madNbad
Well-known
Just returned from a 10 day guided tour of Italy which started in Stressa, moved on to Orta, traveled around Tuscany and finished in Venice. Our group was small (14 people) and our schedule was busy but with a fair amount of free time in the afternoons. Prior to leaving I made the decision to leave the(film) Leica home and use the iPhone 7 but unlike one of our tour group members who had some 13,000 images halfway through the trip, I treated the iPhone like a film camera and came back with just under 1200 images equating to about 3 rolls of 36 exposures a day. Two trips through airport security on the way over and three on the way back, waiting while each and every time my wife had her cary on searched due to a medical device. Not having to answer why I couldn't "turn my camera on" or having my film X-rayed numerous times were also a bonus.
My informal survey of other tourist was about 80 percent used a smart phone for photos, about 20 percent were using digital cameras with a bulk of those being point and shoots. I spotted five Leicas, one being the new instant film, the others were digitals but there may had been an M5 mixed in. The iPhone also offered the panorama feature which was nice to have. Over all, I am pleased with the images but did miss the interaction of using a film camera.
If we had been touring on our own at a more leisurely pace the Leica certainly would had come along but never having traveled in a group before, I tried to keep it simple. Traveling with just the phone gave me better insight as to both how and why the migration of photography to the smart phone is so appealing. It's always with you, it tells you exactly when and where the photo was taken and in many cases, it's not as intrusive as a traditional camera. I am a film guy at heart, believing the negative is the key to any archive. I mourn the loss of a generation who will never have a box of old prints to look through to follow their family history. For this one trip, the phone made it easier to understand it's siren call.
My informal survey of other tourist was about 80 percent used a smart phone for photos, about 20 percent were using digital cameras with a bulk of those being point and shoots. I spotted five Leicas, one being the new instant film, the others were digitals but there may had been an M5 mixed in. The iPhone also offered the panorama feature which was nice to have. Over all, I am pleased with the images but did miss the interaction of using a film camera.
If we had been touring on our own at a more leisurely pace the Leica certainly would had come along but never having traveled in a group before, I tried to keep it simple. Traveling with just the phone gave me better insight as to both how and why the migration of photography to the smart phone is so appealing. It's always with you, it tells you exactly when and where the photo was taken and in many cases, it's not as intrusive as a traditional camera. I am a film guy at heart, believing the negative is the key to any archive. I mourn the loss of a generation who will never have a box of old prints to look through to follow their family history. For this one trip, the phone made it easier to understand it's siren call.
