Recommendations for Europe trip

May I suggest pairing the XA with an Olympus 35RC. The latter has both Auto and Manual exposure controls, small but very sturdy body, good lens and low price (it should have a price comparable to the XA). While I would not disagree with the Bessa R recommendation, this pair would probably be the cheapest (and certainly the smallest) combination among those that have been suggested by yourself and othrs. It is therefore very suited to a backpack European trip. With its 42mm/f2.8 lens, it gives you a slightly different coverage as the XA, yet can still be used interchangeably.
 
For a first trip to Europe at 19 with a girlfriend, I'd recommend a cheap film point 'n shoot with a zoom lens. Don't put a bunch of camera equipment between youself and the experience, and that you have to drag around like an anchor and watch like a hawk. What're going to do, get a new view of the Eiffel Tower? You should, by the way, go to the Eiffel Tower, the Musee de Orsay, the Louvre, Monet's Garden, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, etc., and take boat trips both on the Seine and the Thames. In other words, be the complete tourist, revel in it, and screw the photography.

JC
 
Yet another vote for the R. I think it is an excellent travel camera. It's size and weight will not make you think twice about taking it out of your bag and using it. If it gets broken, lost or stolen it is not a major loss.

The build quality on the examples I have used and own has been very good. I think the 'build quality' rap on the Bessa R is due to the fact that it is a plastic camera and some of the early runs had problems with tilted frame lines.

As for the fact that it is plastic... if anyone knows of any modern camera in the R's price range that isn't plastic please let me know.
 
decoyslikecurve said:
Next, I looked into Bessa R's because I have a few LTM lenses like industar 61LD and jupiters. I was kind of put off by the comments of cheap build, I like rangefinders because of thier solid build and smallish size, with ease of shooting etc, and the bessa R seems to me as if it is a little cheaply done.
Click to expand...

The I61 is real sharp, as you probably know. The jupiter-12 won't work on the Bessa R.
 
The R. No question at all. The R. I have one and I admit my first thought when I got it a couple of months ago was. "That looks breakable." Since then it has been thrown into a backpack with books, bounced around in a car. Carried Everywhere I go. Dropped 6 feet onto gravel by a three year old, and the rangefinder isn't so much as knocked out of alignment let alone anything major wrong. If you have scremount lenses already buy and carry an R you will never be sorry. I'm hoping to have a second one as my backup camera soon.

As often mentioned it has a big beautiful finder and I can focus it faster than my AF cameras can focus.
 
I'd say buy an inexpensive compact rangefiner (take your pick based on features, price, etc.) and a digital point and shoot.

Whatever you buy, do it quickly and use it a lot in the next couple of months before you go. Even if you just walk around taking pictures of storefronts and parks get out there and get familiar with the camera(s). Getting familiar with the controls and knowing how it will work in a variety of situations will make much more of a difference in the quality of your pictures than which camera you choose.
 
Even on trips that aren't for photography, point and shoots can be frustrating. You are going somewhere where you might never go again (hopefully this isn't the case) and you are looking at it with new eyes. Don't take a huge kit with a big body and a million lenses but a nice manual camera with one or two lenses shouldn't be too much of a burden and you will thank yourself later.

I went the superlight route on a 3 month trip to South America with just a Yashica T4. It's an excellent point and shoot with a super sharp Zeiss Tessar lens which isn't made anymore and commands premium prices on Ebay even though it was a $150 point and shoot. Also it's waterproof sorta which is nice. However a coupla pictures suffered from the auto focus picking the wrong thing and it bums me out to this day. If you can find something with manual controls that meets your cost and weight limitations, go for it. Those old "compact" RF's tend to be pretty damn heavy and bulky.

Thinking about it, a Leica/Minolta CLE with a 40mm 2.0 might be just about perfect for a trip like this and they are cheap and reputed to be very good.
 
I can empathize with you, Nightfly. I didn't RTFM when I got my Stylus Epic -- "It's only got three buttons. What is there to know?" -- and as a result a bunch of pictures that I took didn't turn out. I learned that it is important to take time with P&S cameras to learn how the AF (mis)behaves. With manual focus film cameras it's more a matter of learning how the meter works and loading the film properly. And of course used cameras have additional potential issues.
 
My recommendation is to not take the yashica GTN - it is bigger than most and the lens has a strong tendency to flare. In its place a Canonet QL17 or similarly small rangefinder for the one type of film you wish to use.

For the other type of film perhaps you should follow a recommendation from someone else.
 
Definetely(?) take a camera with manual controls. I decided to take a P&S on a motorbike trip and missed shots of the most beatiful valley in morning mist because it overexposed everything - argh!

A couple of years later backpacking in the middle-east I took that same P&S and the same frustration set in.

Take whatever has been suggested here - it's all good. If anything breaks whilst your in London give me a call and I'll loan you my GTN, Oly RC or whatever.

PS This is heresy, I know that, but I've been taking a Olympus OM-10 with a 50 and 24 with me recently. If I lose it it's not too bad and it's small.
 
Gavin,

Whatever you decide, pick something small, with good optical quality and something you are familiar with and can use quickly with little thought. In other words, don't buy a new camera (or new to you) the day before you set out and expect to know it well enough to get consistently good shots. And, above all, have a great time!

Ron
 
AOI Photo said:
Dropped 6 feet onto gravel by a three year old,
Click to expand...


That's a pretty tall three year old....


Anyway, reading this thread, I have seen so many opinions; you must be overwhelmed. You should just listen to my advice. I know better than the rest of these chumps...😛
 
Another thought for quality, smallness and general utility would be one of the small Pentax SLRs like the MX or one of the more plasticy small ones which is lighter. My MX with a 50 1.4 is about the same weight as my Leica but more of the weight and bulk is in the lens and less is in the body. No idea what these are going for now but I suspect you could get a Pentax body and a 50 1.4 which is an excellent super fast lense for not much more than $200. You could probably pick up one of their M 28 3.5 lenses for pretty cheap too and have a great small kit for travel. Not tiny but small and significantly less than $500 probably more like $300 for the whole thing. It's not a rangefinder but I think an MX is as close to a Leica as you can get for a fraction of the price. However I don't know if Pentax digitals have driven up the price of old Pentax lenses. They used to be the best bargain out there.

I've often bought new (used) cameras and learned to use them on the trip. It's not too big a deal. I mean you got aperture, shutter speed and focus. It ain't brain surgery. I don't know if I could say the same for a modern digital point and shoot. Probably the best thing is to learn to hyperfocus using the lens markings. That will get you the most quick grabs on any camera. You can't really miss with a 28mm in daylight.
 
StuartR said:
That's a pretty tall three year old....


Anyway, reading this thread, I have seen so many opinions; you must be overwhelmed. You should just listen to my advice. I know better than the rest of these chumps...😛
Click to expand...


He was leaning over a railing at the time. He got into my camera bag and ran wit hit smack into the railing. He was fine.. thankfully so was the camera.
 
On my last Europe trip I took along only two cameras;
a Rolleiflex TLR and a tiny Minox GT 35mm camera.
I returned with many beautiful photos without having to haul around tons of equipment.

Raid
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
My search...
2
Replies
35
Views
911
Darthfeeble
Darthfeeble
G
Which rangefinder to get for 35mm lens
2
Replies
22
Views
605
Pioneer
Pioneer
girdwoodINC
Spring in film tulip—Help
Replies
8
Views
168
girdwoodINC
girdwoodINC
rumbliegeos
Advice sought on a lens sale misfortune
Replies
1
Views
176
oldwino
oldwino
V
Japan travel advice needed
2 3
Replies
59
Views
4K
valdas
V
Back
Top Bottom