What's the dream kit for a multi-media journalist?

Working in a media team for a conservation charity, we are encouraged to try new ways of gathering new media content, especially when on assignment away from the office. While in Malta last year, covering illegal hunting, I was capturing content for a variety of in-house and external media, including print, TV and the web. Outputs from this content appeared on the Guardian, BBC and Birdwatch magazine and Birdguides websites, as well as Maltese TV.
Carrying several different camera systems is not ideal, but until a manufacturer comes up with a truly integrated system for capturing stills and video, then I guess a bad back is an occupational hazard. My stout and trustee Billingham bag has seen action in several parts of the world from the Falklands to the Flow Country in Scotland, but each year more and more kit gets added and I fear it won't be able to take the strain much longer - and as I'm getting older, neither will I: something has to be done. Writing this post has encouraged me to think about my ideal multimedia kit and how my kit bag could go on a diet.

Base photography kit
Producing many more stills than video, my base still photography kit is built around my key workhorse; a very forgiving Nikon D70 with lenses from 18mm to 300mm (about 28mm to 450mm in old money). Although it only shoots at six megapixels, I find this camera most times can turn in stills of sufficient quality to illustrate most stories. At 300dpi a landscape-format photo can still be reproduced at more than the width of an A4 page in a quality magazine. One cropped image even provided a double-page spread in our magazine (with a bit of work in Photoshop), so it can't be that bad. However, although it's still functioning, I feel the D70 badly needs a younger sibling to keep it from getting old before its time.

Tempted by the Nikon D90
Looking at newer cameras in the Nikon range, I have been tempted by the now withdrawn D200. This would have one advantage in that I would be able to take light readings with my old manual-focus Nikkor lenses. However, I'm now thinking like a heretic and that I should add the D90 to my gear, which would allow me to ditch the video camera because this new Nikon is the first DSLR to have HD video as standard. Potentially that would allow me to have two DSLR cameras with different lenses attached for stills work: a wide-angle zoom and a telephoto zoom. Another advantage is that I'd be able to put my Nikon F3 into a museum, as the days for a back-up film body have gone. The D90 should also allow me to shoot video of sufficient quality for the web and even occasional broadcast use.

Bemoaned
Reading the posts, reviewers have bemoaned the softness of the footage, and the lack of control over the exposure from the D90 and focusing once you start shooting.
Oh, and it also doesn't appear to have an external microphone socket, meaning that you either have to put up with uncontrollable sound from the onboard mic or you record on a seperate sound system and sync the whole lot in the editing process.

Madness
I must be mad to think that I should make my life more difficult by making my video work much more complicated. Well, perhaps, but I think there will be positives from working with the D90. Most of the footage that I shoot is for the web, so perhaps quality is not an absolutely over-riding issue, and secondly I'm seduced by the thought all those great shots that I can get with my suite of Nikon lenses that I can't get with a conventional camcorder: proper wide-angle scenics; macro shots; extreme telephoto; and those lovely interviews with a proper out of focus background - a shot that's almost impossible to achieve on a camcorder, because of the smaller chip size. The ability to shoot proper HD wides and scenics will also allow me to jetison the video camera's wide-angle converter - saving a little more weight and space and I do need a paperweight for my desk.

Edirol R-09
I'm intending to solve the sound problem by using an Edirol R-09 digital recorder and then obtaining sync in post production using Audacity. This is a pain, but it does mean that I will have access to a seperate sound recorder for broadcast use and for gathering seperate podcast content, and also I will have an audio notebook permanently in my kit bag: great for feature interviews. As well as being a hand-held unit, the real advantage of the Edirol is that it will allow to plug in a microphone (either a lav or a cardoid) and adjust the level seperately.

Four streams of content
My aspiration is to continue to use my gear to obtain four streams of content: audio; video; still photos; and written material. These streams can then merged back at base to provide outputs for print, broadcast and the various outlets on the web. I also act as a conservation spokesman for the RSPB, so gathering additional content fits in well with other work when on assignment. If I was shooting mainly for broadcast (as many multimedia VJs are doing) then my gear would lean towards higher-quality video production, perhaps to one of the Sony cameras like the EX-3. But as the backbone of my content still involves shooting stills, I think my kit bag will have to reflect this, for now, anyway.

At the current time my personal field gear consists of the following
(depending upon the assignment the kit in my bag will vary):

Billingham bag
Nikon D70
Sigma 18-55mm AF lens
Nikon 70-300mm AF lens
Nikkor 105mm f2.8 manual-focus macro lens (still great for portraits wide open)
Nikkor 300mm f2.8 manual-focus lens (even better for portraits!)
Nikkor x2 teleconverter (makes my trustee 300mm Nikkor equivalent to a 900mm lens)
Nikkor 50mm f1.4mm manual-focus lens (great when the light's so gloomy that it won't allow any other lens to be used)
Extension tubes for macro work
Metz 45CL hammerhead flash (not dedicated)
5-metre flash lead
Flash block with three sync sockets
Secondary pocket flash (great for fill in or back lighting)
Remote release for Nikon D70
Matthews video tripod
Five-in-one gold, silver and white fold-up reflector and diffuser
Polarising filter
Blower brush
Spare batteries and cards for above
Canon HF10 camcorder
Edirol R-09 sound recorder
Sennheiser wireless lavalier microphone
Cardoid hand-held microphone and windjammer (great for atmosphere and wildtrack recording) 3-metre audio lead
Headphones
White card and grey card for checking white balance and exposure
Clapper board (the old fashioned way of keeping sound in sync)
Opticron 10x42 binoculars (my work is mainly wildlife)

In the car:
Second tripod
Two 500W security lights (used as makeshift video lights) and stands
Blue gels for controlling the colour of the lighting

Being added to my own gear in the next few weeks:
Nikon D90
A really wide lens (possibly the Sigma 10-20mm) for scenics and making great photos from mediocre subjects (who says the camera cannot lie!)
As the following items belong to work, I also intend to purchase my own: Audio Technica wired lavalier microphone; Edirol R-09 and Matthews video tripod so that I have all my own gear for private projects.

Long-term wish list:
Beachtek sound mixer to allow me to gather better quality sound from both the lavalier and cardoid mics when used in conjunction with each other (great for interviews or events)
At the moment the centre of balance is on still photos with occasional video output. If the move towards solo video production continues in time I may wish to acquire a video camera with interchangeable lenses, like a JVC or a Sony.