Tripping

[Bill Pierce]

It's been a long time on the road, but back home again now. If you are traveling on a professional assignment you take everything you think you might need or make arrangements to rent it or purchase it on location. A genuine pain…

But when you are just traveling for yourself, you can get away with less, much less, toting only what you like to use when you are photographing what you like to photograph. I like to make candid photographs of the people around me. I guess you could call it “street photography,” but it’s not always on the street. It’s people photography. I want something discreet and quick to use with the equivalent of a full frame focal length of 35 or 50mm. As an old Leica shooter, I also want a bright line viewfinder in these situations. So far, only Leica and Fuji have built-in bright line finders, but a collection of old shoe-mount accessory finders let me use almost any small digital camera. There you have it, small camera, bright line finder. I’ll toss in one wider lens and one longer lens which I’ll end up not using, a back up body just in case of breakdown, some extra batteries and memory cards. I use to take a little table top tripod for night shooting, but the astronomical ISO’s that digitals can handle has eliminated that. I can walk on an airplane with everything in the pockets of something like a Domke jacket or a small bag that will fit under the seat of the plane. Well, that’s not totally true. There will be a battery charger in my suitcase.

So what is in that minimalist bag that suits what you photograph? Or, are you one of those brave folks that go beyond carry-on luggage? Any tips for your fellow travelers?

 

[rhl-oregon]

The Ricoh GR has been great for that, pocketing 28/35 optical finders (and 21, if I take the 21mm goggle lens).

But having just acquired a used RX1/evf, I think I will be taking it everywhere and using it for everything for a while--as I did with the GRD3/4 for several years. I certainly feel confident about its capabilities as the only tool in a compact travel kit, especially if I have the 35mm bright line as well as the EVF.

 

[dmc]

In the past I've taken my e-pl2 with a 17mm lens, charger, and spare battery. However, lately I've been shooting film, so next week I'm off to PVR with my Leica IIIg, 50mm and 75mm, and a few rolls of Tri-X.


Leica M8 | 50mm f2.5 Summarit-M

 

[dmc]

RX1 would be great. For me, no evf required. What a great kit for travelling.


Leica M8 | 50mm f2.5 Summarit-M

 

[shimokita]

in the middle of two weeks in Hokkaido...

with a Nikon F3P, AI-S 50 f/1.2, Fuji X100T, and film. The backup F3HP body in the suitcase, along with B&W/PL filters, charger/batteries, and a lens cleaning kit...

 

[Bingley]

I mix and match depending on the destination and how I'm traveling. On a two week trip to Europe last year, I took a Leica IIIc w/ 50 and 35 (shot B&W exclusively), an Oly XA (color film), and an E-P5 w/ a 17/2.8 and 45/1.8 for digital color. It was a great kit. I did not take all three cameras with me as I walked around each day.

Planning a trip to Italy in May - Verona, Venice, Lake Como, Milan. I'm thinking of taking a Bessa R2A and Leica IIIc with 50, 35, and 28 lenses that can be shared between them, and a small digicam for low light, indoors, and backup (probably a Lumix GX1). It will all fit in a Ona Bowery bag.

So, it seems my preferred travel kit (for vacations) consists of two small(ish) film cams and a digicam. On work-related travel, I often take a single small film camera, like a Rollei 35 or an Oly XA.

 

[GaryLH]

For me..

On vacations where I'm w/ family..
- Panasonic LX100 plus Ricoh GR (GR normally set to crop 35 fov)
-- if it's gonna be wet and rainy replace the Panasonic w/ Fuji xt1
Going someplace like Yosemite
- Sigma DP0 for Pano and DP2 for everything else (21/45 fov)

Gary

Ps. Almost forgot... It all fits in my thinktank turn style 10. Though the quattro pair is a bit tight.

 

[FrankS]

Focal length selection is a personal choice but if you aren't sure what to take, you can't go far wrong with a 28 and 50 combo, IMO.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

The Fuji X100T (35mm equivalent) with the two converter lenses, the TCL-X100 makes it a 50mm, the WCL-X100 makes it a 28mm. A couple of extra Wasabi batteries and wall charger. All of this fits in the smallest Domke.

 

[PeterAM]

My (current) minimalist "bag" is a Tenba BYOB small insert that holds a Fuji X100T, two extra batteries and cards. Fits in whatever shoulder bag I am carrying and weighs next to nothing compared to a DSLR and lenses.

 

[Rob-F]

Choice of 3 or 4 from the following:

Leica M7 or MP with 28mm, 35mm 50mm (or even just a 40mm)

Leica IIIc with 2 or 3 CV small lenses

Fuji X100; LeicaSonic D-Lux 6; Fuji X10 or X20

Selected to fit in a Think Tank Retro 5 or a Domke F6.

For more ambitious trips I will add Nikon and Hasselblad gear; but not when being minimalist.

 

[Doug]

Minimizing weight and bulk is not a high priority, but I do keep the number of items down. I may take one camera body and a couple lenses... For last Fall's Hawaii trip I had a Leica S2, 70mm lens, charger, card reader, one battery, one CF card. And a small laptop computer that I would have along anyway to keep up with RFF!

Thinking back, perhaps the most I lugged was on a road trip, with two smallish camera bags. One with Pentax 67II and two lenses, the other with two Bronica RF645 and lenses. I used the P67 for scenery and the RF645 rigs for people and B&W.

I'm really not in favor of sacrificing image quality for compact convenience... to a degree. 🙂 Also, in general I'm not too concerned about backup equipment, as in the unlikely instance of gear failure I can fall back on my iPhone for photos.

 

[GaryLH]

My (current) minimalist "bag" is a Tenba BYOB small insert that holds a Fuji X100T, two extra batteries and cards. Fits in whatever shoulder bag I am carrying and weighs next to nothing compared to a DSLR and lenses.

When using a messenger bag, I use the Timbuktu camera insert either in extra small or small. I tried the tenba byob, but decided I like the Timbuktu better...mainly for the non-square corners of the Timbuktu makes it less obvious there is something out of ordinary in the messenger bag. Just a preference, either works well though.

Gary