This question has general worldwide application but in my case I am planning to meet my brother in Saigon, travel to Siem Riep (Cambodia), hire local bikes (not scooters) and tour the region together for 4/5 days. He resides in Vietnam. I have visited VN but only pillioned on that occasion. I can ride. He has lots of riding experience including in SE Asia. Question: I want to take a good quality Pentax DSLR with maybe two lenses (w/a and zoom tele) with usual paraphenalia; filters, hoods, cards, charger, cables). I want the gear to be secure should I foolishly leave it alone for say a meal. I want it to be safe in the event of an "off". And I want it to be protected from the elements, particularly the wet and/or humid type elements. [I think I will just take "many" cards rather than carry a laptop for storage. I could easily shoot 300 frames a day with some in-camera editing so say 20 cards (4 GB) is still easier than a laptop.] Bearing in mind that I will probably have to arrange the solution in my home country (Australia) and take it with me to Cambodia and that I will not be on my own bike, but a rental, I would be grateful for any suggestions and experiences from those who have faced this sort of problem and solved it. Or comments from those who tried some solution and found it didn't work as well as they had hoped. Obviously I can overcome the security issue by just taking it with me when I leave the bike. The other two issues are not so straight forward. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
you could use a topcase (or part of your topcase) and some high density foam to create secure storage for when you are away from the bike, but it would also give at least some impact resistance in the event of a fall.
I have been on the road 14 months with Canon 7D with 28/78 and 100/400 zooms and tripod. PC w/ Photoshop CC, toshiba external hard-drive. I figure that If the pics aren't reviewed and processed within a few days they never will be. Once a month I move pics to 1 terra byte Hard-drive. Photography is all that I do... why not be prepared. Wrap stuff in kayak quality dry bags. So what if you wreck something? I'll bet Jimmy Johnson never asks himself that question. Go fast, Turn left.
I think you'll have to decide how easily you'll want to access your gear. If you're concentrating on riding with a few stops for shooting, then I'd say a pelican camera case is a good bet - lockable, tough, waterproof. If you're touring around to see the sights, then maybe a backpack - LowePro, Tamrac, Gura Gear, would be better. With that said, I backpacked Europe several decades ago with two Nikon bodies, three lenses and other stuff in a regular daypack. The lens not on a body was in a lens bag. One body and a short lens stayed tucked into a cheap SLR plus lens bag in the backpack. The other body floated loose amongst whatever was with me for the day. Nothing banged together. Everything was reasonably accessible, and always with me. Everything was fine after many months.
I carry my 7D, 15-85, and 11-16 in a camera bag that happens to fit perfectly inside my Wolfman Rainier tank bag. It doesn't see much for vibrations or get kicked around in that position much at all. If you're riding on road, I'm sure it'd be perfect in a pelican case on the tail, but for the off-roading I do, I feel the back of the bike gets kicked around pretty aggressively. Those cases are pretty amazing though, so it probably would be fine back there too. Moisture wise, I've got a rain cover for my camera bag and for the tank bag, so if it's really coming down I put both on. Haven't had any problems with water getting in.
An issue that surprised me with a sony dslr is south east asia, was that unless I kept it sealed up in a drybag and dried it out with some air con every so often, all the metal parts of the camera, including the old m42 mount lens I was using started shocking me, humidity presumably. Also prevented the usb connection from working without a spell in an air conned room before hand, camera and cards still worked fine though.
I'm assuming you're not going to be able to mount a Pelican case... (I have a 1450 w/ camera interior as top case) I'd say a good photo backpack with the sensitive stuff in ziplocks/drybags inside? Also check out Aquapac for slr: http://usstore.aquapac.net/explore-...cases/stormproof-slr-camera-pouch-uss022.html .
Thanks for the reminder. I must study up on the humidity issue. Last time there I went down onto the Mekong in the early mornings. Looked through view-finder. Ugh. All fogged up. Changed lenses. Same thing. Just moving from the accommodation which was close to the river down onto the river was enough. Presumably humidity went down? along with a probable change in temperature - it was cooler on the water - took at least 5 -7 minutes to equalise.
I bought a LowePro backpack a number of years ago - the zip runs around horizontally half way down so the camera and lenses go in the base (it has dividers etc and all padded) then the top half is a normal backpack to fit fiddly stuff in. I keep a gorilla tripod in there. It is quickly accessible - gear is protected - not too heavy and really versatile - I don't know if they still make them but it goes with me everywhere - brilliant.
I was worried about the same situation. So I sold my dslr and picked up an rx100 instead. I haven't regretted that move at all.
Don't want to get too off-topic here but that's an option too. My wife bought herself a Lumix FZ200 before our last trip to Vietnam. f2.8 out to effectively 600mm, smaller sensor of course, and 12 mb compared to 16 - 18 mb, but the images she got were extraordinary. It's the same lens and insides as the Leica v-lux 4. Down-side is it is not rated as sealed which could be a problem in SE Asian downpours, whereas the Pentax k20D and Pentax lenses just keep on swimmin'. Worth considering smaller gear though.
Lots of choices people. I hadn't thought of the tankbag idea. Obvious really!! It avoids the larger and more obvious Pelican style case. It also avoids carrying a back pack containing hard and expensive items to fall on in an off. I could glue in some velcro strips and pull the padding out of one of my various camera cases to suit the gear being carried. If I take a laptop as suggested by kurtzinpa I would leave it at the accommodation in any event so its just the body with one lens fitted and the other seperate. A tankbag of that quality (Wolfman) should be a universal fit. Only issue might be Cambodian bike tanks will be fairly small compared to U.S. and Australian bike tanks. Have to check that out. Thanks for all the contributions.
Fuji has a line of weather resistant mirrorless cams and lenses. While not as compact as the RX 100, it's still more compact then a DSLR. I went mirrorless for the very reason I wanted compact for fitting into the tank bag, but i also wanted removable lenses, and without sacrificing much IQ.