Backpacking/Hiking with MF gear.

[Soeren]

Is memory cards as good as firestarters as film?
I look forward to try my pack out for camping next summer.
Best regards

 

[Pioneer]

Except when you want to make a fire with the sun at high noon... Cause that's exactly the time you need it most.... Haha


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This never seems to work for me. Must not be getting the focus right...

 

[StoneNYC]

Is memory cards as good as firestarters as film?
I look forward to try my pack out for camping next summer.
Best regards

Probably better, more polypropylene I think?

This never seems to work for me. Must not be getting the focus right...

You probably forgot to dislodge the front element by smashing it on a rock, that's always the step people forget...


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[Bill Burk]

I always bring a member of the search & rescue team with me.

Have I told the story about the time this past summer? I had something leak in my essentials kit, so dumped contents into the main compartment of my pack at camp and was cleaning all the pieces one by one... One afternoon I decided I wanted to take a day hike so I took a small pack and sauntered up a hill.

Got up there and called my wife, because top of the rise had cell service. I had map, cell, satellite SPOT messenger (thus GPS coordinates). Thommen altimeter. Watch. Whistle. Signal mirror. Two light meters. But because the essentials kit was disorganized, two compasses happened to be in the pack at camp. Map wasn't marked with GPS coordinates. I'd marked my route with sticks pointing like arrows, and the altimeter confirmed terrain. Noting a road on the map in my estimated vicinity, I headed for it and sure enough - it was there just a few yards from where I was. So literally I wasn't lost. But my wife was worried for me since I told her I didn't have a compass. I thought it was hilarious that with all this routefinding stuff - I couldn't properly navigate without a compass. She wanted me to call her when I got back to camp.

So I followed my sticks back to camp, got a compass and went back up to where I could call and say I was OK.

 

[BennehBoy]

Less is more.

I carry a Mamiya 7 and 80mm lens (mounted) and that's it, if you can't get it in frame, zoom with your feet.

Can't really imagine a medium format kit being too heavy though, try a Sinar P2 and all the trimmings, just carrying it from the car is a nightmare

 

[ntenny]

The most important part of getting great images in the backcountry are location and the time you need to put into it, the 2nd, 3rd, etc. important parts are food, water, clothing....camera gear is dead last. I see a lot....and man I mean a LOT of horribly boring landscape imagery out there from people who pack a Lowe Pro Super-something with nothing but camera gear, go out for half a day and come back with the same cliche's as everyone else.

Actually I kind of think location is less important, for exactly this reason. A dull photo of a spectacular place is still a dull photo, but if you pick your nearest suburban roadside ditch you should be able to find landscape material there. If not, the limitation is with your eye, not the place, n'est-ce-pas?

My biggest ongoing project is basically a series of "suburban roadside ditch" photos. They're not works of genius or anything, but I think it's been really helpful for learning to see the interesting landscape hiding in a setting that isn't conventionally photogenic. Same thing applies in the backcountry; spending a bunch of time and effort trying to find the magic set of tripod holes isn't really where good photos come from.

The importance of clothing is probably underappreciated, IMHO. It's hard to be "on" photographically when your first thought is "oh god I'm cold".

-NT

 

[PKM-25]

Actually I kind of think location is less important, for exactly this reason. A dull photo of a spectacular place is still a dull photo

Who ever said anything about a dull photo? That outcome sir is clearly dependent on the level of talent behind the camera, great photographs are not captured or obtained, they are lived.

 

[ntenny]

Who ever said anything about a dull photo? That outcome sir is clearly dependent on the level of talent behind the camera, great photographs are not captured or obtained, they are lived.

Yeah, that's my point, and I think yours as well, isn't it? The great photograph isn't great because the location is something special in and of itself, it's because the talent behind the camera was able to find what was special about it and capture something of it in the image. So the temptation to chase a specific location is a bit of a red herring.

-NT

 

[DREW WILEY]

Everytime some other photographer asks me about great locations in the West, what I do is tell them to study every postcard, website, coffee
table book, and locate every official scenic turnout on the highways. Once they've identified all those perfect locations, go exactly the opposite
direction!

 

[paul_c5x4]

try a Sinar P2 and all the trimmings, just carrying it from the car is a nightmare

You want to take a look at the work of Angie & David Unsworth - These two regularly hike the Lake District with a Toyo 10x8 field camera
Kinda dwarfs my efforts with a 5x4 Wista.

 

[Pioneer]

Everytime some other photographer asks me about great locations in the West, what I do is tell them to study every postcard, website, coffee
table book, and locate every official scenic turnout on the highways. Once they've identified all those perfect locations, go exactly the opposite
direction!

I just point toward the mountains and tell them to leave their motorhome behind, pack a little water, and start walking. But the truth is, there are beautiful pictures to be had everywhere. Just look. We are all in such a hurry. The real trick is to stop rushing around and just stop and breath for awhile. Some of your best pictures are probably right in front of you. Just sit still and watch for awhile.

 

[DREW WILEY]

A few weeks ago I was standing at the exact spot where AA made a famous lake & peak shot in the Kings Can backcountry. I had even better light and clouds than he had; so I stood there and thought to myself, that's real scenic. But it didn't interest me at all photographically. But I did see some incredibly intricate texture way up on a cliff another direction, which I've never seen a shot of; and even though I was still standing at the same "famous" spot, I homed in on something utterly different with a long view camera lens. The whole name of the game is to
look and experience first, photograph maybe. If you don't "live" the shot it means zero.

 

[Alan Gales]

Everytime some other photographer asks me about great locations in the West, what I do is tell them to study every postcard, website, coffee
table book, and locate every official scenic turnout on the highways. Once they've identified all those perfect locations, go exactly the opposite
direction!

Yeah, those places are fine if you want pictures like everyone else. I try to make my photos unique.

I don't remember who shot it but there is a famous photograph of the St. Louis skyline at night shot from the east side under the Eads bridge. It's a great shot and I've seen it a thousand times. A friend of mine copied the same night shot from the exact same spot. He framed it and put it up on his wall and asked me what I thought.

He didn't care much for my answer.

 

[BennehBoy]

You want to take a look at the work of Angie & David Unsworth - These two regularly hike the Lake District with a Toyo 10x8 field camera
Kinda dwarfs my efforts with a 5x4 Wista.

Thanks, have just googled them.

My problem is also glass, I bought the biggest I could find, 300/5.6 symmar & a 165/8 SA. I've been known to venture a couple hundred metres with all this, but it's bleeding hard work and I _cannot_ imagine lugging it up a fell! My 7 works just fine for that

 

[paul_c5x4]

My problem is also glass, I bought the biggest I could find,

Where as I tend to go for smaller lenses... Fujinon do some wonderful little lenses that are greatly underrated - A dinky little 135mm is one of my favourites.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Some of those tiny little gems also seem to be optically superior to their big klunky counterparts. For backpacking I rely on Fuji A and C lenses,
Nikkor M's, and G-Clarons. When I was a teenager back in my mid-40's I didn't mind carrying a big Sinar system with heavy lenses day after day; but now that I'm in my mid-60's, I'm glad I sold off all my heavy general-purpose plastmats and got smaller lenses. It also to day hike a
lot with an 8x10 and big wooden tripod - that way when you take a long backpack with a 4x5 and a carbon-fiber tripod it seems like you're floating. I'm just waiting till I can figure out how to seal the bellows and fill it with helium. I don't know what your hills are like in the Lake District, but on my week off here I was up to around 12,000 ft multiple times with a view camera system plus all my camping gear. One just
gets used to it.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I use a Tamrac backpack and carry my Hasselblad 503 CX, 50mm lens, 80mm lens, 150mm lens, 250mm lens, 2x extender, filters, lens hoods, film backs and sometimes the Hasselblad 903 SWC.

Sometimes I finish the hike shorter than I was before I started.

 

[BennehBoy]

Some of those tiny little gems also seem to be optically superior to their big klunky counterparts. For backpacking I rely on Fuji A and C lenses,
Nikkor M's, and G-Clarons. When I was a teenager back in my mid-40's I didn't mind carrying a big Sinar system with heavy lenses day after day; but now that I'm in my mid-60's, I'm glad I sold off all my heavy general-purpose plastmats and got smaller lenses. It also to day hike a
lot with an 8x10 and big wooden tripod - that way when you take a long backpack with a 4x5 and a carbon-fiber tripod it seems like you're floating. I'm just waiting till I can figure out how to seal the bellows and fill it with helium. I don't know what your hills are like in the Lake District, but on my week off here I was up to around 12,000 ft multiple times with a view camera system plus all my camping gear. One just
gets used to it.

You must be what's known as a 'mountain goat', our 'mountains' are just babies by comparison, Sca Fell Pike our highest is a very modest 3,209ft.

Here's a photo I took of my walking buddy atop it a few years ago, shot on my Mamiya 7:

Anyhow, sorry for going off topic!

 

[DREW WILEY]

I did a two-weeker last summer over six high passes into some very quiet country with no trails, where we saw no one else for an entire week. I was packing my 4x5 system while my friend was carrying his expensive Rollei 6x6 with Zeiss lenses. The pack weight for each of us was about equal, around 75 lbs apiece. He's one of these guys who like to set up his gear and carry it rifle-style over his shoulder, and one evening was hopping rock to rock across a stream. He slipped. Two legs of his Gitzo carbon fiber tripod broke. One Zeiss lens went into the water, while the other hit its rim and dented the filter thread. Two pine branches were duct-taped onto the Gitzo to get him a working tripod again. I jerryrigged a dent-removal tool from another stick and use a rock to hammer his lens threads into accepting filters again. But the lens in the water had to be used for "soft-focus" compositions until we got out of the mountains and got it into a dessication chamber for six weeks. I really couldn't make too much fun of him, because the previous year I managed to drop two different light meters into ice meltwater. ... so had to estimate all my exposures based on sheer experience. Remarkably, even all the chromes came out perfectly exposed.

 

[StoneNYC]

I did a two-weeker last summer over six high passes into some very quiet country with no trails, where we saw no one else for an entire week. I was packing my 4x5 system while my friend was carrying his expensive Rollei 6x6 with Zeiss lenses. The pack weight for each of us was about equal, around 75 lbs apiece. He's one of these guys who like to set up his gear and carry it rifle-style over his shoulder, and one evening was hopping rock to rock across a stream. He slipped. Two legs of his Gitzo carbon fiber tripod broke. One Zeiss lens went into the water, while the other hit its rim and dented the filter thread. Two pine branches were duct-taped onto the Gitzo to get him a working tripod again. I jerryrigged a dent-removal tool from another stick and use a rock to hammer his lens threads into accepting filters again. But the lens in the water had to be used for "soft-focus" compositions until we got out of the mountains and got it into a dessication chamber for six weeks. I really couldn't make too much fun of him, because the previous year I managed to drop two different light meters into ice meltwater. ... so had to estimate all my exposures based on sheer experience. Remarkably, even all the chromes came out perfectly exposed.

Man, can I come along with you on a trip sometime???


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[RalphLambrecht]

Hasselblad with two lenses max.

 

[baachitraka]

One Rolleicord and lots of film.

 

[StoneNYC]

Maybe I should try carrying only a yashica44 from now on

Even better, a holga HAHHAHAA

That will save me about 20lbs


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[MARKNABIA]

last September I went to tonquin valley by myself 23 km from mt.edith cavell to my campsite Amethyst lake... with my stuff for camping tent,sleeping bag. food etc....plus my fuji GX617 one 90 mm lens, light meter tripod..what else I got...around 50-60 lbs pack.and I'm only 5'2" less than 120 lbs..some friends told me I'm crazy you will die out there... I said... "up there? I'm living...right now I'm dying".conversation at work...

it was raining all day hike too...and clear at night.. good thing about backcountry trip. I can set up my camera at night and leave it overnight to get a sunrise shot...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/___nabia___/10354807345/

couple video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICk-H5KraXg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q34R5EkmAno

[video=youtube;Qg5uq9RS4NQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg5uq9RS4NQ[/video]

 

[StoneNYC]

last September I went to tonquin valley by myself 23 km from mt.edith cavell to my campsite Amethyst lake... with my stuff for camping tent,sleeping bag. food etc....plus my fuji GX617 one 90 mm lens, light meter tripod..what else I got...around 50-60 lbs pack.and I'm only 5'2" less than 120 lbs..some friends told me I'm crazy you will die out there... I said... "up there? I'm living...right now I'm dying".conversation at work...

it was raining all day hike too...and clear at night.. good thing about backcountry trip. I can set up my camera at night and leave it overnight to get a sunrise shot...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/___nabia___/10354807345/

couple video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICk-H5KraXg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q34R5EkmAno

[video=youtube;Qg5uq9RS4NQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg5uq9RS4NQ[/video]

Wow! That second one is great! Velvia100?

Man I need a 6x12 roll film back for my 4x5....

Love panoramic landscapes...


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