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Author Topic: Antarctica -Dream Trip  (Read 942 times)

soboyle

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Antarctica -Dream Trip
« on: March 30, 2015, 10:17:49 am »

Michele - thanks for the great report on your trip - definitely a dream come true.
I may also be fortunate enough to be going to Antarctica with the NSF in 2015/2016 season. I'm interested in hearing about what photo and clothing gear worked and what didn't. How cold was it while you were there? Any camera failures?
I'll be spending time land based rather than ship board - at McMurdo, Dry Valleys, and hopefully at the South Pole Station. So I need advice on what gear will handle those more extreme conditions and temperatures.

michelesons

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Re: Antarctica -Dream Trip
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2015, 05:45:40 pm »

Hello soboyle, I'm not sure that I can be of much help, since conditions on my trip were incredibly mild.  It hovered from maybe 20 to 32 degrees F, so really not bad at all.  But I will happily share what I know.

Clothing wise, I went with many light layers, including wool base, down and synthetic mid layers, and then waterproof outer.  But this is such a personal choice.  I started with what I knew worked (such as wool base) and built from there.  I relied heavily on the Antarctica XXI guidelines that were provided to us. I tested everything out ahead of time, too - donned the whole kit and went out walking in sub-freezing temps.  I had everything I needed and never felt cold or ill-prepared.  My polar buff was great, kept my face toasty.

In terms of camera gear, I rented a second body identical to mine, and set up all the menus to be clones of my regular setup.  This way I could work with two bodies at all times, seamlessly.  Switching out lenses was minimized, too, which I was advised to do.  It worked beautifully, although it was heavy (for me, anyway).  I did bring a tripod, but barely used it (although I was glad I always had it as an option).  No failures.  No battery issues.  No regrets in terms of what I chose to bring with me.  I used most of my weight up on camera gear and re-wore and rinsed clothing.  The gear was way more crucial to me than clean clothes, lol!

In terms of backup, I went to town.  I wrote to dual cards in camera, then after every excursion, I downloaded to hard drive and external drive.  I had 4 copies of everything.  Never deleted anything from the cards.  Lots of insurance!!

Hope some of that helps you out!  It's a tough process trying to decide what to take.  But nobody can really tell you, you just have to figure it out.  That was my experience, anyway.

Good luck to you!
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