Some New Toys for the trip

The road trip we took back in 2006 was amazing in so many ways. The things we saw, people we met, places we went, and I managed to get some really memorable photographs from the journey. Now I am a big believer in the “it’s not the camera, it’s what you do with it” saying but I also can’t help but think the camera does help. This year I will be traveling with a Canon 5D mark II which replaces my Canon 40D which in turn replaced the old Canon Digital Rebel XT I used back on the 2006 road trip. The camera was perfect for me as it was my first introduction to dSLR’s. It did everything I wanted and produced some great images that have done me pretty well over the past few years. But it’s no Canon 5D mark II… Full frame, the extra resolution, greater dynamic range, better noise levels, movie mode are just some of the things I will fully take advantage of on this trip.

But there were certain things that, back in 2006, held back the photos I really wanted to capture. And this wasn’t to do with the camera I was using…

Hit the jump to read more!

Firstly, I had no zoom lens. I only had a Tokina 12-24mm and the 18-55mm Lens Kit that came with the Digital Rebel XT. This was quite the limited arsenal to shoot some of the most spectacular landscapes in the USA. This time I am better prepared. My kit includes:

• Tokina 12-24mm F4
• Canon 24-70mm F/2.8 L
• Canon 70-200mm F/2.8L IS
• Canon 50mm F/1.8
• Canon 100mm F/2.8

While I would love a super telephoto, I do plan on doing some major hiking on this trip, and this is already a hefty bag!

But there were other things holding me back a little. I had a really old tripod I bought from Jessops (in the UK) for £20 that would not even hold the weight of the Canon 5D mark II. Since then I had upgraded slightly to a slightly better tripod, but one that didn’t really suit my style of work. Now for this trip I have purchased a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod (see below photo) with a Manfrotto 804RC2 Pan and tilt head (see above photo).

This is a great tripod for the trip. It was reasonably priced and included the famous Manfrotto-patented horizontal center column which I have always been a fan of. It’s weight is just about right for some hiking and should be heavy enough to hold down my equipment safely. The Manfrotto 804RC2 Pan and tilt head is not really the ideal heal for this tripod as they don’t balance each other out perfectly as the tripod can hold much more weight that the head, but it is enough for the 5D mkII and the hefty 70-200mm F/2.8 L IS. I opted for the pan and tilt over ball head as I felt the panning and tilting on this head would double up for taking videos with the Canon 5D mark II than a ball head.

Another missing piece to my photography kit on my last trip was some decent filters. I have a tendency to create a graduated ND filter effect in Lightroom 2 to my landscape shots (regardless of the time of day the photograph was taken) which I think helps balance out my usual over exposed skies – thus loosing detail. Obviously this is what Graduated filters can help with.

I decided against screw in filters and went with Cokin ND Graduated Filters #121L, 121M, 121S along with with a P Series Filter Holder. These make the world of difference to your tough lighting situations you can have when shooting landscapes. I do own a few screw in filters (mainly as lens protectors) which can help my images especially circular polarizing filters.

So, there are some new toys I am looking forward to playing with on this trip. I can’t wait!