Micro-packing

I've spent many hours today 'micro-packing': organising the physically small but critical items without which a whole category of luggage can become useless ballast. For example, stove, fuel and pans are useless unless you have a source of fire, and this in itself useless unless kept dry or otherwise reliably functioning. It all requires a certain fussiness which mercifully abates as soon as one pedals away. Though I rarely avoid at least one urgent bit of shopping at the start of a ride for some small item that in spite of everything I've omitted.
Today's micro-packing was of photographic equipment. If gear-talk makes you glaze over, then read no further, and I promise to raise my eyes from the hardware in my next post. But for now please let me indulge my preoccupation with the tools of photography.
I make a rule that everything will be carried round my waist, this year for the first time in a Kata beltpack. A rucksack is out of the question for prolonged cycling, especially in hot weather, and I've never been happy to subject camera gear to the vibrations and jolting of bags attached to the bike. So, for security and accessibility, I will literally be joined at the waist to this cargo for a month: on the bike, round cafes and shops, in the loo, even hanging it from shower hooks and partitions. It mustn't be too heavy or bulky. Yet I want SLR picture quality, and to cover the most useful focal lengths. I also want some redundancy in case of equipment failure.Two camera bodies provide this, can reduce lens swapping, and allow me to lend a camera and lens to Jenni when she occasionally feels the photographic spirit stir. I've upgraded my cameras, so more weight there, leaving little over for an arsenal of lenses. Here's this year's solution with approximate weights:

• 1 x full frame body (900g)
• 1 x crop sensor body (1.6 x focal length multiplier) (800g)
• 1 x 24mm-105mm zoom (becomes 38mm -168mm equivalent on crop sensor) (700g)
• 1 x 35mm f2 prime lens (becomes 56mm equivalent on crop sensor) (200g)

This would allow either body AND either lens to fail without creating a gross imbalance: there would always be something close to a standard lens. However if, as I hope, everything remains in order, the range is from 24mm to 168mm equivalent. Both lenses manage 1:4 reproduction at closest focus, which gives passable close-up ability on the crop frame body. What I'll probably do is have the 24-104 on the crop frame body when on the road, as I find less use for really wide angle there, but often want to exclude foreground detail or compress perspective. At other times, it will migrate to the full-frame body, because in general photography I love the control over composition and the drama of a wide angle. The 35mm will act as a body cap most of the time (and not be much heavier!), but makes a useful reserve lens, as well as having its own virtues of being fast (two extra stops) and unobtrusive.
Having chosen the core of the system, it remained to ensure batteries, cards, leads, card reader, lens caps and so on were all present and correct. I have still to finalise file storage, given we're away for a month. I'm taking my laptop, but require a second storage device, unless I buy lots more cards and set them aside once full.