The old story: "which lenses should I take with me on my upcoming trip?"

The old story: "which lenses should I take with me on my upcoming trip?"

  • Total voters
    46
This is true, but it only matters if like my images or not. Different people will have different tastes in photography.
 
For the last few months, I've been walking around with a 50, a 35, 28 and 90. And the leica, of course. But the 50 - a nokton 1.5 asph II M.C. - rarely leaves the camera. The few times I screwed on the 35 I had a hard time judging the frame. It feels not quite wide enough, but there"s more than I want in the frame. And I only fish out the 90 when I am already too far away from my subject, the results are so-so.

Coincidentally, I'm also going on a short trip, and this lovely thread has me reconsidering which lenses to take along. The Nokton of course. I'll take the Summitar, for when I absolutely want swirly bokeh and creamy sharpness. The 28 Ultron for when I can't step back far enough, and the 90 for when I'll fall off if I get any closer. The last 3 will probably never come out of the bag. But it is better to have the option than to want it.

Seems to me, this is a decent distribution of focal lengths : 28,50,90. Switching the 90 for a 15 could be interesting, but I don't have that. Not sure I want to invest in a super-wide I might never use.

Here ends my entirely irrelevant opinion.
 
Your choice of lenses used to be my favorite choices when I used SLR equipment. I tend to use as my only 35 and 50 lenses. A 28mm lens may be better fit for narrow lanes than a 35mm lens. The 16mm lens is exciting to use with buildings and people on the street. My 28mm and 16mm lenses are small and light.
 
For me, the "holy trinity" for travel is 20/24mm, 40/45mm and 90mm. But I hate changing lenses while traveling, so I bring three cameras. To keep the bulk under control, I favor small cameras, with a preference for these:
– Pentax QS1 (1/1.7"sensor) with 3.8-5.9mm ("08" lens), 8.5mm ("01" lens) and 15-45mm ("06" lens) –most of the time 12MPix is enough for me;
– Samsung NX Mini (1"sensor) with 9mm, 17mm and 30mm (+adaptor) Samsung lenses –three NX Mini cameras with their lenses fit in a very small waist pouch and image quality is amazing;
– Panasonic GM5 (Micro 4/3) with 7-14mm Panasonic, 20mm Panasonic and 45mm Olympus lenses (I would like to try the new 9mm Panasonic lens);
– Samsung NX500 (APS-C sensor) with 12-24mm, 30mm and 60mm Samsung lenses.

But sometimes, I only take a Sony A7 with the 40mm f/1.4 Nokton or the 40mm F/2.8 Heliar. Having only one camera with one lens is a refreshing experience and boosts creativity. That's why I voted for "only CV 50mm/1".

Cheers!

Abbazz
 
Thanks for the reminder! Using one lens could be fine.
Adding the Hologon and the Rokkor would not be a lot of space or weight added. I usually travel with the M9 and the M8, with the latter's crop factor then "creating new coverage", so the Hologon 16/8 is then a 21/8.
In this upcoming trip I want to use only the M10.
 
To check out (again) the lens coverage:
Rokkor-M (no image here) weight=135gm

50mm weight=344gm


Leica--M10--CV50-X3.jpg


16mm weight=120gm

Leica--M10--Hologon-2%20copy-X3.jpg


Leica--M10--Hologon-5%20copy-X3.jpg
 
Abbazz said:
...

But sometimes, I only take a Sony A7 with the 40mm f/1.4 Nokton or the 40mm F/2.8 Heliar. Having only one camera with one lens is a refreshing experience and boosts creativity. That's why I voted for "only CV 50mm/1".
Click to expand...

Love this :)
 
I like shooting wide, sometimes you get things you would never expect. There's enough distortion correction software to clean up anything you might not like. If that 16 is like my CV 15, you practically have a point and shoot camera with it on.
 
Almost everything is in focus, as you have said. The 15mm is modern and better suited for a digital camera. The Hologon was designed for film only.
 
Raid "What is your favorite tried set-up on overseas trips?"

Raid, like you, I'm looking forward to overseas travel this summer. I'm sure the lenses you choose in the end will result in some fine photos. My lens choices vary quite a bit depending on where I'm going & the photos I have in mind. For the photo below, I knew i wanted a rectangular image (my last Euro trip had been done with a Rolleiflex), so I specifically bought a Fuji GW680iii for the trip (even though it's bulky to travel with) & sold it when i got home.
This august,/september I'm taking a Plaubel Makina 670 and my Leica CL with a 40 (a replacement for iPhone photos). There are some places on the French & Italian sides of Mont Blanc where i need a little more reach, & an Italian friend of mine is lending me a Pentax 645 with a 75 & 200 (I'll mail it back to him when i leave the area) & head to the Dolomites with the Plaubel/Leica combo.
As both you and others have mentioned, working with one lens is really freeing especially when travelling. Among my favourite photos on this site have been those by Pan Giannakis & Karlin, all strong compositions, taken with a small lens selection.
I'm already thinking ahead for 2023 of attending the Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois-sur-Seine.....& i'll certainly only take a Leica for that trip.
Have a great overseas trip!









 
"Very nice! Thanks.Is this the 15mm CV or some other lens?" Raid

Fuji GW680iii fixed lens rangefinder = 90mm f3.5 normal
 
Something which may help is going through your trip photography and noticing which images you like, and recall how you felt about that focal length on the trip.

For example, on my last trip overseas, I favoured the Biogon 21 and Sonnar 50 on the M9, and had a complementary focal length on my Olympus like a 17, 25 or 45. This enabled me to switch focal lengths without changing lenses. Looking back through my images, I especially liked using the 21 and 50 on the M9, with the Olympus shoring up any difference. On my Japan trip, there were times when I had the Summicron 50 on the M9 but lamented not being able to grab wide angle images, but I almost never regretted having the 21 or 35 on the camera.

For everyday shooting, the Distagon 35 is my favourite, not necessarily for the focal length, but for its incredible clarity, rendering and speed. The Distagon has supplanted almost all my lenses on the M9 unless I specifically want a substantially different focal length. Michael Bialecki's images here were a huge factor in my choice to get that lens. So if you were to look at your images, is there a particular lens that you really like? Because you'll most likely favour that lens on your trip.
 
What you said above is meaningful to me. I go through my saved images from each trip, and I check out the images that I enjoy looking at. In my trips to Europe, I often used the 35mm pre-asph Lux, and I like the colors from this lens on my M9 or M8. I also enjoy going over my images from the 16mm Hologon. The CV 50/1 is new to me, and it would be a first use on a trip. I have used on past trips the Canon 50/1.2 ltm, and the Rolleiflex 2.8D with its "normal" lens, and I liked the images. It seems to me that the lens choices may be less important after all.
I have taken trips on which I used only two m4/3 cameras; Panasonic Lux 25mm/1.4 and Zeiss 45mm/2. I got great looking images then. I have also used the Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5cm 1.5 with a m/3 camera and also with a Leica film camera. What is there not to like.
I can see myself using the CV 50/1 as the main lens almost each day of the trip, and switching to the 16/8 on days during which I expect to see many people on the street or for churches. The Hologon has aperture 8, and with the ND filter it becomes 11. Hardly any photography is possible without a tripod, which I will not be using.
 
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