Gadgets Galore in Istanbul

Like any other trip that I've taken (including trips back home), I've always been in charge of the gadgets that we have to pack and bring - with the express intention of using said gadgets during the trip. It can go from the 'take-for-granted' (ie phone charges) to the bizarre (travel hotplate and bowl for cooking rice...hey, it was useful!)

Well after several holidays and taking into consideration that we are a young family, I knew pretty much what kind of equipment we needed to bring to 'document' our trip to Istanbul (ala Sir Richard Attenborough...)

Cutey, Chubby, Cheeky (Ckn pana pic)

Canon 350D Digital SLR - big macho camera used most of the time by moi of course, since July 2005!

I brought along only 2 of my lens, taking into account that I would only bring either one on our daily outings (it's cumbersome and too heavy for both). The first lens was a Sigma 10-20mm super ultra wide angle lens. I bought that recently in KL exclusively to be used during this trip (it's shown above attached to my DSLR), especially with the promise of beautiful vistas and landscapes of the city. I also used this lens for interiors, considering that some had really high ceilings (look at the background pic - this is a wide angle pic of the inside of the Blue Mosque)

The second lens was a Tamron 18-200mm zoom lens. I've had this for some time now, and it was recommended by a good friend, Arman, late last year. This is my workhorse lens; excellent for the walkabouts, interiors, and closeups of the kids.

Mean Boy at work - so I had to use the zoom lens and take this from far away...! (ezal canon pic)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01 - This is Ckn's camera, which had its first full field test in Istanbul. In our earlier travels, the main complaint that I would receive is that the monster Canon (hehe) would not come out as often as Ckn would have liked.

So she was adamant that we also invest in a pocket camera, to capture those opportunistic moments. I wouldn't have considered this camera had it not been for (a) its excellent capability in capturing 640 x 480 25fps MP4 movies, which were better than my vidcam (more on that later) and (b) it came in a nice matte Black finish (matches the monster; none of this grey/silver digicam crap, thanks very much!). Anyway, the camera performed very well (just look at the Dervish pic at the top and the one with Cheeky in this post). I don't have a pic of it being held due to its size and Ckn's preference to keep it in her jeans pocket.

Sony Handycam (Can't remember the model number!). Finally, for our video needs, we went back to our nearly-2 year old handycam. Sony really knows it's stuff; this little wonder was invaluable in capturing videos of the holiday. It's cheap to run as we use MiniDV tapes, and the size is a bonus. If you don't have a vidcam and you're looking for a cheap reliable one, then buy a Sony. I originally invested in this when preparing for our move to Sudan, and I've had no regrets.

Alas, we lost the function of the fold-out screen; it just died (witnesses say they saw Ehsan fleeing the incident...). We could still use the eye-piece, but it got harder to use. Hopefully we can repair it in KL later on. Nowadays, if we need to get some fast videos, we just use the Panasonic.

Gorillapod SLR. This is a special camera tripod that was a present from Ckn for my 32nd Birthday (she took the trouble to find out about this device from our wedding photographer, Zainul Firdaus, StudioLine Photography). Take a look at the link and see the monster-legs in action! the funny thing is that I only got to use it once in the St Sophia museum - before 2 policemen came to me and 'politely' reminded me - NO tripods! auuw shucks...but not before I took this pic :

Inside the St Sophia museum. Pity it was full of scaffolding used for the ceiling restoration (ezal canon pic)

Tamrac Velocity. All that gear was initially carried in the Tamrac camera bag that we brought - we used the bag for a few days, but because we decided to carry Erica exclusively in the baby carrier, we decided to use the Deuter as our main mule (...hmm I was carrying the Deuter...so that makes me the ...mule?)

Philips World Stewardess. Finally, we also brought along our iron. Trust me - it's essential! sure we may have gotten it at the hotel, but we couldn't be sure. And with Ckn's tudungs and my shirts, the stewardess proved invaluable for our trip to Istanbul.