Going to asia....what to pack

[EdwinS]

I am backpacking southeast asia as well as making stops in korea, china, taiwan and japan. I am bringing a Crumpler 7 Million dollar bag, as I am packing it, i am debating bringing some items...such as:
will I really need a battery grip for my XTi?
and do I really want to lug around my 70-200 f/4L? I figure with sightseeing and stuff, my 17-40L should suffice....
My point is I am trying to bring as much as I can while packing as light as possible. I will have a hiking pack, smaller backpack and my crumpler camera bag.

[LightRules]

I am backpacking southeast asia as well as making stops in korea, china, taiwan and japan. I am bringing a Crumpler 7 Million dollar bag, as I am packing it, i am debating bringing some items...such as:
will I really need a battery grip for my XTi?
and do I really want to lug around my 70-200 f/4L? I figure with sightseeing and stuff, my 17-40L should suffice....
My point is I am trying to bring as much as I can while packing as light as possible. I will have a hiking pack, smaller backpack and my crumpler camera bag.

B-Grip is optional, not a necessity, for travel. And lug around the 7-2f4? It's a feather-weight in my book. Bring a 1.4x too for it. I'd take your 17-40f4 and 70-200f4 and a 1.4xTC. Throw in one fast prime too like the cheapo 50f1.8.

[ScottE]

Your lens selection depends on what you expect to photograph. For my travel I leave the 17-40 at home and take the 17-55. It is usually accompanied by the 10-22 since I often want to take super-wide pictures when travelling. I still haven't completely resolved the telephoto lens issue, but find my 70-200 (f/2.8) too bulky for many trips. I am considering the 70-300 DO IS or the Sigma 50-150/2.8 for the telephoto lens in my compact travel kit.

[CoolAir]

Battery Grip is not a good idea for travel IMO. You can grab one or two batteries for back up.
And don't forget the data storage thing. I bet your CF cards won't be able to take care of all the photos during the journey.

[ed rader]

Battery Grip is not a good idea for travel IMO. You can grab one or two batteries for back up.
And don't forget the data storage thing. I bet your CF cards won't be able to take care of all the photos during the journey.

i just got a couple of sandisk extreme II 2 gig CF cards off of ebay for about $45 eac. i'd probably take at least 6 cards and rogue out the duds in the evening.

ed rader

[Dorman]

Having lived and travelled in asia take as much storage as you can - be in CF cards or a portable harddrive. So many photo opportunities that you may never get again, don't want to run out of storage space.

If you don't rely on the grip for function or comfort I'd leave it home. I'd definitely pack your 17-40, 70-200, and 50mm, this would cover all your bases and really doesn't weigh that much. I'd consider getting a smaller camera bag as the 7mdh holds ALOT of gear.

Man, have fun, take the gear, don't want to miss it because you didn't take it.

[EdwinS]

Cool, thanks for all the suggestions, I'll try to get a 1.4x somewhere before I go, leaving in less than a day and half, Wed 5Am :) As far as storage goes, I bought (4) 4GB cf cards, I'll also have a laptop with me too. I like the 7 Mill, beacuse it can carry all the gear as well as some other random things to haul around during day trips. Plus the biggest selling point was the fact that it looks more like a regualr bag than a camera bag.