Traveling light

[Bill Pierce]

Traveling light is fun, and sometimes it can result in good pictures that you would miss if you rummaging around in your big equipment bag. Traveling light, for me, is one camera/one lens. Ditching the big bag and shooting with a single camera and just one lens around my neck is a pleasure.

But it poses a question - what lens?

The obvious answer is a zoom. Frankly, for me, that’s not the answer. While zooms make a lot of sense, they are usually bigger, slower (not so good for low light interiors) and force me to make a time consuming decision about what focal length to use. My tendency when I’m just out having fun with my camera is to use a modest wide angle - but I cheat. I don’t hesitate to crop the image to get the image frame that would come from a slightly longer normal lens.

If traveling light means having fun, then what is traveling light to you? If it does mean dropping down to one lens - what lens?

 

[Timmyjoe]

Been wrestling with this for the last couple of months. Right now it's two IIIc bodies and four Nikkor LTM lenses (2.8cm, 3.5cm, 5cm & 8.5cm) and lots of Tri-X. If I keep both bodies "lensed", usually with the 8.5cm on one body and the 5cm or 3.5cm on the other, it works out okay, but it's starting to get heavy on my shoulder when I'm walking around a good part of the day.

I like having a range of 28mm - 85mm, and don't really like zooms either. So I keep searching. Sometimes I'll just go out with a rangefinder and a 50mm and call it a day, but that's not my favorite way to travel.

Best,
-Tim

 

[KenR]

One camera, one lens

One camera, one lens

I agree wholeheartedly. The lens depends on where I am going and what I expect to see. Generally my 35mm or 28mm Color Skopars with my Bessa R4 but sometimes my 40mm Norton on occasion a 50mm if I think there might be portraits. Sometimes I bring the wrong lens, but as it’s a fun day out, it doesn’t matter.

 

[sidelocke]

I've done foreign trips with just a 35mm or just a 50mm. The 35 for me is the best all round single lens option and tends to concentrate the mind. The last time we were in Spain (2019) I took my Leica CL, 23mm Summicron, Summarit 75mm and Voigtlander 15mm v.III. All fit in a very small bag. Lens switching was minimal since 90% of the shots were with the 23, but I was glad to have the other two on occasion.

 

[Evergreen States]

I just got back from a week in Whistler with just my Fuji X-Pro1 and 35mm lens. I was hoping to bring my GA645 as well but my shipment of film didn't come in time. I was mostly happy with just the one camera and lens. When I went two years ago I took the X-Pro1 with a 23mm and a 60mm. I found having to think in two very different focal lengths distracting at times but was very happy with some of the pictures.

 

[Pál_K]

For me, I’ve been consistent in traveling with minimal equipment . Usually a 35mm SLR with 50mm lens, or a rangefinder with 35mm lens.

A few years ago I was traveling with a Zeiss Nettar 515/16 (a 6x6 folder) and either a Minox IIIB or Leica III with 50/3.5 Elmar.

 

[Bolo Kukus]

One Contax G1, usually with the Biogon 28/2.8. Does it all for me. I also have the 21/2.8, 35/2.0, 45/2.0 and 90/2.8, used mostly in that (descending) order. I won't talk much about the other three G1 bodies I have at home...

My entire G1 kit (one camera only, of course) fits into a small cosmetics bag I pinched from my partner, which goes neatly into my backpack. A few rolls of film in the said backpack's front pocket, and that's it.

An as new Lumix GF1 I bought last year often tags along as well, for those grab digishots I want when I decide color is the way.

At my age (well over 70, I'll say no more ) my Nikon D800 and D700s weigh like Sherman tanks. Ditto all my other film cameras which nowadays mostly sit at home.

From 2015 to 2020 I roamed around Southeast Asia with a Nikon DSLR and one lens, initially an elderly 28-85 zoom, eventually supplanted by a 28/2.8 D. Lens hood and a UV filter. And that was it. One trip was done with a Rolleicord Vb, a lens hood, two filters, two close-ups and 40 rolls of film. Superlative B&W mages tho' the processing and scanning used up a seemingly endless amount of time.

Last year sitting at home with a lot of Covid spare time, I FINALLY figured out I could have done all my lifetime's photography with one camera body, a 28 or a 35 and an 85. Or a Rollei TLR, ideally one that takes a 16 exposure kit.

Why ever did it take me so long to work out that KISS is best??

 

[neal3k]

One of my Barnacks (Leica, Canon, Zorki, Tower) and a 50mm lens, usually a Russian, keeps me happy on my travelling light days, unless I can't decide on B&W or color. Then, I just take two.

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

My travel camera/lens is the Fujifilm X100V. I’m occasionally challenged to make it work in all situations but I’m never disappointed with the results.

I also travel with a Fujifilm XF10 but that’s mainly for my wife to use.

All the best,
Mike

 

[jsrockit]

It depends how wide the typical streets are... but generally I prefer 40-50mm. I also typically use my cheapest (but still capable) body if going to somewhere thefts are common. That usually means the Fujifilm X-E3 with 27mm. That said, I'm not into travel photography because it is not easy to go somewhere for a week or two, while entertaining my wife, and make any photos that dig a little deeper. I prefer to photograph at home and learn the light, learn the place etc…. But I’m trying to make art. For family stuff, the iPhone works better.

 

[Vince Lupo]

I’m going to be traveling light myself this coming week. Yessiree only one lens and one camera, so you can imagine this kit will be light as a feather.


Ermanox1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[CMur12]

It has been a long time since I have traveled and lived abroad. Most of that was between 1973 and 1981. Then I returned to South America to visit friends in Ecuador and Brazil, in 1995.

At those times, I used one of several fixed-lens compact RFs (Olympus 35 RC, Vivitar 35 ES, and Canonet QL 17 GIII), which determined the focal length for me.

These cameras were very small, light, easy to carry, and they all provided me sharp, well exposed slides. The 40mm focal length served me well for these purposes, as well. Since the lenses were fixed, with no option to change to another focal length, I just visualized in terms of the lens I had. Visualizing for a single focal length made the whole process much easier and more efficient.

When I was traveling, photography was something I did on the side, while I was visiting with others and such. So, a bag with a camera and multiple lenses would have been a drag to carry and would have been a distracting nuisance.

Today, film photography is more difficult with air travel, so I would probably be more inclined to travel with a compact digital, preferably with a fixed focal length, such as a Fuji X100V.

- Murray

 

[Deleted member 65559]

If it's a Leica M, it's 35mm, but i've travelled widely & light with only a Fuji GW680iii or a Rolleiflex. To me 'travelling light' means not thinking about changing lenses. So if i'm in Europe with an M and several lenses, i'll use the 21mm one day and the 35mm the next....& won't carry both.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Headed to Massachusetts to deliver daughter to college, then a visit to Cape Cod (assuming Henri plays nice). As usual, when I travel with family, its one camera, one lens. This trip its the Fuji X-E4 with the new 27mm lens. A couple of extra batteries and an extra SD card. That's it.

 

[ndnik]

Leica M4 with 35mm lens. Or Fuji X100F if film is too cumbersome.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I didn't have zoom on FED-2. Nor on M4-2. Or no name P&S. I used them all for travels and else. Zero issues.

Anything from 20 to 50 will do.

But here is nothing wrong with zoom. Some even likes it big on travels.

 

[Godfrey]

I always travel as light as I can manage. Often just a single camera and lens (besides my smartphone), and sometimes just the smartphone with a couple of accessories (lenses, tabletop tripod) to allow for some actual photography.

A zoom lens, for me, is NEVER the solution. I use a zoom lens when it's all I have, like with the Light L16.

Last cruise I went on, I carried the smartphone, wide and tele lenses, and a Polaroid SX-70 with five packs of film, and a PD Travel Tripod. Made for an excellent travel kit, made a lot of stills and video clips. 😀

More serious photographic trips, one thing I don't often go with out is a good, fast, normal lens on any of my interchangeable lens camera bodies. Sometimes, that's all I take.

G

 

[narsuitus]

One body and One lens for traveling light while on vacation: (in order of priority)
1) Samsung Galaxy Smart Phone
2) Canon G15 digital compact with fixed 28-140mm equivalent f/1.8 to f/2.8 zoom lens
3) Fuji X-Pro2 mirrorless with 23mm f/2 Fujinon
4) Fuji X-Pro2 mirrorless with 16-55mm f/2.8 Fujinon zoom
5) Leica M6 35mm film rangefinder with 35mm f/1.4 Zeiss ZM lens
6) Contax G1 35mm film rangefinder with 45mm f/2 Zeiss lens


Travel Camera by Narsuitus, on Flickr

 

[Phil_F_NM]

It took me 'till my second year in the Navy to get a second lens for my Pentax ME Super. By then I had traveled to half of the US states, all the way around the world, seen little bits of seven different countries, and somehow I was fine just using a 50mm f/1.4 SMC-M. That was definitely a lightweight kit.

Phil Forrest

 

[Michael Markey]

Its a CL for me with a 23 (35) plus either a 35 (50) or a 60 (90) macro in a small Billingham.
If its an event of some kind the second lens would be the 55 - 135 (70 -200)