What’s in your bag?
Road reporter Naka Nathaniel has the weight of a New York Times satellite telephone budget behind him when he’s on the road producing features like the film above with Nicolas Kristof. But, blasting through recent history it seems what goes in his rucksack hasn’t changed *too* much since 2004,
June 2004 “My kit isn’t all that burdensome. I carry a Mac G4 laptop and an IBM T21, however both are getting pretty beaten up. I use a Sony MiniDisc recorder and I carry a couple of cameras, with my favorite being the Canon D60. Recently, I’ve also been carrying a PD-150. I do the photo, audio, video, and Flash work on the Mac. When the feature is ready to file I use a USB thumb drive to move the elements over to the IBM. I use the PC to access the servers in New York, do e-mail, and surf the web. I have at least a half-dozen ways to connect and transmit. In Iran we used the RBGAN satellite transmitter to file. About 20 percent of the kit is devoted to converters, chargers, and cords. It is getting easier to file with more wi-fi networks starting to show up.”
via completetosh
February 2005 – “I usually carry a pelican case with the PD-150 camcorder, a Canon D60 with two lenses, a Sony MiniDisc audio recorder, two wireless microphone kits, a shotgun mic, and a slim LaCie 40GB external hard drive. Stuffed in there now are a couple dozen DV tapes, four batteries for the camcorder, four batteries for the D60, and several CF cards.
I’m using an Apple G4 right now, and often I’ll carry a Dell D400 if I need to use the R-BGAN for Internet connections. I have a satellite phone with me most times, just in case. Also, there are a half-dozen cords and plug converters.
I usually carry camping clothes in an effort to get away with as little as possible–stuff that you can wash in a sink and it’ll dry in an hour or two.”
September 2007 – “Nathaniel carries the video camera (he uses a Sony PD150), and edits on FCP.”
That’s his bag, but what’s in your bag? Vaughan Smith plans to blog his Afghan bag, but we’re on the look out for other bags we can rummage, lemme know.
UPDATE: In the comments, Naka tells us what he’s using today…
This is funny. I can’t help but laugh at how I’ve been slow to adopt new kit. I guess I’ve just stuck with what’s served me well.
I’ve gotten around to updating my bag in the past months to go smaller and lighter. I ditched the PC a long while back and I’m using a MacBook Pro. I’m also no longer a fan of big SLRs. I now use a nice little Leica to shoot stills while the video camera is on a tripod. I was getting annoyed at clicking sounds from the SLR in the middle of my audio. Speaking of audio: I’m carrying around two wireless mic sets and a shotgun. There are a couple small LaCie 160GB drives in the bag these days. The PD150 is about to be retired. She was a true workhorse. N.Y. Times is shifting to HD and I’ve been playing around with a Canon HV20 for my own personal shooting.
