Travel camera advice

For me it’s more digital than film.

I use both an iPad mini and an iPhone 6s.

My last trip to visit our daughter and her family, I did take a M4 with 50 f2 Summicron and only used three rolls of film, all black and white. Haven’t made a single print yet! Did develop the film.

I made holiday photographs for them with my iPad mini. They must of been desperate because two of them appear on their holiday card.

When I travel with film, all black and white now, I haven’t had any issues with TSA and film. Sometimes, if I have medium format they look at the rolls but that’s about it.

I’m a minimalist, the stuff I bring is in a small bag that easily fits under the seat in front of me when flying.

Enjoy your trip.
 
Bill Clark said:
For me it’s more digital than film.

I use both an iPad mini and an iPhone 6s.

My last trip to visit our daughter and her family, I did take a M4 with 50 f2 Summicron and only used three rolls of film, all black and white. Haven’t made a single print yet! Did develop the film.

I made holiday photographs for them with my iPad mini. They must of been desperate because two of them appear on their holiday card.

When I travel with film, all black and white now, I haven’t had any issues with TSA and film. Sometimes, if I have medium format they look at the rolls but that’s about it.

I’m a minimalist, the stuff I bring is in a small bag that easily fits under the seat in front of me when flying.

Enjoy your trip.
Click to expand...

Thank you! It is very interesting to learn how differently people think about cameras and travel.
 
I personally would not carry a film camera for travel nowadays unless it was for the purpose of instant film photography. I have had film ruined by scanning at the airports, four times, and the amount that I shoot on a given trip now makes film impractical.

The trip I returned home from last evening amounted to 570 exposures over the course of a week. That's an awful lot of even 35mm film and processing expenditure, not to mention the additional space and weight of carrying all of it. I used th3 Light L16 on this trip: my whole photographic kit fit easily into a small field pouch along with my phone and wallet...

Digital also allows me to see whether I have achieved what I wanted when I'm far from home while I'm still there to try again. 😀

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

G
 
I am slowly but surely leaving film cameras for photography that is not on trips where I use an airplane. Digital cameras have become so good that film cameras have turned into special projects cameras. I still enjoy using my SWC and Rolleiflex TLR with film, of course.
 
I will be visiting my identical twin granddaughters in Texas next month. I will take no film.
Planning to take one carry on bag and one small camera bag with a NEX 6. I will add the 18-55 zoom and a Rokkor 45mm f2 pancake lens in addition to a Panasonic LX-5 with EVF.
Extra batteries a circular polarizer and a 49mm lens hood which fits both NEX lenses. This gives me all the flexibility I should need.
 
raid said:
Digital cameras have become so good that film cameras have turned into special projects cameras. I still enjoy using my SWC and Rolleiflex TLR with film, of course.
Click to expand...

......unless of course you print.....in a darkroom.
For me personally, that's a big part of the experience....& why i travel w film caameras....
 
My travel kit still consists of one “main” film camera, one m4/3 digital, and a “pocket camera” such as an Oly XA or a Rollei 35. I enjoy film photography too much to give it up, although most film I shoot these days on trips is bw (TMax 400 mainly). But I can see that the digital portion of photographs will grow over time. I really enjoy shooting the Olympus Pen F. It’s small, fast, and the image quality is great. And there is no doubting the convenience of digital. Processing costs for film are going up. I do my own processing of non-C41 bw film, which keeps the overall cost down, but prices of the films I most like to shoot keep rising...

The other lesson I’ve learned is to keep the travel kit simple. Don’t take too many lenses or camera bodies... About 90% of the photos I like to take can be taken with a 50 and 35mm lenses or their equivalents.
 
Where are you landing in the US? If NYC, then you should stop off at B&H or Adorama and buy film there, instead of travelling with it. Cheaper I'd guess than Norway, and those are Mecca type places to visit (esp. B&H).
If you are landing in Los Angeles, then a trip to Samys Camera or Freestyle Photo to get film would be most excellent.
I'm sure others could give you advice about other regions.

Bring your MX. You want a permanent record of your trip...
😉
 
Huss said:
Where are you landing in the US? If NYC, then you should stop off at B&H or Adorama and buy film there, instead of travelling with it. Cheaper I'd guess than Norway, and those are Mecca type places to visit (esp. B&H).
If you are landing in Los Angeles, then a trip to Samys Camera or Freestyle Photo to get film would be most excellent.
I'm sure others could give you advice about other regions.

Bring your MX. You want a permanent record of your trip...
😉
Click to expand...

We are landing in Orlando, Florida, and will be driving up to Georgia to visit friends.

I was in New York City last year for a short visit, and then I purchased film at B&H. I also got all my film developed before returning home. The lab I used, Vista Imaging Group, was very good.
 
Ive traveled with numerous combinations of pocket cameras, DSLRs, rangefinders both film and digital. If your previous trips have been good with a Pentax MX and iPhone, it's important to note that very few lower end digital cameras will give you similar quality or 'look' as with the Pentax, so ensure that your expectations match your choice of gear.

The Panasonic LX series is great; I have the LX7, which was the last small sensor LX before they went to m43 and 1" sensors. It's a fantastic camera for general purpose shooting as long as you understand it's a small sensor camera. Having said that, it has dynamic range very similar to my old Canon 30D DSLR, believe it or not.

As was said earlier, low light images with a good digital camera will be much better than with film or an iPhone. An older camera like a Panasonic GF1 or the more recent GM1 with a fast lens will be very serviceable. I regularly use a GM1 as a coat pocket camera with the Olympus 25/1.8 and it's excellent, especially when shooting in raw.

My favourite photographic trips have been with gear that is:
- minimally fiddly
- relatively small
- quick in response
- versatile

On a two week trip to China, I took a Canon G7 and Fuji Natura Black 24mm f1.9 film compact, which turned out to be very versatile. The only drawback was the relatively poor low light performance, which was par for the course in a 2007 small sensor camera. The Panasonic LX7 is way better at low light.

I used to lug around a 30D or 5D Mark II and two compacts, which ultimately became heavy on my shoulder. The versatility and response time was fantastic but it just became too unwieldy, particularly after discovering m43 cameras.

These days, my travel kit is a Leica M9 with 21, 35 and 50, and Panasonic LX10. To translate that to your gear, that's a Pentax MX with 28 and 40, and the small sensor compact of your choice from 2012 onwards (because of the advances in small sensor tech).
 
bjolester said:
... I am not sure how much of an improvement this would be.

Maybe I should just go for the Pentax MX + iPhone combination? What do you think?...
Click to expand...

My experience with all that stuff is that no improvement in my travel photography comes from cameratech.

The better you know your personal photography behaviour the better will be your choice of the right gear for a trip. Film or sensor is not the point here.

An IPhone can be the one and only "whole-trip-camera" as well as a 6x9 Folder or something else. It depends on the user and his preferences.

So I vote for IPhone and one camera you really like to use. The Phone will make sure you won´t miss a picture so the other camera should be a fun to use for you.

Otherwise you won´t take it out, leave it in the bag and you better leave it at home from beginning.

I don´t agree with some here who say that you need another camera for bigger prints. If you are unsure try it yourself!
Make some posters from your IPhone-pictures and look what is in there. There is no limit to make big(gest)
prints from small cameras.

A useable viewfinder and perhaps a telelens could be smart points when you think about the second camera for travel.

But if you want to travel light (as I do) don´t think too much about different technics. Go out, enjoy your trip and have fun. And just shoot 😉
 
Godfrey said:
I personally would not carry a film camera for travel nowadays unless it was for the purpose of instant film photography. I have had film ruined by scanning at the airports, four times, and the amount that I shoot on a given trip now makes film impractical.
Click to expand...

I have flown between 16,000-32,000 miles per year for the past 12 years. Except for the first two years when I brought digital cameras, I have always had at least 30 rolls of film with me.

Never, not one single time, have I seen so much as a hint of fog on my film, even after multiple rounds of scanning. During one long, extended trip to Europe, I had films scanned over 12 times. All came out 100% perfect.

One time in the Beijing subway system I had the girl at the X ray scanner (yes, they do have those in Chinese subways), scan a test roll off film (TMAX400) 20 times. Developed just fine. I literally tried to ruin a roll of film with Xrays and could not do it.
 
bjolester said:
I am going to travel to the USA later this spring and am planning what camera(s) to bring along for the trip. On my last travels abroad I have brought along only a Pentax MX with a Voigtländer Ultron 40/2, and my iPhone 8 Plus. (I like to travel light). Film for quality shots and iPhone for snapshots. Although I enjoy shooting film, I find travelling with film to be a bit of a hassle (airport security/scanning). e:
.......
Maybe I should just go for the Pentax MX + iPhone combination? What do you think?
Click to expand...

Yes.

During the last 20 years I've always had film cameras with me on my flights. No problems at all with airport x-ray scanners. Including remote locations with old x-ray machines.
I've never had a single problem. All films including ISO 400 color reversal film have been fine.
Important is to have your films in your carry-on / hand luggage.

So as you enjoy shooting film with your Pentax MX, just use it.
Never change a running system 🙂.
 
I don't mean to turn this into a film vs digital discussion, but it took me ages of trial and error to figure out that for my purposes, colour negative film was best for good outdoor light and some indoor light, and digital was best for low light. Some really murky images emerged when I tried to use colour neg for low light, low contrast work.


So I'm going to assume that you know the best uses and limitations of your Pentax and iPhone. Even an inexpensive m43 camera will be better than film or iPhone for low light work.
You mentioned a Sigma DP1s - although it's really slow and creaky, it produces images with great dynamic range and a 'film look' which can very nice. Higher ISO's look better now, thanks to Sigma Photo Pro v6 having way better high ISO support. Try it out for a bit and see what you think.
 
Archiver said:
I just looked up Sigma DP1s on flickr, there are a LOT of great images taken with it, even relatively low light images. So definitely consider this as a travel option.
https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=sigma%20dp1s
Click to expand...

The DP2 Merrill is even better. I loved shooting that camera in low light.

13695609524_33e52fbaa3_b.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

V
Japan travel advice needed
2 3
Replies
59
Views
4K
valdas
V
A
If you could travel with just one focal length or lens, what would it be?
6 7 8
Replies
158
Views
7K
Rayt
Rayt
H
Nikon S Curtain Travel Times and Curtain Bounce
Replies
1
Views
176
Timmyjoe
Timmyjoe
A
What is the MOST gear you've ever carried on a trip?
2
Replies
34
Views
600
spatumba
spatumba
Godfrey
Traveling with Minox B and iPhone 15 Pro ...
Replies
7
Views
350
Godfrey
Godfrey
Back
Top Bottom