I do not have a specific photography agenda for my upcoming trip to Shanghai. I will have only a couple of days available for photography, but the destination is so exotic that I want to take enough gear to not be limited in the types of shots I can take. At the same time, I plan to carry most gear with me as I wonder around the city, so excessive weight can easily become a limiting factor itself.
With all this in mind, here is my tentative gear list for the trip, based on my prior experience:
- Canon EOS-1D X camera body
. It is bulkier and heavier that my 5D Mark II, but fast autofocus and much better low-light performance of the 1D X really tip the metaphorical scale. If I had a 5D Mark III
, it would have been a perfect compromise for travel.
- 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens
.This is the heaviest lens that I plan to take. Leaving it at home would save a lot of weight and space, but this lens is incredibly versatile. In fact, most of my best photos are taken with it. Besides, one type of shot that I do plan to take is a night-time cityscape, similar to the one from Yokohama (above), and this lens is the perfect one for this job.
- 35mm f/1.4L USM lens
. This is currently my favourite walk-around lens. I was debating wheteher to take a 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens
instead, but I am willing to sacrifice its zoom and image stabilization for incredible low-light performance, shallow depth of field as well as physical size and weight of the 35mm f/1.4L.
- 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens
for close-up shots of architectural details, like the shot from the Forbidden City below.
- Tripod
. I have a slightly different tripod from the one in the link, but carbon is the key for saving weight.
- Flash
. Mine is an older model from the one in the link.
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