Night photos when you travel. What do you do?

Nex-5 @ Iso 3200 to 6400 for color.
Delta 3200 @ Iso 1600 in Xtol or @ Iso 3200 at Emofin for b/w.

This is when I'm just taking the camera along.

Monopod or tripod when I go out specifically to take pictures.
 
400 - f2 - hold breath

a) i need some 1600 film

b) i need a high-speed digital option. help me NEX-7-wan kenobi. you're my only hope.
 
Option One: Noct-Nikkor on a F3 with MD-4 motordrive with Tri-X at 650 ISO. The added weight of the motordrive helps dampen the mirror slap.

Option Two: Shoot a MF camera with a leaf shutter with the widest lens you have. My weapon of choice is Plaubel 69W with a 47/5.6 (21mm equiv.). Even wide open I can shoot at 1/15 and even 1/8 second, but I'm also using every trick in the book to brace and steady myself. Also Tri-X at 650 ISO.

Cal
 
Very simple, carry a Yashica Electro of some type, focus, hold steady, and shoot. You'll get s good, properly exposed shot. A Nikon FE or FA will do just as well in automatic mode.
 
When I used to shoot film, I would rewind film and mark the cassette with a sharpie as to what frame it was on, and then load faster film for the night. Next morning I'd put the partial roll of slower film back in and with the shutter at it's fastest setting and the body cap on I'd stand in the hotel closet or bathroom with the lights off and advance the right # of frames and then plus one. Never had an overlap problem. A couple cameras I owned wouldn't let me leave the leaders out, but I always carried a retriever tool anyway. I was always shooting color film in those days. If I'd been using b&w I wouldn't have bothered carrying extra HS film, I'd have just pushed whatever I was using for daylight.

Now that I shoot digital, the whole business is a non-issue. Plus, even a so-called "noisy high-ISO" camera like the M9 gives me much crisper results at 2500 than I could ever get at half that with film.

I always did and still do carry a Leitz table tripod. Bracing it against any convenient solid object, vertical or horizontal, is enough to shoot very long exposures. Never bothered with a cable release.
 
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m7, delta 400, f2
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I shoot with what I've got. Go as slow as you have to.

As an aesthetic, sharp focus is a bourgeois concept.
 
Rolleiflex & table top tripod from Manfrotto. And a cable release of course. I miss that combo ...

TLR makes the usage of short tripods much simpler and comfortable.
 
I used to push film and/or shoot wider open - often wider open than the shot calls for admittedly. Once upon a time I did travel with my Rollei 6008i and gear weighing about 30 pounds but now don't unless travelling by car. I'd have a tripod in that case. Or push film a little. Or use my not particularly fast but really sharp 40mm f/3.5 Super Angulon (a favorite regardless of time of day). Or shoot 35mm from a little Rollei 35 TE loaded with something 1600 ish or pushed there. Or all of the above.

These days I'd reach around to my side and grab the always ready Fujifilm X100. I'm amazed at its low noise (relative to any other digital I own) high ISO performance, plus it is fun to shoot with.
 
Some trips, I take nothing but night shots. Neopan 1600 or Delta 3200, f/2 lenses, and I can hold 1/8th with a rangefinder if I have to. Have learned to use sidewalks and asphalt as situational gray cards. And I'm lucky that I have a pair of lenses that hardly flare.

I have more problems trying to shoot Neopan 1600 in daylight, frankly.
 
maddoc said:
I bring a Noctilux and load the camera with Tri-X, so far it worked quite reasonable. :)
Click to expand...

My take as well.
I now shoot mostly digital (M8.2 and M9), but when traveling not primarily for recreation or photography, I pack light and just take one body.

If this happens, to be a film body, I generally shoot TriX and push to ISO3200 + a fast lens.

I don't hesitate, to rewind mid roll, to change from slow speed to pushed film, when going from daylight to night - always have a sharpie (or as we Germans use - an Edding or Faber marker), to mark the roll (ISO | frame stopped | date).

I dislike, to take photographs from static support.
 
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