daily carry camera - film

[lightshot]

Can't believe no one has mentioned one: Retina IIa is my favorite carry camera. If I'm lazy I carry my Stylus Epic. I like my Leica IIIc, Oly ECR and Minox GL, but the Retina is really my joy to shoot pocket camera.

That's my carry around film camera too. It's a lovely bit of gear to use. 🙂

I usually have the IIa, the GF-1 and the R D1 with me whenever I leave the house.

 

[degruyl]

mine is a mamiya 6 w/75mm & fp4.

That is pretty heavy duty.

My walking around / daily camera is a Leica M6 / 50 / Astia or Tri-X. This is part of my clothing.

The Mamiya 7 comes out when I think there is probably going to be a reason to carry it. Sometimes I even bring one of the other two lenses (80 or 150) with me, but usually it is a 65. Same film as above.

 

[Nicolás Raddatz]

I'm on the same boat. I've missed so many interesting pictures when going to supposedly non-interesting places that I've convinced myself that I should not leave home ever with some sort of camera. Right now it's an XA. The camera is as small as it gets, its 35mm lens is pretty cool for street photography, and being aperture priority it works nice for quickly snapping pics. I'm still not sure about the lens quality and rangefinder brightness, though. I suppose I'll need to do some enlargements soon. I also have a Ricoh GX250 and a Rollei 35 tessar that are nice small cameras for carrying around.

 

[slm]

I recently returned to working from home, so now every time I leave my house, I carry at least my M8 and often also my M2 with me. When I worked in NYC I used to carry an M6 or a Digilux 2, but not nearly as often as I should have. I need to figure out a safe way to carry a camera when I'm on my bike, as I tend to see things I wish I'd stopped to shoot, but didn't have a camera with me.

Life is short; take more pictures.

I did a lot of shooting from my bike this past summer, I can recommend a sling bag. I have the Kata 3n1 20 (I bought it for my SLR) but you can easily pack several RF's if you want. Being able to stop, sling the bag around to get to the camera, take the shot, then sling back, without getting off the bike is really great. And with the Kata, when done shooting, you can convert to a backpack with the straps crisscrossing, again without getting off the bike or even removing the bag. It becomes rock stable for the ride back home.

For my everyday camera, I most often take the Yashica Electro 35GSN, but I will be using my Retina IIIc more often now that I fixed the sticky shutter blades.

Cheers
Steven

 

[FrankS]

(home sick today)

It seems as though those who carry a camera with them every day, fall into one of 2 groups:

Group A carries their main/best camera every day, even when photography is not the primary goal. (eg. a workday)

Group B carries a smaller and less expensive camera on such occasions.

 

[dmr]

What is yours?

Olympus Stylus Zoom. Usually plain vanilla Fuji 200, or the rebranded version. I usually carry the newer one these days, but I love the older (ca. 1996) black one even though the battery compartment no longer snaps shut cleanly and it has developed this strange kinda ozone-ish odor when the flash fires.

 

[maclaine]

(home sick today)

It seems as though those who carry a camera with them every day, fall into one of 2 groups:

Group A carries their main/best camera every day, even when photography is not the primary goal. (eg. a workday)

Group B carries a smaller and less expensive camera on such occasions.

Very astute. I understand the argument about why have something nice (Leica, Nikon, Olympus, etc.) as your primary camera if you're not going to use it, but given the general situations I'm in on a daily basis (work, work, work), it doesn't make much sense. Not to mention I feel like it would take an unnecessary beating in my day to day bag, which is made to be light, not protect expensive camera gear.

So, I almost always have an Olympus Trip 35 with Tri-X in my bag, as it's a beater and I don't care if I drop it or bang it against something. I've started carrying around this little Lomo 110 camera as well. It's so unbelievably tiny, I'd be a fool not to have it one me at all times. The only problem with both cameras is that the shutter can sometimes accidentally fire while jostling around in the bag. I could solve this by not advancing the film aver taking a picture, but it's a force of habit.

I'm also thinking about picking up an XA as I'd like something I can carry around in my jacket pocket, and the Trip is just a little too bulky for me.

 

[wlewisiii]

(home sick today)

It seems as though those who carry a camera with them every day, fall into one of 2 groups:

Group A carries their main/best camera every day, even when photography is not the primary goal. (eg. a workday)

Group B carries a smaller and less expensive camera on such occasions.

Frank,

I went out and sold 90% of my cheap & cr*ppy gear (and took quite a bit of other money) simply to finally have one really good camera. I'll be bleeped if I'm going to leave it home after jumping through all these hoops to get it. 🙂 What good does it do me sitting at home gathering dust?

William

 

[FrankS]

Hi William. I'm just wondering what others choose to do and how they do it. It is not my intent to change their minds. IMO, a Barnack like yours is an excellent daily carry camera as well.

Maclaine seems to be in group B for the same reasons that I am. Given the quality and quantity of photo opps that I tend to encounter on workdays, it doesn't make sense for me to carry large/heavy/expensive photo gear. The camera that I do take along for the ride, is fully capable of delivering results that would satisfy me, should an opportunity arise.

 

[maddoc]

In other words ...

Group A = photographer

Group B = Fondler

.... 😉

(home sick today)

It seems as though those who carry a camera with them every day, fall into one of 2 groups:

Group A carries their main/best camera every day, even when photography is not the primary goal. (eg. a workday)

Group B carries a smaller and less expensive camera on such occasions.

 

[coelacanth]

I guess I fall into Group A. (MP+ 1 lens everyday) My former "commuter" camera Rollei 35 was chosen for its size, focal length and dead quiet shutter.

Now because Rollei 35 retired (for now) and I've reduced my gear quite a bit, carrying MP makes most of sense. It's larger than Rollei, but still fits in my bag easily, robust, quiet shutter and always ready for action.

Even then, I find things I want to shoot often happen when the camera is in the bag so I'm trying to keep the camera on my shoulder or in hand, scale focused and exposure preset as much as I can.

Edit: posted this before seeing Photographer/Fondler comment. 😛

 

[oftheherd]

These days, driving to work, usually an XA, Canonet QL 17, or my 6x9 Zeiss Ikon folder. Often all three in styrofoam in my car's trunk. I don't get much chance for photos anyway. Time simply doesn't permit. ;-(

 

[FrankS]

In other words ...

Group A = photographer

Group B = Fondler

.... 😉

I'm disappointed.

 

[Roger Hicks]

In other words ...

Group A = photographer

Group B = Fondler

.... 😉

I rather agree with Frank. The last time I actually worked outside my own house, in about 1980, I often carried my IIIa instead of an M. Now it's not regular any more, it's an M.

The earlier point about perverse pleasures is well taken but anything much bigger than a screw-mount Leica or a Retina is inclined to be a bit big. Sometimes I carried my Nikon Fs, though: it was an audio-visual production company and we'd sometimes hire interesting lenses...

Cheers,

R.

 

[maclaine]

In other words ...

Group A = photographer

Group B = Fondler

.... 😉

I know this is tongue in cheek, but I certainly don't consider myself a camera fondler. If I were free to walk the streets all day, I would certainly have my Leica on me at all times (or my Olympus OM-4). I am also pretty hard on cameras, or at least not afraid of dings, scratches, or general wear. For some, however, it's just not practical to have anything larger than a small point and shoot on them 100% of the time.

Also, this thread inspired me to finally pull the trigger and get an Olympus XA, which I'm very excited about.

 

[FrankS]

I don't see how selecting a camera appropriate to a circumstance, leads to the idea of camera fondling. And let's face it, labelling someone a fondler on a photo forum, would be a significant insult to most.

 

[Bingley]

I'm assuming Gabor was being tongue-in-cheek. I fall in to Group B according to Frank's typology. Usually, my briefcase is too full of other papers to fit a Leica, but sometimes I can squeeze in an XA.

 

[coelacanth]

Group A carries their main/best camera every day, even when photography is not the primary goal. (eg. a workday)

Group B carries a smaller and less expensive camera on such occasions.

I think most of people here including myself (when I was carrying Rollei 35 or Leica CL) in Group B are choosing smaller gear mainly for portability and stealthness, and those smaller cameras just happened to be cheaper than Leica or big SLRs.

 

[shadowfox]

Group B carries a smaller and less expensive camera on such occasions.

Definitely in group B, currently this is my daily camera:

Granted, working in a big city that operates like a suburbia is not very conducive to street stuff, but hey... gotta take what you can get.

My best/most expensive gears are just for display 🙄

 

[shadowfox]

Group B = Fondler

.... 😉

But I could be lucky sometimes and produce decent pictures, couldn't I? 😉