Have camera will travel but what else do I need?

So you have the camera, you have the lenses but you still need more!

Yes you do, welcome to the wonderful word of digital photography. Yes travelling with film internationally was a pain but I think digital photography has introduced its own pain. The sheer volume of gadgets you require to be working productively in the field.

So what are the gadgets and gizmos required to make your photo safari in Africa (or anywhere for that matter) a success.

Given the number of items the list approach is the way to go so here goes:

• Senor Cleaning gear: Unless you have a late model Canon with the self cleaning sensor (and maybe even then) you should have some sort of sensor cleaning kit with you. They come in 2 major flavours; the dry static brush or the swab and cleaning solution. Both types have their uses. I prefer the brush, my visible dust brush does a great job. The latest toy the Artic butterfly which is a nifty battery powered unit which spins up the brush head to charge it is great for travelling. Again there are reported manufacturing issues with it so be warned. I still use the original brush and a blower to charge it up. This has worked fine. I have never used a swab so I cannot comment but there are plenty of people who swear by this method. Either way you go they are overpriced but a necessity of digital photography with DSLRs.
  
• Spare Batteries: Do not overlook this one, its hugely important. Yes with each iteration of camera we are getting more and more from a fully charged battery BUT they still run out eventually. Next to a full flash card a dead battery is the next most painful event that happens in the field. You can get cheap afet market ones, which frankly I have had no trouble with. Yes they don't last as long but given they are around 1/10 th the price of a genuine one you can make up for it in volume.
  
• Portable Hard Drive: By this I mean a unit for you to download your memory cards to while out in the field. These come in 2 main types as well, with or without a lovely colour lcd. I personally prefer not to have the colour LCD. Yes its gives you a marginally bigger LCD to review your photos on but its still way too small for proper evaluation. The LCD units do chew through the power though. You can also get some very fast downloading non LCD units ala the Nexto ND2525. I will be purchasing one of these for the upcoming Kenya trip to replace my current downloader. Once I have it I will run some tests and write a review, mind you there are already some excellent articles ont he web fully testing this unit. Also the LCD untis are considerably more expensive, but still cheaper than a laptop.
  
• Memory Cards: Portable hard drive or not you are going to need extra memory cards. How many will you need?? Well thats a tough one. It depends on how trigger happy you are. At a minimum you need 2. So yo can be shooting while the other is downloading. There are those who prefer multiple BIG volume cards rather than the portable hard drive. The portable drive needs charging, memory cards do not. Memory cards are way smaller and lgihter. Most people though have a rational fear of card failure, 16Gig is alot of images to lose. To be fair though a hard drive failure is probably more likely than a failure of a high end name brand memory card. My partner and myself will be taking 4 4Gig Sandisk Extreme III CF cards plus our 4 older 1gig Sandisk Ultra IIs, plus a 160gig hard drive. We are trigger happy though and from a few previous trips have a pretty good idea how much we shoot. For the first time, make an estimate then double it. Memory cards are cheap compared to the rest of the trip, so don't skimp.
  
• Laptop: A contentious inclusion maybe but if you don't mind the extra weight and charging issues its a valuable addition. This trip will be our first with a laptop (a recently acquired 15" Apple MacBookPro). If you take a laptop you can safely say you won't need a LCD hard drive. The laptop adds hassle to the trip from the power perspective and the fun at the airport security but it does mean you can properly review and first cull each night at the lodge (thus saving hard drive space). You can also get a head start on file renaming and keywording before you get home. Nothing worse than getting home to face 6000 odd images to cull and keyword.
  
• Battery Chargers: With all the power hungry devices you are going to need chargers. Multi voltage chargers to cope with varied international power supplies. Thankfully most devices these days come with multi voltage chargers. Still they add considerable bulk to your luggage, at least they can go in booked luggage. Just remember to make sure you have all the ones you need before you leave!!
  TIP: label the cords for you various chargers. Most charging units have removable cords so remembering which goes with which charger can be fun after a long day on safari.
  Don't forget the AA rechargable batteries and charger. Your flash needs batteries, as does the compact digital.
  
• Power Adapters: Given all your toys need charging, you had better make sure you have packed the power adapters for the country you are visiting. The many countries in Africa manage to use an array of different systems. Southern Africa you can usually get away with British adapters, except Namibia. North Africa tends toward the 2 round pin European system. So make sure you check out what you will need and take at least 2.
  TIP: A power board is another good option here. Most mid range hotels only have one socket available, which equates to alot of time wasted.
  If out in the bush a power inverter is not a bad idea so you can charge up safely in the field. They aren't too expensive but can be a little heavy,

This covers the most common gadgets but there are plenty more, external hard drives to backup your images (a worthy inclusion in the main list but I use the laptop HD as the backup for the portable unit), a portable dye sub printer (nothing breaks the ice quicker with the locals than a printed photo), maybe a video camera.

For an extreme tech outing check out this great article on Luminous Landscape by Nathan Myhrvoid: Digital Safari Equipment Tips

Anyway another long post, hopefully someone gets some use from it. If you like it, hate it or have more goodies to add please leave a comment.

Next time we will finish filling up the camera bag for our epic African photo safari.
Last check of the camera bag