How much gear to lug on my (hopefully) upcoming vacation

[gbroadbridge]

If I worried about everything that could get stolen, I would enjoy nothing. I take wise precautions and enjoy life.

Not in the habit of travelling light then

 

[Sirius Glass]

Not in the habit of travelling light then

Not necessarily. The statement is loaded with an agenda of baseless assumptions.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Not necessarily. The statement is loaded with an agenda of baseless assumptions.

I learned years ago that it is not necessary to carry enough glass to cover every mm of focal length.

Sometimes less is more, as it lets you enjoy the vacation and you appreciate the sights more.

As a working photojournalist you don't want to be lugging a zillion bits of kit either, they just cause problems at borders.

These days I find that simply a Fuji XT-2 and a 23mm lens with a backup 35mm lens is all that is necessary for an enjoyable vacation.

Everything fits in a single carry on which is the best way to travel.

I have to admit to having a quiet laugh when I see folks on vacation with a studio kit hanging around their neck.

I guess that is you my friend, and that is a baseless assumption if I've ever seen one.

Enjoy.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I learned years ago that it is not necessary to carry enough glass to cover every mm of focal length.

Sometimes less is more, as it lets you enjoy the vacation and you appreciate the sights more.

As a working photojournalist you don't want to be lugging a zillion bits of kit either, they just cause problems at borders.

These days I find that simply a Fuji XT-2 and a 23mm lens with a backup 35mm lens is all that is necessary for an enjoyable vacation.

Everything fits in a single carry on which is the best way to travel.

I have to admit to having a quiet laugh when I see folks on vacation with a studio kit hanging around their neck.

I guess that is you my friend, and that is a baseless assumption if I've ever seen one.

Enjoy.

If you had spent any time on the website, you would have seen that when I fly I carry my Hasselblad with a 50mm and 80mm lens and the SWC or two Nikons with 28mm to 300mm AF zoom lens and 20mm to 35m Nikon AF zoom lens. When I travel by car I carry a pack with a subset of Hasselblad lenses based on what I plan on doing. The backpack stays in the car and I a carry only the lenses that I need for the location. I never carry a studio, besides I do not have a studio since I work in the real world.

 

[gbroadbridge]

If you had spent any time on the website, you would have seen that when I fly I carry my Hasselblad with a 50mm and 80mm lens and the SWC or two Nikons with 28mm to 300mm AF zoom lens and 20mm to 35m Nikon AF zoom lens. When I travel by car I carry a pack with a subset of Hasselblad lenses based on what I plan on doing. The backpack stays in the car and I a carry only the lenses that I need for the location. I never carry a studio, besides I do not have a studio since I work in the real world.

If you are travelling with a Hasselblad and all those lenses you are way overpacked.

I have a Hassy too, and it stays at home or in the studio.

Your packing list sounds just ridiculous

I'm a working photojournalist and I would not wish the amount of gear you are travelling with on anyone.

Lighten up dude, some of the best shots I've taken are with my iphone, the tool at hand is the best tool, and you simply look ridiculous posing with studio gear when you are a tourist.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Anyway, i think it is best to terminate this discussion at this point.

You have your own opinion and I have mine.

Mine is based on almost 40 years of professional involvement in the industry and you obviously have your own experience to guide you.

Further discussion is obviously pointless.

Keep the Hassy going

 

[Sirius Glass]

If you are travelling with a Hasselblad and all those lenses you are way overpacked.

I have a Hassy too, and it stays at home or in the studio.

Your packing list sounds just ridiculous

I'm a working photojournalist and I would not wish the amount of gear you are travelling with on anyone.

Lighten up dude, some of the best shots I've taken are with my iphone, the tool at hand is the best tool, and you simply look ridiculous posing with studio gear when you are a tourist.

That just shows that you are not as serious as you claim to be. After all you even state that you throw out your negatives, so how professional could you be?

 

[mshchem]

Fuji GW690III, incident meter and film. I leave the heavy stuff at home. I have an X Pro3, that's perfect with a couple of small prime lenses 23, and 50.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Fuji GW690III, incident meter and film. I leave the heavy stuff at home. I have an X Pro3, that's perfect with a couple of small prime lenses 23, and 50.

That is, IMO a perfect set of travel kit.

I've worked assignments with less.

I'm getting a bit old to take a film body, but if I did, the Gw690 would be my choice.

The magician, not the wand.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

OK, so my 35mm c41s turned out beautifully, but what happened with my 120 pro 400h?

 

[Sirius Glass]

OK, so my 35mm c41s turned out beautifully, but what happened with my 120 pro 400h?

Light leaks. Was it in the same camera or a different camera.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Light leaks. Was it in the same camera or a different camera.

different camera. I didn't have the problem with a pro nps 160 I loaded right after, and all my mf bw frames look fine.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

first frame of the very next roll

 

[gbroadbridge]

OK, so my 35mm c41s turned out beautifully, but what happened with my 120 pro 400h?

Did you load the film in a brightly lit place?

It looks like light leakage, rather than any problem with airport scanners.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Did you load the film in a brightly lit place?

It looks like light leakage, rather than any problem with airport scanners.

don't remember- think I loaded it inside.

 

[gbroadbridge]

don't remember- think I loaded it inside.

Well if the camera is normally fine, I don't know.

It doesn't look like xray fog because in my experience that is pretty consistent/even fogging.

Maybe a foam seal has deteriorated at an unfortunate time.

 

[DREW WILEY]

The bigger the camera, the more helium you can put inside the bellows, and the lighter it will get. What's the sense of even traveling if you can't bag some 8X10 shots? And no need to worry about airport X-ray machines. Just don't fill your bellows with hydrogen. The Hindenburg made that mistake.

Anyone carrying something as tiny as a Hassie is in danger of be arrested for espionage.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I learned years ago that it is not necessary to carry enough glass to cover every mm of focal length.

Sometimes less is more, as it lets you enjoy the vacation and you appreciate the sights more.

As a working photojournalist you don't want to be lugging a zillion bits of kit either, they just cause problems at borders.

These days I find that simply a Fuji XT-2 and a 23mm lens with a backup 35mm lens is all that is necessary for an enjoyable vacation.

Everything fits in a single carry on which is the best way to travel.

I have to admit to having a quiet laugh when I see folks on vacation with a studio kit hanging around their neck.

I guess that is you my friend, and that is a baseless assumption if I've ever seen one.

Enjoy.

I now travel with a small digital Sony RX100iv micro 4/3, 20mb. It has a 24-70mm zoom lens and an eye viewfinder as well as a led screen in back. It fits in my shirt pocket or pants pocket and also shoots 4K video. I'll set the stills for 16:9 to match the video clips when I put them together in a single show with music to show on my 75" 4K TV and everyone loves them. My wife likes our vacation more too as do I. I quit carrying around my medium format film camera and will only shoot 4x5 at home as well.

Here's an example of the camera's capability in 4K.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Nah, it’s just this one roll because all my bw rolls are perfectly fine

 

[koraks]

It's almost certainly caused by a handling issue, either when loading the film into the camera, unloading it from the camera, or when loading it onto the development reel.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Next problem...
I don't think Velvia 100 is supposed to look this crispy. I'm guessing it's because the lab scanned it at too low of a resolution...?

 

[koraks]

There's a lot of digital artefacts in that image for sure. Indeed low resolution with apparently high digital sharpening, and that in turn has emphasized grain to unnatural levels.

The nice thing with slides is you have the reference of what it should look like. Just grab a loupe/magnifier and inspect the actual film image.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

I made up another one but without any sharpening, and it doesn't look as bad, but the shadows are still pretty fuzzy. these scans are probably fine for social media, but I'm going to have to have these rescanned at a higher resolution at some point.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

and for reference, the raw scans

 

[koraks]

the shadows are still pretty fuzzy

Aren't the shadows just underexposed? What do they look like in real life if you view the slides against a light source (e.g. monitor)? Could you post a photo of these slides held up to the light?

Note that the density of dark areas of slides is pretty damn high, and scanners struggle to get a clean signal from very dense shadows. Shadow areas that still contain some visible detail when viewed in real life sometimes scan with difficulty, lacking detail and/or with excessive noise. This is to an extent normal, and it just takes a rather decent scanner (and some skill) to extract clean detail out of those areas.

Btw, I would seriously consider getting your own scanner, or making some kind of DSLR scanning setup, so you're no longer reliant on a lab for this. Some labs give really great scans, but you pay for it, it takes time, and you'll always have more control over the output if you do it yourself (but it's a hassle, too).