Travel camera advice

[bjolester]

I have the Pentax also as a Leica M adapted lens. It is a great lens.

I agree, it is a great lens!

I believe that overall Pentax has made and still make superb optics, especially the more expensive lenses. The new HD Pentax-D FA* 50mm F1.4 SDM AW is proof of Pentax innovative optical design.

Now if only Ricoh/Pentax could develop a series of compact mirrorless cameras similar to the Fuji XE series (so that we could have a compact Pentax travel camera kit🙄). But I guess Pentax is heavily biased towards OVF, so this will probably not materialise in the near future...

 

[Godfrey]

... Light L16...

How is that camera? Never got to hold or even see one yet.

I like it a lot, it makes very fine photographs. It's extremely well made and feels just right in the hand.

Like any camera, it has its strengths and weaknesses. Biggest weaknesses are that it's not particularly responsive and the dedicated image rendering software is still a bit funky to work with. Biggest strengths are that when you hit it right, the image quality is just superb and it proves small, light, and easy to have with you all the time.

I used it on and off last year while learning it and living through a few firmware updates, each of which improved it. Here are a few photos from that first year's use:

Light L16 2018: https://flic.kr/s/aHskwFo7s3

At the end of the year, I archived everything in it (about 1300 photos total at the time), wiped it clean, and plan to use it more seriously this year. I took it with me on its first outing: a week long cruise in the Caribbean that I've just returned from. I made 400+ photos with it, learned a heck of a lot more about how to get the best—and what I want—from it. Using it alone for a week made a lot of things much clearer. Today, I've spent most of my time re-learning Lumen (its software) and getting ready to process what I want to finish render from the trip.

This is an album with the small number of images I rendered while on the road, using the JPEG preview files (only about 2.5 MPixel ... not the 50 Mpixel the camera is capable of) and SnapSeed on my iPad:

Light L16 2019: https://flic.kr/s/aHskN3Xy5T

I'm reprocessing them now, and there's a bunch more to come. The results are very satisfying. It's a fine travel camera, perhaps a little slow for street shooting but otherwise pretty competent.

G

 

[giganova]

If you don't want to carry film through airports, purchase film at B&H before you leave and have it sent to your hotel in Florida. If you stay longer, have your film developed there and bring back the developed negatives. Voila, no fogging! 😀

 

[Out to Lunch]

The only issue I've had flying with film cameras was not related to film scanning/fogging. Instead, the border security people insisted on swabbing my cameras for explosives. It took awhile. No complaints though...they were just doing their job.

 

[Archiver]

As far as Ricoh or Pentax making a camera like the Fuji X series, I don't think that's going to happen for a while. Pentax had an aps-c mirrorless camera that used the Pentax DSLR lenses, meaning that the body was thick as a brick due to the long flange distance. They ditched it and never made another mirrorless camera, unless you count the bizarre Pentax Q.

Ricoh made the wonderful GXR, which I have sitting in front of me right now. It's slow and pokey compared with its contemporaries, but man, the aps-c modules produce some really rich, juicy files. The M module was surprisingly close to the M9 in output.

Some years ago, the musician Seal said that he was going on tour and taking only the Ricoh GXR with aps-c modules, and his titanium Leica MP with a few Summilux lenses. He felt that this was all he needed in terms of photographic range. And he's a huge Leica fan and gear head, so that is saying something about the Ricoh GXR.

Due to the handling and output, I've thought that if I didn't need speed, I could probably use the GXR and not really bother with other cameras.

As for traveling with film, I haven't done that for years. Probably the last time was 2008, when I went to HK with the Contax T3 and bought a Zeiss Ikon while I was there. Later that year I bought the original Sigma DP1, and that was so film-like that I pretty much stopped shooting film.

 

[kuuan]

Ricoh made the wonderful GXR, which I have sitting in front of me right now. It's slow and pokey compared with its contemporaries, but man, the aps-c modules produce some really rich, juicy files.

When Ricoh bought Pentax I had high hopes for a new mirrorless cam that combines the expertise of the two, I am thinking of good handling and rel. small size, two main factors for me and for a travel cam. Best with a "FF" 35mm sensor that is optimized for rangefinder lenses as is the APS-C sensor of the M module.
Make it in Leica M again, if it was, better even with a shorter register distance mount that allows the use of a helicoid adapter specially useful when using rangefinder lenses. And add an AF adapter for Pentax K lenses. WHY NOT? ( sniff..)

 

[Archiver]

@kuuan - I am so with you on that. Ricoh already proved that they could make a good M-mount camera, they could do it again and there is a very solid market that would come to the party. Not ground shaking, record breaking money, but they would certainly make some.

Imagine that as a travel camera (keeping in line with the OP). A small mirrorless camera with a full frame sensor, Leica M mount, capable of taking just about any lens via adapters. Small and light, great image quality, and you could use M mount pancake lenses for ease of carry, or longer SLR lenses for range. I can't think of a full frame mirrorless apart from the M240/M10 that is in this size range, and the Leica M cameras are relatively heavy.

 

[Godfrey]

I used the Ricoh GXR with M-camera unit quite a lot, sold it when I bought the M9. If Ricoh had simply made the very same camera without all the interchangeable modules and with a modern EVF, I'd have bought one of those.

But the Leica CL is a better camera, about the same size, and works beautifully with any of the various Leica lens mounts ... M, R, TL, and SL. The CL is so good in use and in its image quality, it's on the verge of replacing both my SL AND my M-D! In a small bag with two/three small lenses (like Voigtländer 28 + M-Rokkor 90), it's an extremely wonderful travel camera.

G

 

[Archiver]

I used the Ricoh GXR with M-camera unit quite a lot, sold it when I bought the M9. If Ricoh had simply made the very same camera without all the interchangeable modules and with a modern EVF, I'd have bought one of those.

But the Leica CL is a better camera, about the same size, and works beautifully with any of the various Leica lens mounts ... M, R, TL, and SL. The CL is so good in use and in its image quality, it's on the verge of replacing both my SL AND my M-D! In a small bag with two/three small lenses (like Voigtländer 28 + M-Rokkor 90), it's an extremely wonderful travel camera.

I'm hearing these kinds of positive reports about the Leica CL disturbingly often. Well, disturbing to my wallet, that is. It's very encouraging to know that the CL works well with M-mount lenses, which is what I'd probably use it for. There's something hapticly (is that a word?) satisfying about focusing with rangefinder lenses, even on smaller cameras like the GXR.

If the CL can compete with the SL and M cameras for image quality, that is a very big deal.