In the previous post, I talked about my photographic experience in India. In this post, I am going to talk about my photo gear and what worked and what didn’t work.

Before the trip, I wrote about my reflections on the photo gear here and here. I thought a lot about what to bring and what not to bring before the trip, as it could affect my photographic experience to a great extent. Too much gear, and I had to carry them around with me everyday and it could result in excessive fatigue and less enthusiasm for photography. Too little gear, and I would miss something when I needed it. So here is what I took with me.

  • Canon 5D classic, an extra battery, precision focusing screen
  • Voigtlander 20mm f3.5, Voigtlander 40mm f2.0, Canon 85mm f1.8
  • Lowepro Passport Sling
  • 4x8 GB Transcend CF card (133x) + 4 GB and 2 GB Sandisk CF cards - Wolverine PicPac II, 250 GB for backup
  • Gorillapod
  • iPhone 4

Starting with the camera, I had a love and hate relationship with my 5D. Image quality-wise, it’s impeccable. It’s full frame, so I can get narrow depth of field and that “Full-Frame Look” that I like a lot. Mechanically it had no problem either. It underwent a lot of long harsh vibrations during my road trips, but it survived. It survived the extremely dusty situations and even once a handful of colored powder was thrown at it, but nothing happened. Even though it doesn’t have the sensor cleaning system, and I changed lenses frequently, I got very little dust on the sensor: I had to blow air at the sensor once. But it was not all a bed of roses. I hated the autofocus system. It was far from being accurate and I got a lot of out of focus images, as I was mostly shooting at F2.0. But knowing that beforehand, I shot each subject several times to make sure I get one in focus. At the end of the day, I didn’t lose many shots, thanks to this overshooting technique. But nevertheless, few of my important shots are not exactly in focus. This is a pity. I wanted to buy a mkII before my trip, but couldn’t justify the price tag. I hope Canon comes up with a much superior autofocus system (like the 7D’s) in the imminent upgrade of 5D line. I also would have liked to have a better screen, to check better if the photos are in focus or not. But this was not a big issue.

I took only three prime lenses with me for this trip. I was advised by many people to take zoom lenses with me, as India is too spontaneous, too dusty, and blah blah, that an all-around zoom lens is a must have. But I didn’t agree and trusted my gut and my style of photography and took what I was most familiar and comfortable with me. And I don’t regret it for a second! It’s true that I should have lost some shots because I couldn’t change lenses fast enough, but I don’t remember ANY such instance. Maybe because I was very much attached to the focal length that I was shooting with, that I didn’t see other photo opportunities. But maybe I got some great shots because I was very much concentrated on that single focal length I had on! I’m 100% happy about the shots I got and didn’t feel once that I should have a zoom lens with me. There was only one occasion that having a zoom lens like 70-200mm would have been advantageous, and it was when I was taking an early morning boat ride on Ganges. As I couldn’t get any closer to the Ghats, having a tele zoom lens would have been great, but heck, I didn’t have it. That’s it.I also happen to own the fantastic Canon 135mm f2.0, and one of my biggest quandaries before the trip was whether to take this lens or not. At the end of the day, I decided not to take it. The main issue was it’s weight. I had to carry almost 4 kg of gear+guide book+bottle of water on my shoulder everyday for over a month, so adding almost 1 kilo to it was not exactly a good idea. Also, 85mm and 135mm are pretty close and I could do what 135mm does with 85mm by getting a step or two closer to my subject. On top of that, I was not that familiar with the 135mm focal length, compared to my long experience with the 85mm. Now that I look back, I believe I made a wise choice and there were not so many occasions that I really needed the 135mm, and by not taking it, I made the trip much more comfortable for my shoulder!

Now a few words about the lenses that I took with me. I was already familiar with the 85mm focal length and I loved every aspect about the Canon lens. So I knew it would be my main lens and it surely was. With 85mm, I get comfortable working distance with my subject, a great separation from immediate background, a beautiful bokeh, and sharp contrasty images even at F2.0. The only problem was the autofocus accuracy of the 5D. I had to take several shots to make sure one is in focus. The Voigtlander 40mm was a surprise. I hadn’t used this lens much before the trip and I was not sure if I was going to use it a lot. But I took it to fill the huge gap between 20mm and 85mm. But this lens happened to be much more important than just a mere filler. Initially, I didn’t use the 40mm that much, because I was not very comfortable getting close to people. But when I relaxed and got used to shooting people, the 40mm became almost my main lens! With the 40mm, not only I could shoot people’s appearance, but also I could capture what they were doing. It also had a relatively large aperture, so I could throw the background out of focus, which I liked a lot. The only problem I had with it was that it was a manual focus lens and not so practical when dealing with moving subjects. The Voiglander 20mm was a long time favorite lens of mine for landscape and architecture, and in that regard, it didn’t disappoint. The only thing was that I didn’t shoot much landscape and architecture in this trip. But it was a must have lens, when I needed it.

I was very pleased with my choice of lenses. They were lightweight, sharp, fast, and they would cover most of the focal lengths I needed. If I had the luxury of going back again with any lens I wanted, I might have taken the Canon 35mm f1.4 instead of the Voigtlander 40mm. It is much pricier, and fairly heavier, but it does autofocus and it is a stop faster, hence throwing the background more out of focus. That’s it.

The Lowepro Passport Sling was a perfect bag for my trip. Not only I could easily fit all my gear inside, but also I could carry a beefy guidebook, a bottle of water, and a bunch of other stuff, if I needed to. It was also very inconspicuous and didn’t look like a camera bag at all, so when I had my camera in, no one thought that I am a photographer. I believed it helped a lot in blending in, and also perhaps from potential exposure to thieves. But on the downside, the camera compartment is very small, and anything bigger than my tiny lenses wouldn’t have fitted inside. Anyways, it was not an issue for me.

I took 38 GB of CF cards with me, as I thought I might shoot 100 RAW photos on average per day. But I happened to shoot around 60 shots per day. I only used 3 of the 8GB memory cards I had with me. I also backed up my photos regularly on the Wolverine HD and kept it in the hotel, while I had my memory cards along with my passport in my side pants’ pocket. I didn’t happen to need the backup at the end, but should something have happened, I had a copy of my photos elsewhere. I talked about my backup philosophy before the trip here.

Gorillpod was not at all useful in my trip, mostly because I mostly didn’t shoot in the low light conditions. But there was one occasion that I needed it (here), and even then, it was too shaky. I wouldn’t bother taking a tripod with me in my next trip, if I don’t specifically intend to do long exposures.

And last but not least, iPhone was a priceless companion in my trip and my photography. It served as a second camera and also the only video camera I had with me. The quality of images are quite ok and the possibility to treat them right after and share them when I had access to wifi was very handy. I also wrote all my blog posts on my iPhone, listened to music, read occasionally on it, and found the way/hotel/restaurant using its GPS and offline maps. The GPS was not only useful, but sometimes a big savior. Once I took a rickshaw at 4 AM from train station to the hotel, but the driver didn’t know where the hotel is, despite what he told me. So he was going in a wrong direction, and I corrected him! It was also extremely helpful when I was in the trains or buses, as I could know where I am and where to get off. All in all, iPhone was the most handy tool I had in my trip!

All in all, I am very happy with my photo gear in this trip. No major complaint, except that bloody autofocus on the 5D. So it is kind of major complaint at the end! Anyways, I enjoyed myself immensely during this trip, I learned a lot about life, people, history, and photography, and I am already looking forward for the next trip!

Check my photos of India and Nepal on flicker here: