Leigh: How was your trip? Must be great!!! Perhaps i'd leave the FE2 at home (might miss the CV 20mm though). Anyways, how was your film selection? Happy?
Did you have one RF loaded with color and the other B & W.
I do have the lead bag and intend to use them
Hi,
I see you're getting heaps of advice, so here's some more!
The trip was great - first time in Paris and in Ireland but been to UK several times before (wife is English). We came back with 2500 images between us which I've edited down to around 600 to print into photobooks.
First, I wouldn't go totally B&W. Travel photography really lends itself to colour and I'm sure you'll end up disappointed if you just take Mono.
I had one RF loaded with colour and the other with B&W, plus my wife carried the digital P&S which was handy for the occasional "grab" shot apart from allowing her to take what she wanted. It was a good backup. I had it on "Finest" setting and used two 4GB cards. Didn't take a computer.
In general I tended to have my 25mm lens on the colour camera (main use was interiors and wide scenic shots) and either the 35 or 40 on the B&W (main use was street photography). You'll find that good B&W shots come from getting in closer to your subject and trying to avoid lots of clutter and small detail, so really wide lenses are not always so suitable. If I had to go with just two lenses I'd probably pick a 28mm and a 50mm even though I find the 25mm CV is ideal for a lot of what I do. But inevitably the lens you want to use is one the "other" camera, so maybe a second 50mm so each camera has one and then swap the 25 or 28 around as needed. That's two bodies and three small lenses.
I concur with others that the light in Egypt will be fairly strong and you will rarely need more than 100 ISO film, but a lot of consumer Fujicolour comes as 200 ISO and that's OK. I doubt you'll need 400 ISO B&W but you could throw a couple in, just in case. The lower speed film gives much better results in my view anyway. I used a lot of APX100 which is a wonderful B&W film but you can't get it anymore.
As for the lead bag question - well, I've never had any (low speed) film spoiled by up to 5 or 6 passes through the hand baggage Xray (bear in mind that the Xray dosage is cumulative so at some point it WILL have an effect). But I have had film that was checked in ruined - it was an unexpected and unavoidable security scare at Heathrow but nevertheless, the film was badly zapped and unusable for printing. I've had many arguments since with uninformed security guys and their supervisors and now carry a document from Canberra quoting chapter and verse on the regulations wherein they MUST do a hand inspection if requested. They often act surprised and I'm sure many of them have not been told this in their training. This doesn't apply outside of Oz of course and staring down an armed military person in India can be a touch and go experience, believe me!
On this last trip I put all my film (having emptied my cameras) through the Xray inside a lead bag and it was not challenged or questioned in either Australia, UK or France - which surprised me. I was expecting to have to empty it out post-Xray and then get it inspected. You'll just have to be prepared for anything - I think it all depends on the day, who is one, what time the shift ends etc etc.
Above all, be ready. Photo opportunities come quickly and unexpectedly when traveling and you really need to have a camera at hand and already set for anticipated distance (zone focussing) and exposure so you can just flick the shutter lock and go.