What is the MOST gear you've ever carried on a trip?

[Archiver]

The current One Camera, One Lens thread has a comment by @mtnbkr that says, "I have other lenses for each platform, but I seldom carry them all together". This made me think of the times I've taken too much gear with me on a trip, with the result of being bogged down by weight, and hardly used much of it.

Back in the day, one of my cousins was getting married and I decided to shoot it like a job. As I'd never shot a wedding before, I didn't know what to expect, so I took:

• Leica M9 + Zeiss 21, Voigtlander 35, Leica Summicron 50, Leica Summarit 75/2.5
• Leica M7
• Ricoh GXR with M module
• Canon 5D Mark II + 35mm f1.4
• Contax T3
• Ricoh GRD III
• Fuji X10

The M9 and Ricoh GXR turned out to be my primary cameras, but there was a handful of times when I brought out the others. Laying all the kit out on the bed before the wedding reception made me wonder what the heck I had done. The compact cameras were largely unnecessary but fun, and the 5D Mark II simply didn't work in the environment I imagined it would, which was a near-black hotel reception bar. What also became apparent was that I preferred 50 and 75 for event work, with the 21 being used only a few times. This was different from how I used 21mm all the time for travel. For me, events = people, travel = scenes and context.

I regretted the weight of what I'd brought, but not the learning experience of discovering what worked for me and what didn't. Interestingly, my cousin and his family liked my images more than the pros they hired; my cousin said that my images were very intimate and personal to the family, and yet 'cinematic' at the same time.

I never took that amount of gear to a wedding ever again. Work trip, however...

 

[Ko.Fe.]

To be honest, I never get this trip thing.
I go out with one camera, one lens.
I choose according to the needs.

Statistically most cameras I'm taking outside are Canon 5D and 500D, Leica M4-2 as in the past. Currently Canon 5D MK2, Leica M-E 220, Ricoh K-5 and GRD III.
All with single lens attached.
Edit: After getting company provided Samsung Galaxy, I'm taking it as only camera if my carry on bag is not an option.

I'm finding it useless to have multiple cameras, lenses on me while I'm out.
You could only play good with one violine.

 

[jay1155234]

My normal pro kit was the standard! 2x Nikon-f photomics, 28mm,35mm,50mm,105mm all Nikkor and 200 Takumar! spare film 6 x35mm.36exp.
Vivitar 285 plus bounce card. Small job was Leica M3,35mm,50mm,90mm, tiny flash. Industrial assignment! Flash as before! Mamiyaflex C series,3~4 lenses,heavy tripod!
One magazine editorial when I got smart! Leica-M3, 21mm 35mm. That was it! Spare film in pocket.
Editor seen my tiny kit! I was never hired again! of year! My shoot was best of the year!
It was the way I'd work from then on! Mostly camera and one lens!

 

[DownUnder]

Archiver, the poor bride at that wedding must have hated you. For taking all the attention away from her with your arsenal of fancy cameras.

Anyway, I've related the following story before, but well, here I go again.

In the mid-'80s I took (I like to think temporary) leave of my senses, and went to Indonesia for two months with 1/ a Nikkormat and three lenses, 2/ a Rolleiflex TLR kit, and 3/ a Linhof Teknika 69 with two, yes TWO film backs and three lenses. Oh, also a Linhof tripod. Also of course enough film to stock a camera shop.

During the first week I used the 'mat 90% of the time, the Rollei 8% and the Linhof the remaining 2%. By the second week the Teknika was locked away in a friend's house. By week 3 the Rollei had joined it.

In my archives is a 6x9 Ektachrome slide of me using the Linhof on the tripod in East Java, photographing a harbour scene With a crowd of some two dozen locals staring at me, likely wondering who this idiot was.

As it turned out the 6x9 back had a light leak and the slide came out flashed. I have a KocaKodachrome 25 image of the same taken with the 'mat.

Therein lies a truly valuable lesson. At the very least, for me.

Never, ever again. Nowadays I travel with either 1/ a Nikon DSLR and a 28 and an 85 (or if I'm doing any interior photography a 24 or a 20, or a 180 for distance work, but at no time more than two lenses in my pack), or 2 /a Fuji XE2 or Xpro2 with a 14 and an 18-55. UVs, lens hoods, a spare battery and a charger. That's all.

Even then my carry-on bag is too darn heavy. Two weeks ago in Malaysia I was slugged $35 for trying to sneak on board a flight with 13 kilos on a 7 kilo limit on cabin baggage. I paid. For once Air Asia did the right thing, and they did fly out on time, so I plead guilty.

I hail from a family where my dad did all our baby photos with a 616 Brownie he bought in 1943. You would think a little of that common sense would have passed down on to me. Nope. He did leave me that camera when he passed on. I gave it to my brother who had no interest at all in anything photographic. He didn't value ithat 616 and he let his wife throw it out. Another lesson there. Not a pleasant one to think about, but a lesson nonetheless.

We lives and we learns. Sometimes. In my next life, maybe.

 

[JeffS7444]

I've traveled with Nikon F3+MD4+multiple finders+dedicated flash+that silly adapter plate which re-centers the MD4 tripod socket, even though I didn't bring a tripod.
But maybe most memorable was hiking up from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point. My lightweight Fujifilm GS645 folder had jammed prior to reaching Yosemite, and was awkward, non-folding, dead weight which I left behind in our cabin. But I had also packed a Rolleiflex SL66 + tripod, so the big camera and I went took the hike. We started off fairly early while it was still cool, but silly me, I figured that gulping down a handful of roasted peanuts would suffice for breakfast. I don't recall whether I carried water, but if I did, it couldn't have been much. Early in the ascent, my energy crashed. Though we eventually reached the top, every step was torture for me, and I must have made rest stops at every switchback. After that ordeal, the snack bar near the Glacier Point parking area looked like four-star dining! I don't recall what I ate, but I do recall the descent back down to the valley being far merrier, and despite the midday heat, I had plenty of energy to keep going. Photographs? Unremarkable tourist snaps that I could have taken with a compact camera.

 

[Duofold RF]

iPhone

 

[38Deardorff]

"Ever carried?" On a trip to the Everest region I had a pentax LX, 24mm & 80-200 and an Leica M6 with 35 and 50mm Summicrons (along w other stuff). I carried them for 30 days..(hiking, circa 125 miles) they never left my sight. On a road trip from Canada to New Mexico & Texas I had my Deadorff 5x7 with 4 lenses, a Fuji GW680lll and a Rolleiflex....but they were in my car, so i had access but no carrying pain. Film holders and film in a Coleman cooler.

 

[Archiver]

"Ever carried?" On a trip to the Everest region I had a pentax LX, 24mm & 80-200 and an Leica M6 with 35 and 50mm Summicrons. I carried them for 30 days..they never left my sight. On a road trip from Canada to New Mexico & Texas I had my Deadorff 5x7 with 4 lenses, a Fuji GW680lll and a Rolleiflex....but they were in my car, so i had access but no carrying pain. Film holders and film in a Coleman cooler.

A guy who worked at a camera shop told me that he once went hiking somewhere far flung with two M7's and a Hasselblad in a Billingham Hadley Pro. He said he would never do that again.

You'd think I would have learned from the wedding experience, and I did. No more lugging so much gear around to a wedding. But a work trip came, and I wasn't sure what I might need, sooo I kind of brought everything:

• Leica M9 with Biogon 21, Elmarit 28 ASPH, Nokton 35/1.4, Summicron 50, Summarit 75/2.5
• Ricoh GXR with M module, 28 module and 50 module
• Canon 5D Mark II with 24-105, 70-200, 35L
• Panasonic GH4 with Panasonic 12-35, 35-100, Voigtlander 25/0.95, 42.5/0.95 for video work
• Contax T3
• Panasonic LX10
• Manfrotto tripod
• Manfrotto monopod

All of this went into two camera bags for transport. Each morning, I would think about what I would need to shoot that day, then choose from the mass of gear spread out on the bed. I treated that trip as another exploratory gearfest. The most used cameras were the M9 and GH4 for stills and video respectively. The 5D got some reasonable use, Ricoh GXR was mainly the M module. T3 shot maybe five images just because I wanted the romance of capturing the trip on film; that film remains undeveloped in the fridge some six years later.

I've since whittled down work trip gear to just two bodies, three or four lenses, and a compact camera for snapshots. But the experience of taking so much gear was still a useful learning experience.

 

[Archiver]

Archiver, the poor bride at that wedding must have hated you. For taking all the attention away from her with your arsenal of fancy cameras.

😂

I hail from a family where my dad did all our baby photos with a 616 Brownie he bought in 1943. You would think a little of that common sense would have passed down on to me. Nope. He did leave me that camera when he passed on. I gave it to my brother who had no interest at all in anything photographic. He didn't value ithat 616 and he let his wife throw it out. Another lesson there. Not a pleasant one to think about, but a lesson nonetheless.

We lives and we learns. Sometimes. In my next life, maybe.

Hopefully that lesson included a horse whip somewhere.

My takeaway over the years of loaning things that have never returned or come back in terrible shape, or giving things that end up being discarded or otherwise, is that I only loan things I am willing to lose, and I only give things that I'm okay with seeing gone. The effect of this is that I never loan anyone anything, and significant gifts are only given to significant and trusted people. The petty stories I could tell that lead to this position, argh.

 

[CMur12]

My trips were never primarily about photography, so I always wanted the lightest, quickest, least burdensome camera possible. Changing lenses was a burden and a distraction I didn't want; plus, it required a larger camera. I also didn't want to worry about expensive cameras, as two of them were stolen. The solution came in the form of a compact, fixed-lens RF, including two Olympus 35 RCs, a Vivitar 35 ES, and a Canonet GIII 17 QL. I simply thought in terms of the focal length I had, and they all produced sharp, well-exposed slides. For my purposes, I never felt that I needed more.

- Murray

 

[38Deardorff]

My trips were never primarily about photography, so I always wanted the lightest, quickest, least burdensome camera possible. Changing lenses was a burden and a distraction I didn't want; plus, it required a larger camera. I also didn't want to worry about expensive cameras, as two of them were stolen. The solution came in the form of a compact, fixed-lens RF, including two Olympus 35 RCs, a Vivitar 35 ES, and a Canonet GIII 17 QL. I simply thought in terms of the focal length I had, and they all produced sharp, well-exposed slides. For my purposes, I never felt that I needed more.

- Murray

Those Olympus 35 RC were great small cameras

 

[Beemermark]

When I was young (!) back in the '80's I'd travel cross country in my BMW R100RS. Tent, sleeping bag, bare essentials, a 4x5 camera, film holders, lenses, tripod, changing bag, etc. Today I'm not sure how I did it. I'd buy clothes (think socks and underwear) and mail my dirty clothes home to my wife. She quickly learned not to open and packages from me. Today I travel with a fujifilm X-E3, a Sigma 10~16 and a Fujifilm 16-55.

 

[phranklee]

Professional jobs with lighting required carts but for a recreational trip I once took a Nikon D810 and Zeiss 35/1.4 Milvus. Weighed about five pounds, maybe more, what a beast. Good photos though.

Nowadays I'm taking a Sony A7CR with the 40G and two batteries ;-p

 

[Johngwill]

An old image but worth repeating.

 

[wlewisiii]

This coming week's road trip is my first real trip in years. I have my EDC bag with my M 240 and 5 Nikon RF mount lenses for use with the Amedeo adaptor and one LTM lens on the body. I also have a smaller bag with my Rolleiflex and it's film and accessories (a yellow filter (need to find my red filter tomorrow before I leave if I can), hood, meter) in it. That's the biggest overall kit I've ever taken on a serious trip and I'm still nervous it's too much to use it all effectively.

 

[Archiver]

This coming week's road trip is my first real trip in years. I have my EDC bag with my M 240 and 5 Nikon RF mount lenses for use with the Amedeo adaptor and one LTM lens on the body. I also have a smaller bag with my Rolleiflex and it's film and accessories (a yellow filter (need to find my red filter tomorrow before I leave if I can), hood, meter) in it. That's the biggest overall kit I've ever taken on a serious trip and I'm still nervous it's too much to use it all effectively.

Six lenses for your M240? What the heck! It will be interesting for you to look at your usage stats after the trip, so you can see which lenses you favoured and why.

 

[JohnGellings]

Vacations for me are vacations, not photo trips. I prefer to photograph close to home and work on long term projects. My vacations do not allow for that, so I take whatever my smallest camera is at the time. That said, there are exceptions where I bring a bigger camera.

 

[wlewisiii]

Six lenses for your M240? What the heck! It will be interesting for you to look at your usage stats after the trip, so you can see which lenses you favoured and why.

Yeah, I know. My rough guess is 21, the 50's & 105 will get the most use.

 

[p.giannakis]

When I was younger and used to shoot landscapes with slow slides, I used to carry a bag with one 35mm body, a 50mm lens, a 28-70 and 70-210 plus filters and a tripod. That was my standard set up.

 

[Doug A]

Because of worsening hand tremors I now have to shoot with a tripod. I only shoot film and even with Nikon VR lenses enough of my shots are unsharp to make that approach a non-starter. I have Series 0, Series 1 and Series 2 Gitzo tripods. When planning a trip my first decision is which tripod to carry. I then choose a camera kit to match. With the Series 0 it is almost always a LTM Leica with just a 35mm or 50mm lens. With the Series 1 it is typically one Nikon F body with the 105/2.5 and either a 50/1.4 or a 35/2. I only take the big Series 2 when I am going to have someone to help carry my gear so I can take a Hasselblad 500C/M and two lenses.