Canon QL17 rangefinder and powershot A80 Digital

Peru/Equador/Galapagos - Pentax *ist DS + Super A with various lenses 50mm 1.4, 70-210, 28mm, 10-20 sigma + fuji F10 in underwater housing, + ixus i as back-up.

Japan/China(2nd) - Pentax K10D with 10-20mm, 21mm, 43mm, 100mm, 70-210, 2x TC (sent home 70-210 and 10-20 in hong kong - got 200mm f4) + super A, + panasonic LX2

Australia (last time) - K10D + super A, 10-20, 21, 43, 100, 200, 300, 2xTC, LX2, flash, 055pro tripod, ixus i with underwater housing.

So as you can see my travel kit seems to get bigger and bigger with each trip and while the quality of the gear increases and the pictures get better and better, I have to admit that my enjoyment of the trips has generally headed in the opposite direction. The more I carry the more I worry about it and the more it stresses me out - driving around Australia wasn't a problem because I hardly left the proximity of the car and when I did I know what i'd be shooting so could pick lenses, otherwise the more gear I carry the less i seem to enjoy the trip.

So for probably the first time in 3 years I haven't got a plane ticket to somewhere sitting on my desk and it seems like the best time to plan a travel kit that is small and light and won't hinder my enjoyment of the holiday.

Current line up - Canon 5D, 12-24, 24-105, 70-300 IS, Oly OM 21mm, pentax 50mm & 200mm, LX2, XA2, QL17, Cambo 6x9 view camera, box brownies etc etc

Option #1. 5D with 12-24, 24-105, 70-300 IS maybe get 450D as backup. This covers all bases and would be the best image quality I could achieve, but expensive kit to loose, heavy and large and would probably detract from the idea of holiday. I could leave the 12-24 at home and forget the 450D which would make it a decent size with just the 2 lenses, but it's best to have a backup.

Option #2. 5D with the 21mm OM, pentax 50mm and 200mm. This gives me a good range with great image quality in a small package, but could be a pain to use (swapping lenses and stopping down), again a 450D would be the best backup, so smaller but still more than i'd like to carry - I could replace the 200mm with the 70-300 IS, probably worth doing... I Like the idea of this kit

Option#3. Get the 450D and a tamron 18-250 (my dad has these) and add the 21mm oly. This covers a good range with decent image quality as well as providing a very small kit - the 450D with 21mm is tiny. It would fit in a very small bag and is easy to use, probably wouldn't infringe on the enjoyment factor too much either. It just seems a waste to leave a perfectly good 5D sitting at home, and what would I use as a backup?

Option #4. Get a Bessa R3A and 3 lenses, 15 or 21mm, 40mm and 90mm and shoot film again. The quality won't be as good (see my film vs digital section) but it'd be small, light and easy, no worrying about backup, no worring about battery charging, and that romance of film is intriguing, but the costs on return of film processing and scanning not to mention the initial cost of the gear make this an expensive option - let alone trying it digitally with an RD-1 or M8.

Option #5. Get the best point and shoot digital available and take the QL17 for fun and narrow depth of field shots - this would be the smallest lightest kit, I'd have some of the romance of film while still shooting some decent digital RAW files (LX3 would probably be the camera). But lacking in lens range and I'd have to scan the film, images might be just good enough, but is that good enough? I don't want to be disappointed once i'm home.

The more I think about it the more Option #3 sounds like the best choice, maybe with the LX3 as backup/pocket cam. I'm going to look into more Oly OM lenses as well, maybe a 21mm and 100mm with the 5D and 450D would be enough for most situations - I do like having a longer tele though - and of course it all depends on where your going and how your traveling doesn't it.

If only they made a TZ5 with the sensor from the 450D - problem solved :)