Bikepacking stoves

The minimalist's set up
I purchased my Optimus Svea 123 Hiker's stove more than 15 years ago.
As far as I can recall, this little pocket rocket has followed me on numerous trips that required cooking and the heating up of processed food.
So far, it has never been a let down.
The initial investment was high.
At a price of 110 Euros, the Svea can put a dent on your wallet.
Nevertheless, this stove had served me very well.
My recent outing in Kuala Kubu Baru saw the revival of the Svea stove.
I used it mainly to boil water and heat up my sachet food.
It takes about 3 minutes to bring a pot of water (400ml) to boil.
On larger volumes, it takes less than 10 minutes to do so.
To carry the Svea, I use a Camping Gaz Globetrotter pot which I had decommissioned to housed the stove.
This provided protection for the stove and can be used to bring water to a boil on my excursions.

Classic design: the Optimus Svea 123

I use this CampingGaz Globetrotter pot to house the stove

Operating cost
For an overnight trip, I pack an MSR fuel bottle (small 500ml) and a Nalgene (500ml) red bottle to carry petrol and denatured alcohol.
Petrol is the fuel to burn (about 92sen to fill up 500ml) and the alcohol is used mainly for priming the stove.
A litre containing both propellants would weigh less than 1kg.
It takes about 200ml to fill the Svea's fuel tank and after priming the stoves, it will burn for 30-minutes under moderate settings.
Since it takes about 3 minutes to boil a pot of water, you can use it for 10 times before a re-fuel is in order.

The Svea in use...

 Summary
Given the weather conditions here, the Svea is one hardy stove.
You can leave it in the open and all you need to do, is to pour some denatured alcohol over the priming cup and its good to go.
The Svea requires very little maintenance and once it starts to clog, all you need to do, is to turn it up-side down and give it a couple of shakes.
This would clear the jet nozzle to allow fuel to flow freely.
As far as storage is concerned, the Svea takes very little space. 
But, when it comes to fuel, do make it a point to empty the bottles and let it air before you keep it.

The evergreen Canon EF50mm F2.5 compact macro

Ye olde faithful: the EF50mm F2.5 compact macro lens

Most of the dragonfly photos were shot with the 50mm macro lens


Despite its short focal length, the lens was able to capture some vivid details on this dragonfly which was found near my house in Subang Jaya...

THE Canon EF50mm F2.5 compact macro lens is one of the oldest close up lens in
Canon's EF lenses line-up.Its also one of the oldest around, surviving nearly two decades of existance. The 50mm has a 1:2 or 0.5x magnification quality which made it the shortest macro lens
around.Since its old technology, the EF50mm compact macro is clumsy and noisy when you flick in
its autofocus features.This is a lens meant for full-frame Canon film cameras that survived the digital age and with
a crop factor of 1.6x in APS-C sensor D-SLRs, the EF50mm has a focal length of 80mm,
but this doesn't yield enough if you expect to shoot bugs below 10mm in size.Ironically, the EF50mm macro lens was also my first Canon close-up lens and is still in use
for large objects.I won't put my money on this glass as a portraiture lens because its a first rate close-up tool.In the beginning, I've had much difficulty getting good close-up shots. I've even deployed a macro adaptor on the 50mm, but its just not good enough.To resolve the issue, I purchased a set of Kenko extension tubes (the best there is) to get
1.2x magnification.This is because the 50mm macro lens has an EF lifesize converter (very pricey piece of
accessory) that gives it a 1:1 magnification ratio.With the tubes, I shot some dragonflies and the results were simply stunning.Even at an extended focal length (close-up only), the 50mm was able to produce some vivid
details of the dragonfly's compound eyes.This cannot be achieved with the 1:2 ratio on the lens.Much of my learning experience on macro photography was made through the 50mm macro
and the results are shown on my work that focused specifically on dragonflies.I will not retire the EF50mm F2.5 compact macro because it will be very useful in capturing
products and this will the later phase in my pursuit in digital photography.