I have traveled all over south east Asia and Mexico with expensive travel equipment and never had a problem. Use the same precautions you would in your home country and you will be just fine. Just as likely to get your gear stolen in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, or Sydney as in SE Asia. Use common sense and you will have no trouble. Crime is very low in most of SE Asia.

Nice man! When I said I am looking for people from the US I guess what I really meant is I am looking for people who currently live in North America. Just for budget reasons. When is your next month off?

I second the question of what camera body you have or plan on getting. Or budget? Do you want to go light with one lens or plan on carrying a full video production kit? All these things would affect lens decisions?

7 days in Bangkok and 6 days in Chiang Mai is a lot compared to most people’s itineraries. Though I have done multiple months in each of those cities sos I understand slower travel. But for someone on vacation, 7 days is a lot in Bangkok. I would rather be able to do pai and an island.

Is the week in Bangkok and 5-6 days in Chiang Mai set in stone? I would modify and do Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai, and a Thai island. Can break down the number of days in each if interested.

No problem!! It’s gonna be rainy season for basically all of Thailand at that point and burning season with all the smoke should (fingers crossed) be basically cleared up by May. Though I have seen it last into June.

As far as the islands. I love the idea of finishing the trip relaxing on the islands but at the beginning of May vs end of June you will have a better chance of more sunny days. Even if it is only slightly better chances.

Overall rainy season is usually not terrible in SE Asia. It may rain hard close to every day but usually it only last for an hour or few and the rest of the day is good. Take the rainy time to dive into a bar or coffee shop with friends for a beer or coffee!

Enjoy your trip! SE Asia is the best!!!

For sure… 1-5 VND and 6-9 VND. I set my iso manually in a lot of situations. It is just in very specific situations where I am in very challenging and changing conditions where things are moving very very fast and nothing can be repeated that I run on auto iso and would like this feature. It is not a big deal, but just a want since I have had it with other manufacturers and I know Panasonic generally is considered to have a very very thorough set of features and menu options.

I am not sure about other countries but if you are from the US, there are lots of banks that allow you to use ATMs all over the world with no fee and they reimburse all fees charged by the local atm (Charles Schwab or Lending Club come to mind). But even if you don’t have that luxury, bet to get money from atms as you go. Better exchange rate than changing money and the fees are pretty minimal. Just try to get the money out in large chunks to avoid getting charged fees many times.

Thanks man. I appreciate it. It is not that big of a deal. I use the histogram 99% of the time when adjusting the VND. I was just curious if I could get this set up the way it was on my older Sony. For all the other pros of the S5ii it is absolutely worth losing that “feature”. Thanks for taking the time! Cheers!

This is not something I use all the time. I need the aperture set at certain values and the SS at 180. But in certain crazy situations in the adventure doc world I work in, it would be nice to have the extra clear little check when setting my VND in chaotic, face paced, and sometimes dangerous situations I find myself in.

Yes I know those tools well and use them. Just also would like the things i described in the posts because i am ofter shooting in very fast paced documentary situations that i dont necessarily have the time to check those things and can’t miss the action. Would like an additional quick check so when i spin the VND I get a super quick read out if the exposure is close. Some clear and obvious and easy to see on a tiny monitor in chaos like conditions hahahaha

Yes this is the problem. I do use all those other tools when the situation is appropriate but I am a documentary filmmaker that shoots in a verite style in situations that are very very very fast paced and hectic. I know those other tools very well and work well but just would like to get the little flashing warning too. Someone in another post said it worked in there camera. I have reached out to them but they have not responded. It is not the biggest deal or end of the world just something I would like.

Because, like I described in the original post, if you are shooting video in really really bright sun, have the aperture set to 2.8, SS at 180 degrees, and are using a VND, the iso could be at its lowest point and the imagine still be significantly over exposed. The So I would like it to tell me by how much so I can quickly adjust the VND on the fly while in extremely hectic and fast run and gun doc filmmaking situations.

Thanks man

So do you know if any special setting needs to be changed to get the aperture and SS to flash red when “out of bounds” when everything is manual but auto iso? You confirmed it does for you but it does not on my S5ii. Thanks

It only gives a “live read out” if the iso is not on auto. But like I said…. It is clear the exposure is way way way off.

Yes I know but it does change from anything other than the exposure comp value I have set when the iso is on auto. Even though I absolutely know the exposure is way way off like in the situation I described in the original post.

For sure. Zebras and histogram and waveform are great but I am trying to see how to get an exposure meter or to get the aperture and SS to flash like with other camera systems I have used.

For me it would depend on what months you will be there to determine which is best for your specific trip. Want to avoid burning season in northern Thailand and Laos and want to have the least amount of rain or cloudy days in the islands. A month or two or even a week or two difference can have a big effect on these things.

When is your trip?

I have never taken any of the buses/mini buses but I have heard they are terribly bumpy and not a fun time. I have taken the newish high speed train and it was awesome! Really quick and efficient. Probably a little more expensive than the buses but well worth it in my opinion.

My first thought when I read this is maybe you are staying at the "wrong" hostels. I have seen it all over the world, some hostels are packed and some are empty. I think the easiest way to avoid this problem is to look at the number of reviews for a hostel when booking it. Using an app like hostelworld dont just check the review score but actually the number of reviews. I have seen many hostels with a great score, like a 9.0 or higher but only had like 100 reviews. That hostel will probably be dead. It will be nice, but dead. Another hoster has an 8.2 but has 4000 reviews.... if you are looking to be social.... that is the one to book. a high number of reviews means lots of people are staying they, which means it should be social.

Also on the hostelworld app it will show you how many people have already booked for the days you are looking at. Really helpful to see which ones are busy and popular and which ones will not.

Good luck! Cheers!

Oh for sure I get that. I guess I was figuring that you were from Europe so that you would be starting there and returning there because you live there. My mistake.

In that case I would do October-January in SE Asia and then February- May in Europe. Cheers!

Another vote for Schwab for a debit card. Never have to worry about using any atm. Any fees the atm chargers you, Schwab will reimburse you.