What's in my bag for Antarctica

I thought that along with my posts on how I’m going to make my weight limit for Antarctica I would throw one in on what camera gear I’m taking and why.

Lenses

AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/ 2.8 – Given the type of terrain that will be on view in Antarctica I think having an ultra-wide lens will be useful here to get the true scope of the landscape. It could turn out to be a waste of weight, but I will see what I can do with it. I also have the Sigma 14mm Art lens which is an excellent lens but it weights more than this zoom so it will be staying home.

AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 – I’m betting that this will likely be my most used lens while in Antarctica. Many of the iceberg pictures look to be taken from zodiac rides so could be too close for the 70-200mm. The lens is sharp for a zoom and the lightest lens I’m taking. I will report back when the trip is over to cover what I used while on this trip.

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 – This will be excellent for penguin pictures and details for Ice formations. I use this lens a lot for many different types of photography and I think I will take a good number of shots with this lens. This is the heaviest lens I will be taking.

Camera bodies

Nikon D850 – This will be the primary camera I will use while on this trip. I will have had this camera body for about a year when I leave on this trip. I might be able to take advantage of the focus stacking feature and I will be using it to take some video while on the trip. I will likely have the 24-70mm mounted on this camera most often.

Nikon D800 – This will be my backup camera body, you can’t go all the way to Antarctica with a single body. Given the conditions anything can go wrong so it makes since to have a second body despite the weight. I will mount the 70-200mm on this camera by default.

Tripod

Manfrotto MT190CXPRO4 carbon fiber tripod. There are a lot of people who spend their whole Antarctica trip without a tripod and they come back with some amazing images. I use a tripod all the time and I think it helps me get sharp shots and better images. If however it comes down to it and I can’t get the weight I need the tripod is the first item on the list to go. Since if I eliminate the tripod, I will also eliminate the ballhead and my L bracket. All of that adds up to about 5 pounds which is over 10% of the total weight I can take.

Filters

Polarizer – This is the most common filter I use to cut glare or reflections that I don’t want.

ND Filters – I will be taking at least a 3 and 6 stop and maybe a 10 stop neutral grad filter. The coast in Antarctica is extremely bright during the short summer. I think that there might be some great chances to get some long exposures so to get those I will need ND filters.

Other accessories

Batteries – I will be taking 6 batteries for this trip. The cold is hard to predict on average according to the expedition companies web portal will be 2 C during the day, but you should plan for as cold as  -12 to -15C. These temps will quickly kill the batteries, so I will be taking extras just in case.

Memory cards – Because I will be taking the D850 and D800 I will have XQD cards, CF cards and SD cards for backup fortunately memory cards are not a weight concern.

Cleaning Supplies – rocket blower, lens pen, micro-fiber clothes and a sensor cleaning kit.

Computer and other equipment

Computer – ThinkPad P1 under 4 pounds with charger. I will use this to download my pictures and do some minimal processing.

Backup Drives – 2 SanDisk 1 TB portable SSD I will be switching to these from the drives I have been using for years to save weight.

Changes I made for the Antarctica trip

I bought a new camera bag I have been using a Tamarac Expedition 8 for this trip and future use I bought the Mindshift BackLight 36L it is 3 pounds lighter than my other bag.

I switched out my old 17” HP laptop that I have been using for over 10 years, it weights in at almost 10 pounds with the charger. I upgraded to the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 15” screen and under 4 pounds.

Everything else that I will be taking was part of my standard overall kit. For clothes I have added some better socks but will be trying to get the rest of done on things I already own.

If I make any changes, I will update the post.