Intro
I’ve been on the road since August and couldn’t be happier with the choice of camera gear / equipment I’ve packed. Back in 2014 when I switched from a Canon 1D and range of heavy lenses my goal was to reduce the weight of my camera gear to under 10Kg (22lb) as I knew I was going to be travelling for a long period in 2015.
It’s really all about removing as much as possible and reducing the packlist to the ultimate minimum.
To further reduce the weight of my equipment I also switched from a fully upgraded 15″ MacBook Pro to the newer 12″ MacBook and and managed to halve the weight of laptop / accessory gear in my bag.
As a surf photographer I will always have a housing and a range of ports in the packlist. This is probably the only piece of equipment where I didn’t lose very much weight over my previous setup (Aquatech Imaging Solutions). The Olympus housing is a dive housing and is therefore built a lot more robust (and heavier) than Aquatech housings. However, the housing and ports are MUCH smaller and I can fit this part of my gear into the tiny small pro F-Stop Gear ICU.

- Olympus OM-D E-M1
- M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO
- M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
- M.Zuiko x1.4 Tele Converter
- M.Zuiko 75mm f/2.8 PRO
- Panasonic LUMIX 8mm f/3.5 fisheye
- Olympus Battery Grip for E-M1
- 4x E-M1 batteries + charger kit
- E-M1 camera strap
- E-M1 flash unit
- Olympus PT-EP11 Underwater Housing
- Olympus PPO-E02 Port
- ZEN 100mm dome port
- Rain-X and Anti Fog spray
- Silica Gels
- O-Ring Grease
- Zoom Ring Gear (PPZR-EP04)
- Fish-Lite V25 2800Lumen Waterproof Dive Torch
- DaFin fins
- Lens cleaning cloths
- Apple MacBook 12″ 1.2GHz CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage
- Apple charger + international Adapter
- Apple USB-C to USB adapter
- Apple USB-C to Multi Port (USB-C, USB, HDMI) adapter
- Apple iPhone 5S
- Belkin Multi Card Reader
- 2x 2TB Seagate USB-3 external HDD
- Goal Zero mini charger for iPhone
- OlloClip lens for iPhone
- Apple Headphones
- F-Stop Gear Medium Shallow ICU
- F-Stop Gear Small Pro ICU
- F-Stop Gear Guru 28L Backpack (discontinued)
- F-Stop Gear SD Card Pouch
- F-Stop Gear Digi Buddy
I’m hoping to add the M.Zuiko 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO to the list in 2016 to complete my M.Zuiko PRO lens lineup, since my photography has evolved and I feel that a landscape lens will come in handy.
Over the months of travelling and working with Chris Burkard there obviously have been slight changes / optimisations, but in general I’d say this is probably the perfect packlist for my needs.