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So how many kilo of Leica, do you take into the Alps?


Paulus

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Being just an amateur, I sat at the Italian restaurant together with my wife. The waiter asked:" So how many liters of wine do you want to start with, two, three liters red, or white?" As we were to go on a heavy hike the next day, we skipped the wine. The waiter gave us as a free desert a glas of absint.....so much for the good preparation?

Being an amateur, I walked the paths in the mountain from 1600 meter till 2780 meters with my Billingham, a bottle of water, a M 10 and and M 240 and two lenses. A 21mm and a 50mm. At the top of the mountain, the bag felt a little bit heavier than normal. 

Thinking of going back for some more days, hiking and staying at Refugios/ huts I was thinking about kilo's going up the mountain. Is it time for one camera , one lens ? How do you do it? 

 

 

 

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Trip to lake Goletta , Aosta region Italy. 

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I would only take the M10 if you have a spare battery but keep both lenses. Or take both cameras and only the 21mm. If you have a good tripod you could also use only the 50mm and stitch some photos together in lr if you need any wider shots.

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Leave one of the cameras out, take the other one and both lenses.

Buy a backpack, it's a far more comfortable way of carrying cameras and essentials, especially on the hill. .  Billingham bags, or any other shoulder bag for that matter, are not designed for mountain walking and in some situations such as narrow paths with steep drop-offs, scrambling and downclimbing are potentially dangerous because these bags are not stable on your body. 

How often do you see yourself changing lenses on the hill?  I would guarantee that it will not be as often as you think.  They key to a comfortable and successful day in the hills is to travel light and take only what you know you will need.  You definitely do not need two M camera bodies.

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Ditch the Billingham and put the weight on your back, then one lens per body is no sweat and in big mountains 21 + 50 sounds like a good combination.

When walking with friends, there is not much appreciation of changing lenses or tripods , so I would tend just to take a 35mm. 

These days , the Leica CL with 18-56 has taken the place of my M cameras when hillwalking as its lighter and more flexible and just as sharp ; the first zoom on any camera I learned to like.

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Having lived in the Alps I can assure you that your best friend is the lightest thing available. Near mind lugging serious cameras in thin air, the best camera to have is the lightest possible.

Just take a smartphone unless you have found a particular shot that you must take. Small is usually light. Every kilogram that you lug uphill over one meter costs you a Watt ... if I have my calculations correct. So, dump all the kit and enjoy your walk.

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I must have missed the bit about why you needed two camera bodies?

A very wide lens such as a 21mm is awful for big landscape because it makes the landscape look small, any significant features in the landscape look like a pea on a plate. So you could leave that behind and take a 28mm or 35mm, any scene that really does justify the panoramic view then do a proper panorama and stitch a sequence of images together later. The other lens I'd take is a 75mm or 90mm so you can photograph 'that mountain over there' in some detail, there being nothing worse than the later question 'is it the one on the left or the one on the right?'; decide one way or another by the choice of lens. If stopping to change lenses annoys your walking party don't faff about doing it, take a lens off, drop it straight in your bag, next lens on and deal with caps etc as you walk on. The proviso is that your camera bag is clean and the compartments aren't also shared with your sandwiches.

A backpack is essential. A camera bouncing around on your chest or altering your balance by having it (and a bag) over your shoulder is very tiring on a long hike. The very best compromise that allows you to get your camera quickly is a sling-bag, loosen the chest strap to swing it around,  grab your camera from it, a pull on the strap makes it snug again on your back. It also allows all the other kit you need to be carried on your back. If you find it better to carry your camera separately have a strap that is long enough to go across your body and that allows you to raise the camera to your eye.

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I climbed over 40 4000m+ Summits in the Alps with always the same combo : M6TTL + Elmar 50 + summicron 28. Sometimes (Winter climbs in very cold  weather) the battery died and I happened to take 3 pictures of the same panorama bracketing aperture to get the best exposure on Slide films.

Since I went digital, I climb with a Leica CL + Elmarit 18. With 2 spare batteries kept close to body.

Didier

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I traveled the Swiss Alps last month with an M10 and 28 lux. Never mounted the 50 APO I had in my pocket.

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In March I did a hike of two weeks in Patagonia, FitzRoy and Torres del Paine. I carried a Mamiya 7 ii with the 65mm and 12 films, an M9 and an MM1 with Elmarit 24, 35FLE, 50mm Elmar-M. My son carried the SL, 15mm, Summicron28 asph M, an old 50mm R, the APO 90 M, the APO-TELYT 280, with APO-Extender 2x, a tripod and a table tripod. Maybe I forgot something. We had hardly any blisters. We had good shoes, Meindl and Hanwag. We didn’t need tents and stuff because we went from hut to hut and they had everything you need for the nights, so we only had some clothes and food as extra weight. We had a small backpack for the hikes and a bigger ‘basecamp’ backpack that stayed in a hotel. It was a wonderfull experience. I can’t remember that we talked much or had big worries about the weight before, during or after this trip

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vor 7 Stunden schrieb 250swb:

I must have missed the bit about why you needed two camera bodies?

A very wide lens such as a 21mm is awful for big landscape because it makes the landscape look small, any significant features in the landscape look like a pea on a plate. So you could leave that behind and take a 28mm or 35mm, any scene that really does justify the panoramic view then do a proper panorama and stitch a sequence of images together later. The other lens I'd take is a 75mm or 90mm so you can photograph 'that mountain over there' in some detail, there being nothing worse than the later question 'is it the one on the left or the one on the right?'; decide one way or another by the choice of lens. If stopping to change lenses annoys your walking party don't faff about doing it, take a lens off, drop it straight in your bag, next lens on and deal with caps etc as you walk on. The proviso is that your camera bag is clean and the compartments aren't also shared with your sandwiches.

A backpack is essential. A camera bouncing around on your chest or altering your balance by having it (and a bag) over your shoulder is very tiring on a long hike. The very best compromise that allows you to get your camera quickly is a sling-bag, loosen the chest strap to swing it around,  grab your camera from it, a pull on the strap makes it snug again on your back. It also allows all the other kit you need to be carried on your back. If you find it better to carry your camera separately have a strap that is long enough to go across your body and that allows you to raise the camera to your eye.

I chose the SA-M 21mm asph because it's so incredibly sharp and I make " stitch panoramas " without tripod. It seems to work. The same with the 1.4/50 asph in the link you see some examples: https://pauljoostenfotograaf.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Val-di-Rhemes-Viala-du-Tarn-2019/n-dJLXtJ/

 

 

 

Edited by Paulus
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vor 2 Stunden schrieb otto.f:

In March I did a hike of two weeks in Patagonia, FitzRoy and Torres del Paine. I carried a Mamiya 7 ii with the 65mm and 12 films, an M9 and an MM1 with Elmarit 24, 35FLE, 50mm Elmar-M. My son carried the SL, 15mm, Summicron28 asph M, an old 50mm R, the APO 90 M, the APO-TELYT 280, with APO-Extender 2x, a tripod and a table tripod. Maybe I forgot something. We had hardly any blisters. We had good shoes, Meindl and Hanwag. We didn’t need tents and stuff because we went from hut to hut and they had everything you need for the nights, so we only had some clothes and food as extra weight. We had a small backpack for the hikes and a bigger ‘basecamp’ backpack that stayed in a hotel. It was a wonderfull experience. I can’t remember that we talked much or had big worries about the weight before, during or after this trip

and I am worried about 2 Leica's.....

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40 minutes ago, Paulus said:

and I am worried about 2 Leica's.....

Yes but I agree that taking an M240 and an M10 is redundant. Is it that time-consuming to change lenses on your M10?

And for the rest of it: it’s a mindset, assuming you’re not going with a tent and ‘kitchen’

Edited by otto.f
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Just went to the Bristlecones two weeks ago, "hiking" at 10,000 to 12,000 ft. Started with S1R with 28 Otus and 90SL Summicron and moderate weight tripod. Quickly went to Q without tripod for hikes. Love shots from all combos. Of course I am over 70 and out of shape.... but now want to get a Q2!

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25 minutes ago, FrozenInTime said:

Standing in the wind on a dusty path on top of a rocky cliff is generally not the best place to be juggling thousands of dollars worth of glass and brass.

I doubt whether Paulus stood there

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