Pál_K
Cameras. I has it.
If I'm traveling for just one day (i.e. back at home the same day), I take just one camera and one lens. It could be anything from Minox (8x11mm). to medium format 6x9cm. I'd take large format 4x5" only if it's a dedicated photo trip.
On multi-day to multi-month trips, I take one high quality 35mm camera and one lens, plus a very small camera, usually Olympus XA2 or Minox 8x11.
There have been times I've traveled with just one camera and lens - a Nikon F2 with a pre-AI 55/1.2 Nikkor.
I travel very light, so having more equipment than this would irritate me greatly. Having only one lens on a journey helps me, because otherwise I find thinking about lens choice distracting and irritating while enjoying my trip.
On multi-day to multi-month trips, I take one high quality 35mm camera and one lens, plus a very small camera, usually Olympus XA2 or Minox 8x11.
There have been times I've traveled with just one camera and lens - a Nikon F2 with a pre-AI 55/1.2 Nikkor.
I travel very light, so having more equipment than this would irritate me greatly. Having only one lens on a journey helps me, because otherwise I find thinking about lens choice distracting and irritating while enjoying my trip.
robert blu
quiet photographer
because I do not photograph for work I can appreciate the freedom to have only one camera with me. And one lens, which usually stay on the camera for a long time.
When on a trip longer than a couple of days it can happen I bring more lenses just in case I need/desire to use them but I usually leave theese in the hotel safe.
It can happen when traveling by car I have beside the "regular" a low-fi camera. Polaroid or Holga.
When on a trip longer than a couple of days it can happen I bring more lenses just in case I need/desire to use them but I usually leave theese in the hotel safe.
It can happen when traveling by car I have beside the "regular" a low-fi camera. Polaroid or Holga.
rhl-oregon
Cameras Guitars Wonders
Thanks to Kostya for reviving Roger’s thread, and raising the ante with “pics or it doesn’t count” standard.
Linn and I usually travel with 3 cameras: for her, a zoom kit (formerly RX100iii, now A7/24-70); for me, a FF with 1-2 primes, plus a smaller 28-35mm fixed lens for longer walks, evenings out, low light. Above in NYC, and below in Firenze, it’s the MD262 with ever reliable ZM 50/2.
The “other camera” has typically been a GR, RX1, or X100s—lighter, AF or Snap Focus, less obtrusive in a museum, restaurant, subway, etc.
X100s
Here’s Linn’s RX100iii getting me in a photo-yoga pose in the Uffizi, ha ha. That X100s came to me from Helen Hill (I was still trying to convert Linn to Fuji X).
RX1, Arizona (hike & climb in the heat, no pleasure hauling heavier FF kit)
I go back and forth between M and A7(ii Kolari) for interchangeable lenses—M 21/35 or 28/50, A7 55/85 1.8 usually, though it is also pleasurable to use M lenses on the A7iiK
It has been over a year since I used a film M (or Fuji GA/Klasse) as the second camera. This is partly because we made a transcontinental move and that life change, happy as it truly is, has demoted our artistic inclinations to second and third and fourth order; but it may also be that I am moving away from film at last. (A spirited return to music-making and composition, for both of us, has something to do with this, too.)
As for Roger’s original question, 1 camera/1lens was only the case when it was all I could afford. That was a long time ago—backpacking England at 20 with a Yashica 44, documenting my first child’s young life with an OM-G/50 1.8....
No question that it can be good discipline, and that tremendously admirable photographers often discussed here have done their best-known work with what amounts to a Zen kit. I came from a childhood where the family had one camera. It never occurred to my parents to ask whether I wanted a camera (or guitar, or any tool of artistic discovery), and I did not feel deprived—until all at once, in early teens, I discovered I had to have and make art from that day forward. During most of my life since, I have been a one-or-two-camera, one-or-two-guitar person, with wages or salary committed first to family and household. Once my children were done college and home life, however, and my marriage to their mother was doomed by ovarian cancer (rather than the parting of ways that would surely have ensued, given our different temperaments and values), I have been able and willing to amass cameras, lenses, guitars and other stringed instruments, work and play with all of them in leisure, compulsively too to be sure because making art is paramount.
In any case, the third and probably final act of my life is provided with enough cameras and lenses, SD cards and frozen film, to never again have to consider being a 1/1 photographer. It is a different sort of family, whose members wait dutifully in suspended animation until I take one in hand, at which point it becomes me made otherwise, me with a different optic.
Never say never, but I don’t imagine my life will end with only one camera (or one guitar) at hand.
GR
Linn and I usually travel with 3 cameras: for her, a zoom kit (formerly RX100iii, now A7/24-70); for me, a FF with 1-2 primes, plus a smaller 28-35mm fixed lens for longer walks, evenings out, low light. Above in NYC, and below in Firenze, it’s the MD262 with ever reliable ZM 50/2.
The “other camera” has typically been a GR, RX1, or X100s—lighter, AF or Snap Focus, less obtrusive in a museum, restaurant, subway, etc.
X100s
Here’s Linn’s RX100iii getting me in a photo-yoga pose in the Uffizi, ha ha. That X100s came to me from Helen Hill (I was still trying to convert Linn to Fuji X).
RX1, Arizona (hike & climb in the heat, no pleasure hauling heavier FF kit)
I go back and forth between M and A7(ii Kolari) for interchangeable lenses—M 21/35 or 28/50, A7 55/85 1.8 usually, though it is also pleasurable to use M lenses on the A7iiK
It has been over a year since I used a film M (or Fuji GA/Klasse) as the second camera. This is partly because we made a transcontinental move and that life change, happy as it truly is, has demoted our artistic inclinations to second and third and fourth order; but it may also be that I am moving away from film at last. (A spirited return to music-making and composition, for both of us, has something to do with this, too.)
As for Roger’s original question, 1 camera/1lens was only the case when it was all I could afford. That was a long time ago—backpacking England at 20 with a Yashica 44, documenting my first child’s young life with an OM-G/50 1.8....
No question that it can be good discipline, and that tremendously admirable photographers often discussed here have done their best-known work with what amounts to a Zen kit. I came from a childhood where the family had one camera. It never occurred to my parents to ask whether I wanted a camera (or guitar, or any tool of artistic discovery), and I did not feel deprived—until all at once, in early teens, I discovered I had to have and make art from that day forward. During most of my life since, I have been a one-or-two-camera, one-or-two-guitar person, with wages or salary committed first to family and household. Once my children were done college and home life, however, and my marriage to their mother was doomed by ovarian cancer (rather than the parting of ways that would surely have ensued, given our different temperaments and values), I have been able and willing to amass cameras, lenses, guitars and other stringed instruments, work and play with all of them in leisure, compulsively too to be sure because making art is paramount.
In any case, the third and probably final act of my life is provided with enough cameras and lenses, SD cards and frozen film, to never again have to consider being a 1/1 photographer. It is a different sort of family, whose members wait dutifully in suspended animation until I take one in hand, at which point it becomes me made otherwise, me with a different optic.
Never say never, but I don’t imagine my life will end with only one camera (or one guitar) at hand.
GR
charjohncarter
Mentor
Henry Wessel: Leica M body, Canon 28mm lens, but I did see him with some other MF camera once.
Henry
Well-known
Since phones became good enough to be my backup I've only gone anywhere with the M240 and the Summilux 35 f/1.4 ASPH FLE. I've had good results with that device overall.
A trip I took to Strasbourg in 2018:
I have a hard time knowing if I really travel with only one camera and lens, since the phone goes with me always and fills that backup need. That said, when I want to "think photographically" I reach for the M240 rather than the phone. Isn't art partially process anyway? For me that process takes different forms. When my end goal is a panorama (I do a lot of these) I do reach for the phone, since a DNG from the iPhone, when stitched together with 20 others, is a great piece to a puzzle.
For me, travel is one camera or no camera, really, unless we include the phone, then I am always with a camera but I hardly think about it.
A trip I took to Strasbourg in 2018:
I have a hard time knowing if I really travel with only one camera and lens, since the phone goes with me always and fills that backup need. That said, when I want to "think photographically" I reach for the M240 rather than the phone. Isn't art partially process anyway? For me that process takes different forms. When my end goal is a panorama (I do a lot of these) I do reach for the phone, since a DNG from the iPhone, when stitched together with 20 others, is a great piece to a puzzle.
For me, travel is one camera or no camera, really, unless we include the phone, then I am always with a camera but I hardly think about it.
raid
Dad Photographer
This morning there was dense fog in Pensacola. I left home early with a Nikon D700 and a Tamron 35-80/2.8 SP, plus my iPhone. I took photos with the D700 until " I had it all" captured. Then I used the phone for a few panorama images and a short vifeo and a few snapshots. Then I drove to work before 8AM.
7:40AM this morning
7:40AM this morning
bhop73
Well-known
I visit my family in NC once a year (I live in L.A.) One year, I took only my M6 and sometime between my apartment and taking my camera out on the first plane for an obligatory out the window shot, my rewind knob was lost. For the next week, I still got shots, but rewinding was a struggle. After that time, I've always taken a backup, usually X100t.
There was also one time recently where I was wandering with just a Canonet and it died on me mid-day and i'd only shot a half roll of film. I just used my phone the rest of the day, but that was kind of a bummer.
There was also one time recently where I was wandering with just a Canonet and it died on me mid-day and i'd only shot a half roll of film. I just used my phone the rest of the day, but that was kind of a bummer.
Erik van Straten
Mentor
raid
Dad Photographer
Yes, it is an awesome image by RHL.
Pál_K
Cameras. I has it.
I appreciate the thread revival and also the nice photos being posted.
However, all my trip photos and most other photos are on film and are printed - even if only 4x6. I don't have any electronic images to post. So, even though I've been on numerous photo forums for years, I don't post my photos.
I'm way too lazy to scan photos or even power my computer on - I leave it off for months (I post here with my phone).
Anything I post here (99% being photos of my cameras) is made with my phone. It's convenient.
Anyway, just one viewpoint. I suspect that perhaps one other person exists that does make a lot of photos but can't conveniently post them.
Doug A
Established
For more years than I can count my standard travel kit has been one LTM Leica and one collapsible 50mm lens - f/2 Summicron in the northern climes, f/2.8 Elmar in the southern. They have never let me down. I do, however, have my iPhone with me.
moggi1964
Established
When I first got my EM1 MkII I only bought the 17mm F/1.8 and decided to shoot with that for three months before buying another lens. At that point this was the only camera I owned outside of the camera in my phone.
Travel; well there's all sorts of travel I guess.
I went on a bicycle ride last week for a couple of hours and took my MkII with 17mm F/1.8; Minolta 7000 with a 35-80mm F/4 loaded with Tri-X 400 and a Konica Pop with Lomography 400 colour film. The MkII was clipped onto my backpack strap; the Monolta hung round my neck and the Konica was in a pocket. When it started to rain I packed away the two film cameras but kept the MkII on the clip as it is weatherproof and the lens points down and the camera comes to hand quickly should I need it.
When travelling further afield I usually take two cameras. One would be my MkII with 12-40 F/4 and 17mm F/1.8. The other would be a film camera of some kind but probably not the SLR due to size.
On some day trips I take the film SLR and a film small bodied camera (P&S as I don't have a working RF yet but will soon) with B&W in one and colour in the other. I have my phone as a digital alternative but seldom use it.
So I generally always have a backup but I don't consider it as such, more of an alternative.
Travel; well there's all sorts of travel I guess.
I went on a bicycle ride last week for a couple of hours and took my MkII with 17mm F/1.8; Minolta 7000 with a 35-80mm F/4 loaded with Tri-X 400 and a Konica Pop with Lomography 400 colour film. The MkII was clipped onto my backpack strap; the Monolta hung round my neck and the Konica was in a pocket. When it started to rain I packed away the two film cameras but kept the MkII on the clip as it is weatherproof and the lens points down and the camera comes to hand quickly should I need it.
When travelling further afield I usually take two cameras. One would be my MkII with 12-40 F/4 and 17mm F/1.8. The other would be a film camera of some kind but probably not the SLR due to size.
On some day trips I take the film SLR and a film small bodied camera (P&S as I don't have a working RF yet but will soon) with B&W in one and colour in the other. I have my phone as a digital alternative but seldom use it.
So I generally always have a backup but I don't consider it as such, more of an alternative.
Jeremy Z
Well-known
Old thread, but it is not complete without my input. ;-)
Nowadays, I can carry one camera and use my iPhone as a back-up.
On my last vacation, I brought my trusty little Olympus µ, with a few rolls of film. iPhone back-up. Too much more than that and I find it takes me out of the moment and I become a photographer, rather than a tourist.
I'm about to buy a second LTM body; probably a Canon P. If so, I may carry that with the 35/2.8 and then something faster, smaller & lighter, like Olympus 35 RC or something. (and iPhone back-up)
Nowadays, I can carry one camera and use my iPhone as a back-up.
On my last vacation, I brought my trusty little Olympus µ, with a few rolls of film. iPhone back-up. Too much more than that and I find it takes me out of the moment and I become a photographer, rather than a tourist.
I'm about to buy a second LTM body; probably a Canon P. If so, I may carry that with the 35/2.8 and then something faster, smaller & lighter, like Olympus 35 RC or something. (and iPhone back-up)