2 bodies?

I always carry a back-up....but its usually a compact, a T3 or X2, and I skip the 35mm focal length on the main body, and it is usually one film and one digital body, so they complement each other as well as serving as back-ups.
An M7 failed completely during an important photo project, a M6 had to go to repair just before another, a DP2 I trashed in the mountains (my mistake) far away from anything and just as I write that, the battery holder on my X2 jumps into my eyes. Now I its worth shipping that off to fixing as well - my X1 has the same issue, I can send them both 🙄.

Sometimes I think about an M9 + one 50mm and 25mm lens for simplicity, but I know how this would end. So yes, I carry back-ups. If nothing else, the little T3 (0 failures so far, and I have that longer than anything else). But never, ever, only 1 body when it counts, particularly since the majority of my photo work happens abroad.
 
shootar401 said:
My main camera is a Rolleiflex 3,5. I do have a backup Eastar TLR, which is slowly becoming my go everywhere camera. I only take out the Rolleiflex when I'm going someplace to shoot.

I also have a very, very clean Speed Graphic with a mint 127mm Ektar which I take out when I want to shoot. I also have a crappy, worn out Speed with a 135mm Optar that gets banged around for times I want to just have it in my backpack when I don't feel like taking out the Eastar.

If I'm traveling I'll take out the Rolleiflex AND the Speed, maybe bring the 8x10 if I'm going someplace interesting.
Click to expand...

You, my friend, are a dedicated photographer. I shot with Mamiya TLRs for years. Many years ago, I schlepped a Speed and its accoutrements around in its fiberboard case. I loved the negatives. I hated lugging the things around. You have my admiration and my congratulations.
 
Always.

Two X-Pro1 bodies, the 35mm (usually) on one and the 18-55 on the other. Two D3 bodies for work, 24-70 & 70-200 (again, usually.)

Work is work but for personal stuff I usually just have one X-Pro at a time unless something is happening and speed becomes an issue.

My back-up is a D700 for work and my X100 for fun.

It seems this is one of those things that seems to split photographers pretty much down the middle in my experience. A colleague always has a second D4 with him but whilst 'on the job' tends to only ever have one being out of the bag regardless of lenses being used, time factors etc. Very much a case of 'what works for you' I suppose.

I also tend to double up on lenses/focal lengths, at least for work. A few times down the years a lens has given up the ghost on a job and I've needed to reach for the cheapie, more plasticky back up. I Have a big bag and a bad back 🙂
 
I am a hobbyist so I buy whatever I want and can afford at the time. My bodies tend to have compatible mounts because I buy into systems.

The only camera body that I have purchased that was an exact duplicate of one I already had was a ZI, but that was only because it was offered to me at half the going price.
 
OurManInTangier said:
Always...


... It seems this is one of those things that seems to split photographers pretty much down the middle in my experience. A colleague always has a second D4 with him but whilst 'on the job' tends to only ever have one being out of the bag regardless of lenses being used, time factors etc. Very much a case of 'what works for you' I suppose.

I also tend to double up on lenses/focal lengths, at least for work. A few times down the years a lens has given up the ghost on a job and I've needed to reach for the cheapie, more plasticky back up. I Have a big bag and a bad back 🙂
Click to expand...

I think you're spot-on. These habits develop early-on in your shooting career. If you learn shooting with a single body and swapping lenses, then that's what you get comfortable with. I occasionally shoot two bodies, but typically only if the second is tripod mounted with a long lens, I'm shooting something that doesn't allow the time to change lenses, or (with film) I needed an immediate change of film type. Zooms helped reinforce that behavior, because with a 28-105, for example, there isn't much need to change lenses (or bodies.)

One of the reasons I switched back to Leica from my DSLRs was that huge dump-truck of a bag I had to carry. And, like you, I had it because I had the focal length range covered twice because of focusing motor failures.

Now I can carry two bodies and six lenses in a Domke F-2 and it still only weighs a fraction of what my DSLR bag weighed, and with the range of large-aperture primes from 21mm to 135mm in roughly 10-20mm increments, I'm not concerned about lens failures... the only moving parts are the focus helical and the aperture, and secondly I've got focal lengths on either side of the one I'm using that will work.

It's nice to have confidence in my gear again.
 
OurManInTangier said:
Yeah, and there's me thinking I need the professional services of a sherpa😀
Click to expand...

I finally gave in ten years ago and bought one of those collapsible two-wheeled trucks designed for use with luggage. You still have to lift the bag in and out of the car, but it makes it a LOT easier dragging it around most venues. And it's cheaper than having a sherpa on the payroll.
 
I have lots of camers bodies, but when I travel, I just carry one. If your question has to do with back-up bodies, why do we have so little redundancy in the rest of our lives, but with cameras, we're afraid they'll suddenly stop working? I don't have back-up phone or blender or car, but lots of cameras.
 
Out being a tourist today - M Monochrom 35,75 plus a Ricoh GR.
Both saw use, sometimes seconds apart, complimenting each other rather well ; the Monochrom for the arty stuff and GR for grab shots, panoramas and close ups.
 
I have two D700s for commercial use. If one of these dies I will replace it with a used body from KEH, B&H or some other commercial source. No new Nikon products for me... ever again.

When the XE-2 came out I planned to pick up a nice clean used XE-1 for a back up for my X-Pro 1. But after some thought I realized that this was not necessary. Two local camera shops sell the Fuji X line. And, with Amazon Prime I can get a new body in two business days any tim I want.

So I am just using the X-Pro 1 without a back up and carry two lenses sometimes (one on-camera and a second) in my Ona Bowery.
 
If I am going to shoot a particular event, I'll often take two cameras. One with a wide, or better yet, a wide zoom - 17-35 is GREAT for the job. The other camera (hopefully the same, or similar camera, so it's easy-peasy to use) will have a slightly longish, portrait style lens on it. With a decent auto-flash. That way, I spend no time fumbling with lenses. Swapping out the whole camera is much more time efficient.

But when I am just out shooting, exploring - or working on some other kind of project that does not require speed, I'll take a single camera, with at most one additional lens.
 
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