Prest_400
Multiformat
Heli Pilot? That is an interesting anecdote and it seems quite an interesting flight to have participated in. A legendary ship, flying and SE Asia is quite a nice combination.
My dad is about a couple years your junior and by then he did travel albeit not yet in Asia, in 1980 he went to see the USSR Olympics. After the mid 80s he began to go to SE Asia.
He didn't visit Vietnam, which he would love to do the next time. In Burma he regrets not being able to stay more (1 week). He likes a lot the less touristy (ie. beaches) part and loved the countryside and smaller cities.
Back to the topic; I posted quite late at night and I missed some important points: Round the world and you travel with your daughter.
Good think is that the Feb. trip can be a preparation excercise for the RTW.
As of motorcycle travel, fellow RFF'er Tsiloknaut did a RTW with Pentax 67 plus some Digital Mirrorless, I think Sigma DP. I am impressed by his work and find very interesting his logistics (limited space of a bike) and I take it as a reference.
As you travel with your daughter (is she a non photographer type?), you can divide functions. Let her take the digital and you take care of film.
ktmrider
Well-known
Too Many Cameras and Most Film Models Are Beautiful
Too Many Cameras and Most Film Models Are Beautiful
Press 400: My daughter graduated from Mizzou a few years ago. Originally, she was going to the journalism school encouraged by one of my friends that is on staff there. Never took a j course but graduated with honors. The first digital camera I bought was a Nikon D40 for her use in high school. However, she enjoys travel photography and knows how to use a camera.
It appears to me that a lot of people on this forum have lots of cameras (not a bad thing). I am always looking for the "magic" camera that will motivate me and make me a better photographer. Of course, that camera does not exist so I am actually trying to resist GAS this year.
If I am honest, I like beautiful cameras more then taking photos. I find the most beautiful models were from my youth, say the early 1970's. Thus a passion for Leica, Nikon, and perhaps Hasselblad. Have not found a digital body that is as elegant as a film camera. Of course, I am sure young photographers today will say the same thing in 40 years when they are using implants to take photos.
So, I may find a better system before leaving for RTW in July, 2014. I really want to try the new Sony A7 and honestly have never handled a digital M. But I know I have never processed a photo in a computer and enjoy the chemical darkroom much more. Thus I resist digital.
As an aside, I encountered the USS MISSOURI about six months later off the coast of Lebanon. The carrier I was on was diverted from the Indian Ocean through the Suez to reinforce the Marines that were part of the multi-national peace keeping force in Beirut. The MISSOURI showed up after the bombing of the Marines and about the time we were sent back through the Suez, she was hurling Volkswagon size 16" shells at targets in the Bekaa Valley.
Too Many Cameras and Most Film Models Are Beautiful
Press 400: My daughter graduated from Mizzou a few years ago. Originally, she was going to the journalism school encouraged by one of my friends that is on staff there. Never took a j course but graduated with honors. The first digital camera I bought was a Nikon D40 for her use in high school. However, she enjoys travel photography and knows how to use a camera.
It appears to me that a lot of people on this forum have lots of cameras (not a bad thing). I am always looking for the "magic" camera that will motivate me and make me a better photographer. Of course, that camera does not exist so I am actually trying to resist GAS this year.
If I am honest, I like beautiful cameras more then taking photos. I find the most beautiful models were from my youth, say the early 1970's. Thus a passion for Leica, Nikon, and perhaps Hasselblad. Have not found a digital body that is as elegant as a film camera. Of course, I am sure young photographers today will say the same thing in 40 years when they are using implants to take photos.
So, I may find a better system before leaving for RTW in July, 2014. I really want to try the new Sony A7 and honestly have never handled a digital M. But I know I have never processed a photo in a computer and enjoy the chemical darkroom much more. Thus I resist digital.
As an aside, I encountered the USS MISSOURI about six months later off the coast of Lebanon. The carrier I was on was diverted from the Indian Ocean through the Suez to reinforce the Marines that were part of the multi-national peace keeping force in Beirut. The MISSOURI showed up after the bombing of the Marines and about the time we were sent back through the Suez, she was hurling Volkswagon size 16" shells at targets in the Bekaa Valley.
BTMarcais
Well-known
I think I agree w/ the OP's original choice of X100 + hassy. It sounds like there's definitely a reason to take more than one camera system, and also to keep the size of the kit on the small side. The X100 gives great quality in a small package, and has all the convenience of digital- good lowlight, easy color, easy sharing (and projecting) and simple to incorporate into other projects later. The Hasselblad though, gives a simpler, in this case dedicated-to-b/w platform, with a look that you only partially can get on smaller formats with very fast glass, with a different way of working (waist level view, square format) that definitely does change the perspective of what you see while shooting. Not to mention that you get a physical record of the trip (negatives) as opposed to the more transitory digital.
Bringing a X100 and leica kit would be more seamless, but the x100 would basically be the digi equivalent of the film gear, and vice versa. You end up basically with the same shots on both, just in different media.
I've noticed this when bringing m/43 and Leica together on trips- if both are in the bag at the same time, I'll probably pull the digi out more, but the shots are pretty much the same style same kind of stuff. If I bring the m/43 and the rolleiflex, that's a different story.
The short version of the above is: bring the Fuji and the Hassy, because they each bring something different to the trip. They complement, but don't replace, each other.
(FWIW, my last trip involved a olympus m/43, leica M6, and a 4x5 technika...)
-Brian
Bringing a X100 and leica kit would be more seamless, but the x100 would basically be the digi equivalent of the film gear, and vice versa. You end up basically with the same shots on both, just in different media.
I've noticed this when bringing m/43 and Leica together on trips- if both are in the bag at the same time, I'll probably pull the digi out more, but the shots are pretty much the same style same kind of stuff. If I bring the m/43 and the rolleiflex, that's a different story.
The short version of the above is: bring the Fuji and the Hassy, because they each bring something different to the trip. They complement, but don't replace, each other.
(FWIW, my last trip involved a olympus m/43, leica M6, and a 4x5 technika...)
-Brian
ktmrider
Well-known
Another Complication
Another Complication
I leave for Laos and a motorcycle trip in two weeks and have not made any decision yet. To add to the mix is a new to me M9.
I am leaning toward the X100 and M2 (21/50/90) with TriX. Am still getting to know the M9.
Another Complication
I leave for Laos and a motorcycle trip in two weeks and have not made any decision yet. To add to the mix is a new to me M9.
I am leaning toward the X100 and M2 (21/50/90) with TriX. Am still getting to know the M9.
Frank Petronio
Well-known
I'd want to be absolutely confident with whatever I took and would likely opt for two similar bodies. If I took a Hasselblad, I'd take two. If I took an x100 then maybe the M9 could be the backup ;-p
peterm1
Veteran
Whatever you do dont do what I too often do. ie Take too much. I did this once again recently on a trip to Singapore and despite trying to be sensible ended up carrying far too much - most of which ended up staying in the hotel room as it was just too much to carry on day trips. I am sure if I left some stuff behind I would miss some shots but would overall enjoy myself more.
Spencer Wells
Member
Currently in Vietnam on a similar trip. With me I have Bronica sq-a with 80mm, m4 with 35mm and stylus epic. I found this to be ideal so far, with the m4 not seeing much action but comforting to have should the stylus fail. I think our shooting styles may be different but I can say this certainly not too much gear for a small motorbike.
__--
Well-known
Congratulations on the M9. If you could do a lot of shooting with it in the intervening two weeks, it would be a shame not to take the M9 considering the its fantastic color rendition on which I was inspired by a statement by Charles Peterson, a Seattle photographer who had showed me his personal color work that I found to be outstanding: he wrote that the he felt that the color rendition of the M9 was more like that of color slide film while that of CMOS-sensor cameras was more like that of color negative film — and that is also what I saw in his personal color work. Since then he also wrote the following, which I think is spot-on: I do think that the higher iso's on the M9 are vastly underrated, and in general much prefer the image quality of the M9 to the M240. The M9 (and Monochrom by de facto) imo are truly two of the most unique digital cameras out there when it comes to the quality of the image. Not the "best" on paper but they have a look, an "umami" as the Japanese might say, that no other 35mm digital camera, comes close to.
If you are interested in night shooting, I suggest you have a look at this thread, which describes the the technique of "Shooting at ISO640 and Pushing in Lightroom 5," which makes the M9 a great high-ISO camera, considering the unique color rendition. (Post #31 on page two lists the suggested steps in shooting and push processing for this technique.)
As backup, I would take the M2, particularly if you'd prefer to shoot Tri-X rather than converting M9 files. On the lenses, rather than 21-50-90, my own preference would be 21-28-50 or 21-35-50. Below my signature is a download link of a book project with 80 color photographs shot last week in the Shan State in Burma with the Summicron-35v4, which has the type of colors that I have been raving about.
Incidentally, I like the rendering of the Summicron-35v4 — last week was the first time that I've shot with it in color on the M9. While I have in recent years preferred the 28mm focal length to 35mm, in the markets of the Shan State towns I visited there was so much congestion, so many people in rather narrow paths or walkways, that I quickly found that, by having to shoot closer up with the 28mm (as I usually do), there is so much going on in the frame (of vision) that the photographer cannot keep track of it all when trying "to make sense of a complex scene," because one has to see things both to the left and the right at the same, and the angle of view to the edges is just wide to make sense of the scene — I mean not looking through the viewfinder, but looking at the scene before bringing the camera up to your face. Using the 35mm lens solved all that. However, I would find a 50 mm to narrow in FOV for these type of scenes.
—Mitch/Chiang Mai
Chiang Tung Days [direct download link for pdf file for book project]
ktmrider
Well-known
Well, I will decide on M9 later and really have not been able to do much with it yet as my computer hard drive is being replaced which may take another week.
I always seem to be searching for the perfect photo combo which either does not exist or exists in the mind of the photographer. In some ways a M2 with 35 and TriX may be it but if anywhere in the world calls out for color, it is SE Asia.
Of course most of us on this forum suffer from the curse of too much equipment. Maybe I will take up Zen and simplify. Who am I kidding?
Mitch, my daughter and I were in Chang Mai two years ago. Loved it. Did a Thai cooking class while there and met a young woman who graduated from the same high school as my daughter! Small world indeed. In August we will be heading out for a RTW journey and I am thinking of starting in Singapore then train to BKK with side trips to Burma and Cambodia. I know it will be hot but so what.
I always seem to be searching for the perfect photo combo which either does not exist or exists in the mind of the photographer. In some ways a M2 with 35 and TriX may be it but if anywhere in the world calls out for color, it is SE Asia.
Of course most of us on this forum suffer from the curse of too much equipment. Maybe I will take up Zen and simplify. Who am I kidding?
Mitch, my daughter and I were in Chang Mai two years ago. Loved it. Did a Thai cooking class while there and met a young woman who graduated from the same high school as my daughter! Small world indeed. In August we will be heading out for a RTW journey and I am thinking of starting in Singapore then train to BKK with side trips to Burma and Cambodia. I know it will be hot but so what.
noisycheese
Normal(ish) Human
Going on a once in a lifetime trip with only one camera body is asking for trouble. You have got to have a backup. My Leica MP broke on me on an international trip; if I had not had my M4-P for a backup, it would have been really bad.
Regarding digital cameras - what are you going to do if you are 2-3 days in the wilds and your batteries die? If you don't have a film camera, you will not be able to make photographs.
Regarding the Hasselblad, you could do worse - a LOT worse. I have used the 'blad 500 series cameras and this would be on my short list of gear to take. I would want to have the 80mm and a 50mm lens, though. With those two optics, I would be able to cover 90% or more of the photographs I would want to make.
Regarding my broken MP: It was the victim of ultrasonic vibrations caused by the engines of aircraft I flew on. To avoid this problem, wrap your cameras and lenses in 1/2" thick open cell foam padding and secure the padding with rubber bands before inserting your gear into your camera bag before you fly with them (this advice came from Sherry Krauter when she repairde the MP).
Regarding digital cameras - what are you going to do if you are 2-3 days in the wilds and your batteries die? If you don't have a film camera, you will not be able to make photographs.
Regarding the Hasselblad, you could do worse - a LOT worse. I have used the 'blad 500 series cameras and this would be on my short list of gear to take. I would want to have the 80mm and a 50mm lens, though. With those two optics, I would be able to cover 90% or more of the photographs I would want to make.
Regarding my broken MP: It was the victim of ultrasonic vibrations caused by the engines of aircraft I flew on. To avoid this problem, wrap your cameras and lenses in 1/2" thick open cell foam padding and secure the padding with rubber bands before inserting your gear into your camera bag before you fly with them (this advice came from Sherry Krauter when she repairde the MP).
ktmrider
Well-known
Am thinking one digital and one film camera. As I stated before, my primary computer is in the shop so I won't have a lot of timeto play 2ith the M9 before heading to SE Asia and I prefer my Leica to Blad based on size. I am guessing M2 and X100.
whited3
Well-known
Whoa, not to muck up this thread but I'm really dang curious about details of the ultrasonic issue...
Also, I vote 1 digital slung around your daughter, 1 film leica at your side, and the hassy would be worth it even with only a couple days of active carry. If it were me, I'd be ok with 1 lens each so long as they're standard or wide standard.
Summicronj
Member
Currently in Vietnam. Brought RX-1, Hasselblad 501cm with the 80mm, and leica M6 with Summilux 50mm. I'm bringing provia 400x since it's discontinued and it's a once in a lifetime trip. Film and digital is a must I think
__--
Well-known
Actually, August is a lot better than March-May (before the monsoon breaks). August is in the middle of the rainy season, which means that it's overcast most of the time, which makes it cooler. The rain is not much to worry about, since it won't rain much more than an hour a day, and not necessarily every day.
—Mitch/Chiang Mai
Chiang Tung Days [direct download link for pdf file for book project]
ktmrider
Well-known
Andrea, I just looked at your blog with the photos of the Trans Siberian Railroad and they are great. You show how good black and white can look.
My daughter and I are still trying to decide on a route. Her number one goal is to ride horses in Mongolia. So, I am thinking a month in SE Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Burma), then fly to Mongolia, and take the train west to Moscow. That would put us on the train in early Oct.
Another option is eastern Europe, Moscow and taking the train east to Mongolia and Japan. We will be traveling between August and November. I am open to suggestions.
I leave in less then two weeks for SE Asia and presently planning M2 and X100. For the RTW trip, my M9 and M2.
My daughter and I are still trying to decide on a route. Her number one goal is to ride horses in Mongolia. So, I am thinking a month in SE Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Burma), then fly to Mongolia, and take the train west to Moscow. That would put us on the train in early Oct.
Another option is eastern Europe, Moscow and taking the train east to Mongolia and Japan. We will be traveling between August and November. I am open to suggestions.
I leave in less then two weeks for SE Asia and presently planning M2 and X100. For the RTW trip, my M9 and M2.