Anyone carry cameras/laptops? | Squat the Planet

Anyone carry cameras/laptops?

watson

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Anyone travel with a camera and/or laptop that could kick down some tips? Looking to bring out a small compact camera and a small laptop for Lightroom edits. Anyone have experience with hard cases that are small enough to fit in a pack?
 
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Drengor

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I bring along a mirror-less camera with interchangeable lenses (I bring a flat prime and one medium prime). I've got card readers and adaptors so that I can get the RAWs onto my smartphone, and from there I can edit them as much as I need to on the go. It's certainly not as precise as a desktop with mouse, but it beats lugging around a laptop just for this one thing, and inevitably all the time I'll waste dicking around on the internet. Plus, I only need those instant edits for instagram or flexing for family and friends, so the hardcore fine-art edits can wait till I'm stationary.

If you're trainhopping I'd recomend a simple Lowpro padded puch thingey like this or similar. Brand really doesn't matter, you just need the tiniest bit of padding. Put it in the middle of your pack, maybe surround it by clothes or something and it'll be golden.

If you're just hitchhiking you're probably fine to skip the bag for protection's purposes, though I still have one to keep all my little doo-dads together like extra cards and batteries and chargers for my camera and phone, though the camera itself just floats near the top of my bag.

Yeah they're 'delicate', but they're also made of metal. Good cameras can actually take quite a beating, so long as something hard doesn't hit any glass head on.
 

watson

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I bring along a mirror-less camera with interchangeable lenses (I bring a flat prime and one medium prime). I've got card readers and adaptors so that I can get the RAWs onto my smartphone, and from there I can edit them as much as I need to on the go. It's certainly not as precise as a desktop with mouse, but it beats lugging around a laptop just for this one thing, and inevitably all the time I'll waste dicking around on the internet. Plus, I only need those instant edits for instagram or flexing for family and friends, so the hardcore fine-art edits can wait till I'm stationary.

If you're trainhopping I'd recomend a simple Lowpro padded puch thingey like this or similar. Brand really doesn't matter, you just need the tiniest bit of padding. Put it in the middle of your pack, maybe surround it by clothes or something and it'll be golden.

If you're just hitchhiking you're probably fine to skip the bag for protection's purposes, though I still have one to keep all my little doo-dads together like extra cards and batteries and chargers for my camera and phone, though the camera itself just floats near the top of my bag.

Yeah they're 'delicate', but they're also made of metal. Good cameras can actually take quite a beating, so long as something hard doesn't hit any glass head on.

Killer response man. I myself will be carrying a x100f black camera very compact and 35mm prime lenses non interchangeable. I'm strongly considering not bringing a laptop all together but its hard to edit photos on phones and i love using lightroom. I have considered the tablet route but i know big photo editing applications will be annoying to use on a tablet with such low specs. It's going to be a tough decision but if i can find a not so heavy hard case for my laptop and camera that will be worth the extra weight I'm willing to try the laptop route. I will only be using it rarely when im housed up which means alot of wasted weight and room in my pack. Decisions decisions. Thanks for the reply
 
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erisACAB

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My ex used to carry his DSLR with him while traveling, it never got damaged but it was also rarely used, therefore not really worth the extra weight. He just kept it at the top of his bag, so he could still sit on the bottom of his pack. The bag was similar to the one in the picture. It has a little bit a padding and extra room for other gadgets and stuff. Another friend of mine carried a small laptop but i think it got busted within a year, well the screen and keyboard did. It was still usable but definitely busted the fuck up.

I'd personally never carry a full sized laptop or a large camera, maybe a small point and shoot. I'd probably get one of those small, hard plastic dry boxes they sell at walmart and throw some socks in for padding.

When I was on foot I considered finding one of those tough books that the cops have, but they're pretty pricey and probably heavy af, or possibly a small netbook. Never did it, I'd be too bummed if i spent a good amount of money and it got busted beyond repair.

As a rubber tramp I have all sorts of gadgets and shit now, but I when i go on foot later this year I'm leaving it all with a friend and just taking my phone.

Hope this helps man. Good luck.
 

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Peanut Butter Boy

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I am currently travelling with a mac for music/photo purpose.
I put it only in a small case in my backpack and everything have been good for the last year. He get some small scraches and stuff but I have no choice.

For the camera I have a full body canon 5d camera and It it quite strong enough for the travel life.
 
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Matt Derrick

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so i've been traveling with laptops for just over 15 years now, and (knock on wood) i've never broken one. i definitely keep an eagle eye on my pack though just to make sure no one sits on it if nothing else. in that time i've gone through probably 12+ laptops (im a computer nerd and update all the time) everything from thinkpads to macbooks.

the good news is that you no longer really need a super powerful laptop to do photo editing. photoshop will run on just about anything these days, and so will lightroom. it really depends on what you want to use the photos for and how much editing that requires. if you're just posting on instagram, you can do that with an android tablet and any camera easily. the advantage is that you'll be super light weight and tablets are not hard to replace if you do break it. also, it is now possible to do light video editing from a phone/tablet (perfect for vlogging) with apps like kinemaster and cyberlink powerdirector.

in my opinion, the best travel laptop for most people that still need to 'get things done' (i.e. more serious work than just web browsing) is the surface pro 2. yeah, the 2. why? cause everyone wants the 3, so it's a buyer's market for the 2. it has the same specs, just a smaller screen. you can get one for as little as $250 with the keyboard and pen, and it's under 3lbs (i think 2.5?). you can easily run lightroom and do basic video editing, although video editing can be a bit of a pain on a screen that small.

i could go on for quite a while about this, but there's some ideas. the main point is that specifically, you need to decide what *exactly* are the tasks you need/want to do, then choose the appropriate equipment. if you want to make a post about what exactly you need, i can give you some further advice on both computer/tablet/phone and camera setups (i've done a fuckload of research along with my personal experience of things i bought that did and didn't work).
 

Matt Derrick

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Do you use a sleeve or case of some kind? What about when it rains? I'm considering taking my laptop, but I'm paranoid about mashing it.

these days, yeah i just use a generic padded sleeve. hard cases are just too bulky and weight too much. back in the day (now i sound old) i just wrapped my lappy in a few shirts before putting it in my pack, but back then no one was traveling with laptops either, especially train kids...
 
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