the perfect travel kit

[wlaidlaw]

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Interesting. Because the reason I am taking the Telyt-V and Visoflex with me is that it is that it relieves me of quite some weight opposed to the Vario-Elmar 105-280.

 

Jaap,

 

The Visoflex is now the only SLR I have, so only way to use long lenses.

 

When I last went travelling with 2 M bodies and the usual kit plus a 13" MacBook Pro and the usual prolifera of chargers for everything and a few books to read over the week I was away, I could barely lift my "hand luggage" onto the overhead rack. At least now with an iPad, the very heavy MBP and the books are left behind. My wife usually takes her MacBook Air, which I sneaked C1 onto, when she was not looking but that only has a 64GB SSD in it, so very limited storage.

 

I was trying today to see how well I could hand hold the 280 Telyt V, with no support at all, for wild fauna shots - hmmmmm - not very well! I am tempted to get an Oly EP1 or 2 with built in IS for my wife, who needs a new still camera and then take my T-E135 plus MFT adapter instead of the Visoflex and 280 Telyt.

 

Wilson

[jaapv]

I suppose you have a version 1 or 2. I had a version 1 before and I noticed the version 3 balanced a lot better. And has a much improved image quality too Still , I do use the beanbag quite a lot.

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[charlesphoto99]

Charles,

 

Whereas I would love to take my Rolleiflex 3.5E (Planar) travelling with me, I always feel to do it justice, I then need to take a decent robust tripod as well. Given that I feel all cameras, laptop etc need to go in hand-luggage, by the time I have two M bodies, a few lenses, including the quite large and heavy 280 Telyt-V and a Visoflex with me, it adds up to too much for air travel, if I take the Rollei. I therefore nowadays, only take the Rollei kit with me on car journeys. With how good the M9 is, more and more my film cameras are becoming static exhibits.

 

Wilson

 

Tripod? What's a tripod?

[charlesphoto99]

I'm sure gonna have fun. I can image the Mamiya 6 is great. I have an Rolleiflex 6008 int 2 which I definitely will leave at home. I would have preferred to have the 6, but for some reason got the Rollei. Great for studio work, not for travel.

 

I do the same as you with the bags. A Kiboko backpack to take with me in the cabin and a small Billingham for the road.

 

My only issue with bringing only the M9 would be failure of the camera in some remote place. That's the reason to bring the M8 (or the D700)

 

Yes, backup. I'm kinda killing myself for having sold both of my M8's. Oh well. What I would do sometimes is put an M body in a very small Pelican case. That way it could just live safely in my luggage until/if I needed it.

 

Take care,

 

CP

[wlaidlaw]

I suppose you have a version 1 or 2. I had a version 1 before and I noticed the version 3 balanced a lot better. And has a much improved image quality too Still , I do use the beanbag quite a lot.

 

Jaap,

 

Yes it is a version 2 Telyt-V 280 (uses the 16466M adapter to mount on a Visoflex). I am thinking of changing it for a version 3 and then selling the V2 + adapter. The V2 is a bit low contrast for my personal taste. It suits B&W better than colour.

 

Wilson

[ramosa]

wow. i love your get-up and the idea of traveling the world for a year. i have an M8, but, if i had an M9, the only thing i'd change would be the inclusion of a 90. with an M9 (or M8 for that matter), i'd take my elmarit 28, lux 50 ... and a 90, which i don't currently own. an elmarit or cron would work fine, though maybe the elmarit would be favorable because of its weight.

[wlaidlaw]

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wow. i love your get-up and the idea of traveling the world for a year. i have an M8, but, if i had an M9, the only thing i'd change would be the inclusion of a 90. with an M9 (or M8 for that matter), i'd take my elmarit 28, lux 50 ... and a 90, which i don't currently own. an elmarit or cron would work fine, though maybe the elmarit would be favorable because of its weight.

 

Now is a great time to buy a 90/2.8-M Elmarit. I don't think prices will ever be lower. People will soon realise that it is at least as good and maybe better than its replacement, the 90/2.5 Summarit, with far superior ergonomics, having a built in hood, rather than a bulky screw on reversible one, whose lens cap always comes off in the bag. It is noticeably smaller than the Summarit, even before you take the large Summarit hood into consideration. If there had been an equivalent format 75 Elmarit-M 2.8, I would sell my75/2.5 Summarit in a flash and get one. The 1/3 of a stop difference in speed makes little to no difference.

 

For travel, my 20 year old large "over the shoulder" leather cabin luggage bag is reaching the end of its life, with the stitching fraying in places and the leather very thin around some of the seams. With two M bodies in it, say 5 to 6 lenses and a 13" MacBook Pro, it was getting very heavy to carry as well. I have therefore bought for my next trip to South Africa and Namibia a Jill-E large suede roller camera bag. It is within virtually all airlines' cabin bag dimensions and the standard of construction gets very good write ups. It is or at least was on sale on Amazon at $199 against the UK price of £345, so I bought one on Amazon US and had it sent to my daughter in Baltimore and when she comes to the UK in November, for her other sister's wedding, she is going to bring it with her as her cabin bag and I will buy her a cheapish new bag to take back.

 

Wilson

[zipper]

on my last trip I took the 21 Elmarit ASPH, 35 'chron ASPH, and a 75 'lux plus an M2, MP. Next time I'll be taking an M8 with the MP so will have to lug charger, and possibly a spare plus batteries and a notebook/laptop with mains unit etc etc.

 

is this progress...? 'My next trip' - was postponed, but next time I'm now thinking of just an MP and 2 lenses 21 'rit Asph and f.1 Nocti & a tiny Gossen 'Digiflash' for incident metering, plus spare cells for Gossen and MP. I really like my M8, but looking back at my Coolscan files and considering the M8 batteries and chargers etc, I'm falling back in love with film - wierd eh...?

Edited October 4, 2010 by zipper

[bocaburger]

I really like my M8, but looking back at my Coolscan files and considering the M8 batteries and chargers etc, I'm falling back in love with film - wierd eh...?

 

It's not weird to fall back in love with film. But if your conclusion is based on the logic outlined above, you might want to consider this: From my experience the M8 charger (inexplicably large as it is) and 3 batteries plus enough SD cards to shoot the equivalent of 100 cassettes or more of 36-exp film, fits in the same size ziplock bag as 20 film cassettes in the plastic cans. And if you're fine shooting film (not knowing the outcome until you return home, nor having any backup of your exposed shots) then there's really no rationale for bringing a laptop when shooting digitally, is there?

Edited October 4, 2010 by bocaburger

[bill]

Now, you have said:

 

It's not weird to fall back in love with film. But if your conclusion is based on the logic outlined above, you might want to consider...

 

...whereas the key phrase for me in Zipper's post is:

 

...looking back at my Coolscan files...

 

Film - it's not just about the batteries...

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[zipper]

Now, you have said:

 

 

 

...whereas the key phrase for me in Zipper's post is:

 

 

 

Film - it's not just about the batteries...

 

Regards,

 

Bill

 

yes indeed Bill...

Edited October 6, 2010 by zipper

[jto555]

Tripod? What's a tripod?

 

A piece of kit designed to wreck your head while travelling!!!

[pnoble]

For me:

 

M9 + the new 35mm Lux + a wrist strap. Sublime for my purposes.

 

D-Lux 4 and iPad.

 

And/or the new smaller MB Air when it is released (probably this month).

[geesbert]

The inconvenience of packing a few cables and batteries is nothing compared to the hassle of caring for a bag full of films while travelling. I am so glad this is over....

[menos I M6]

For me:

 

M9 + the new 35mm Lux + a wrist strap. Sublime for my purposes.

 

D-Lux 4 and iPad.

 

And/or the new smaller MB Air when it is released (probably this month).

 

I am soooo waiting for this device, to be introduced. Hopefully, Apple finally gives USB3 or FW800 ports otherwise the MB Air is just the same dead end sofa toy as the iPad.

 

I still lug my 15" MBP around, which is a lot bigger and heavier than the air, but it has the fast connectivity, I need for backup and synchronizing for work.

[Nick De Marco]

I keep changing my mind

But currently a Rollei f2.8F, Leica M6 with 35mm and 28mm lenses, and my EP2, usually with Panny 20mm 1.7

[Tina Manley]

My travel kit would be what I carry every time I travel

all packed in my LowePro Computrekker:

 

1 Leica M9

2 Leica M8s

10 batteries

1 battery charger

Wallet with 8 16 GB cards

90/2.0

75/1.4

50/1.0

35/1.4

24/2.8

12/5.6 (CVG)

1 Gitzo Monopod

1 Gitzo Carbon fibre tripod

1 Acer Netbook

3 Seagate Freeagent hard drives

extra cables and adapters

 

A much smaller kit than I used to have to carry with 300 rolls of film and lead-lined bags!!

 

Tina

 

LFI Gallery - Startseite

Edited October 8, 2010 by Tina Manley
wrong lens

[pico]

wow. i love your get-up and the idea of traveling the world for a year. i have an M8, but, if i had an M9 [...snip...]

 

I would back it up with a good old M4 and film.

[bocaburger]

My travel kit would be what I carry every time I travel

all packed in my LowePro Computrekker:

 

1 Leica M9

2 Leica M8s

10 batteries

1 battery charger

Wallet with 8 16 GB cards

90/2.0

75/1.4

50/1.0

35/1.4

24/2.8

12/5.6 (CVG)

1 Gitzo Monopod

1 Gitzo Carbon fibre tripod

1 Acer Netbook

3 Seagate Freeagent hard drives

extra cables and adapters

 

A much smaller kit than I used to have to carry with 300 rolls of film and lead-lined bags!!

 

Tina

 

LFI Gallery - Startseite

 

I only question why you have 3 bodies but just the one charger, even with 10 batteries that's roughly 40-50GB of shooting. Why not a second charger for backup? (I carry an Ansmann Vario, which backs up all my chargers).

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Hallo,

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[Tina Manley]

I only question why you have 3 bodies but just the one charger, even with 10 batteries that's roughly 40-50GB of shooting. Why not a second charger for backup? (I carry an Ansmann Vario, which backs up all my chargers).

 

I travel a lot where there is no electricity. The ten batteries will last me about a week. Then I check into a hotel to take a hot shower and charge all of the batteries before heading back out. I'm usually lucky to find one working electrical outlet. The new charger doesn't take long to charge them all and it's much smaller than the old one. I tried carrying solar chargers but they don't work very well.

 

Tina