Packing Again

messAARRGGHHHHH how I detest packing. Finding, sorting through, testing, wrapping, eliminating, replacing...every trip is different, so for every trip, it takes me a couple of days at least to figure out what I need to take.

To give you an idea of what's accompanying me to Lembeh and Manado, here's a list. By putting everything here, I'm forcing myself to double-check all the items once more, before I even attempt to put everything into carrying cases.

I've learned the hard way that this arduous self-imposed torture is necessary. Once, I showed up at a beautiful tropical island, all ready to go. As I assembled my gear, I realised at that I had forgotten to pack screws. That's correct. Little 5-cent screws that held together all the other expensive gear. Without the screws...I was screwed.

So here goes:

  • Three Canon 5D cameras
  • Two Canon 100mm macro lenses
  • Sigma 50mm macro lens
  • Canon 15mm fisheye lens
  • Canon 17-40mm zoom lens + custom-made zoom gear
  • Canon S50 point and shoot
  • +2 and +4 diopters
  • Extension tubes
  • Teleconverters
  • Two Zillion 5D housings
  • Four viewfinder adapters
  • Housing arms/ grips
  • Nexus port adapter
  • Inon port adapter
  • Nexus 60mm port
  • Nexus extension rings
  • Inon 100mm port
  • Inon external macro diopter
  • Inon extension rings
  • Two Athena dome ports + custom extension tube
  • Port remover tool (for when the ports get stuck)
  • Four Inon Z220s strobes
  • Four Inon strobe-to-arm adapters
  • Four -0.5 diffusers
  • Fibre-optic cables for strobes + spares
  • Two sync cords for strobes
  • Inon magnet adapters for Sync cord use
  • Inon focus light controllers for fibre-optic use
  • One ScubaCam prototype u/w torch + 2 batteries + charger
  • One normal torch
  • Six Ultralight ball joints
  • 12 screws for ball joints
  • Six DB-05 Ultralight short arms
  • One DB-08 Ultralight medium arm (don't know how I ended up with only one of these, must have left one somewhere)
  • Four DB-12 Ultralight long arms
  • Twelve AC-CS Ultralight clamps
  • 32 AA rechargeable batteries
  • Four AA rechargers
  • Five Canon 5D batteries + 2 chargers
  • Variety of plug-shape adapters
  • Two Sandisk 8GB Extreme III CF cards
  • One Sandisk 4GB Extreme III CF card
  • Firewire CF card reader + backup PCMCIA slot CF reader
  • O-ring grease (Inon, Zillion, Nexus, Sea & Sea, Generic)
  • Screwdivers, coins, tape, scissors, o-ring removers, lens paper, USB memory stick, name cards, everything but the kitchen sink
  • External hard disks (60GB, 160GB, 80GB iPod)
  • Two firewire cables
  • iPod cable
  • One ageing, decrepit Mac Powerbook G4 (soon to be replaced with a MacBook Pro)

And I haven't even started on my dive gear or clothes...