MF Travel Camera idea sense / nonsense... or is it just GAS?

JWMster · Mar 21, 2018

Planning on trip to France with my better half early this Fall. MF Rollei 6008 will likely stay home, and my current 35mm RF (M6 and ZM lenses) make the trip. But as a possible 2nd camera, I'm thinking of a Voigtlander Perkeo II. Prices are about a quarter of TLR's for a Rollei 2.8D... which runs upwards from $800-ish. TLR's? See recent "Traveling with my Rollei" discussion which planted the idea... and then eBay kind of said, "Next year, kiddo." I know zippo about folders, but saw ref to them here and RFF, and this model as decent. So the question is more "IS it really worth the bother, or is it gonna be fun and 'done', and leave me wishing I'd have either dropped the idea, or sprung for a better option. Does anyone really find taking a MF and 35mm works on travel (if the MF is a small Perkeo for example)? or is that a bridge too far? Curious what your experience is. Even happy to hear honest advice, "Don't do it... wait until you do it right." or "That's just money down a rathole."

Paul Howell · Mar 21, 2018

I have traveled with a Yashicha TLR, other option was Mamiya 6, the folder from the 50's, lens is very good, easy to store. I need have mine serviced. Current traveler I use is a Kodak Tourister, the upgraded model with 4 element lens. I rewind either Tmax 100 or 400 onto 620 rolls, scale focus, easy to set lens to infinity for landscapes. Folds up, metal body. Downside is that you need to carry a tripod. Advantage of a Yashica or perhaps Minoltacord is no bellows that could develop pin holes.

Pioneer · Mar 21, 2018

Don't know a lot about the Perkeo but I do use a Bessa II with a very nice Heliar lens. I also do a lot of work with Agfa Isolettes using Solinar lenses. The results are usually very, very good but there are a few things you should know if you want to get good photos with them.

The first, and probably most important, is that the condition of the folder is everything. It can have the most wonderful lens but if the mechanism is abused and out of kilter you will not get good photographs no matter how hard you try. If you intend to carry it on vacation then I would suggest that you buy from someone who has already done the work to ensure the folder is in good, usable condition to start with.

Next, find a good lens hood and use it. The lenses will flare and you need to protect the front objective from bright light sources.

Though nowhere near as important in my mind, it is nice to have an example with a coated lens. Not only does this help a bit with flare but it also provides a bit of a boost in contrast. But I use old folders with uncoated lenses all the time and boosting contrast in your print is not too difficult. If you use a lens hood and avoid direct light the flare issues will not be as difficult to work around.

Finally, I think it is important to give yourself time to become comfortable with the operation of your camera and to understand it preferences and foibles. For the past year I have been using an old, 1935 Agfa Jsolette 6x6 folder with an uncoated 85mm 4.5 Solinar lens. The lens has been cleaned up and the shutter overhauled so it works flawlessly. I use everything from Velvia 50 to Delta 3200 and am very happy with the results. In my case there have been several situations where this little Agfa is the only camera I have carried and I have not been disappointed. But I am also very familiar with it, understand exactly how it works and what it does and doesn't like. If you buy one shortly before you leave on this vacation you have planned you may not have the time to become as comfortable with your camera and lens as you might want to be.

4season · Mar 21, 2018

Yes to travel with MF if that camera is a Mamiya Six or a GA-series Fujifilm (you won't miss the M6!)

Sirius Glass · Mar 21, 2018

For serious travel photography I take my Hasselblad with the 80mm and 50mm lenses and the Hasselblad SWC. For on the fly travel photographs when I will not have the luxury of carefully composing I take my Nikon AFs [one for color and one for black & white] with 28mm to 300mm zoom lenses.

film_man · Mar 21, 2018

I always take a 35mm when I take a MF camera. It is both for backup and for when I just want to carry something light. If you are after a TLR you could look at a Yashica 124 or a Mamiya C330 or similar. Personally I just find old folders more trouble than they're worth, the finders are generally horrible (compared to an SLR/TLR) and they're only good for landscape shots.

Could you not just factor in the price of the body in the trip? It is part of the holiday after all...

JWMster · Mar 21, 2018

Yeah... but SG... you take your Hasselblad to breakfast, lunch and dinner, into surgery and even in the shower. This would be more in the "fly travel" category... sans ability to "carefully compose, pick time of day, etc.".

JWMster · Mar 21, 2018

film_man: Yes, trying to keep an open mind. LOL. Was that you selling a 6008 on ebay?

macfred · Mar 21, 2018

I use to travel with Fuji GA645 series cameras (45 + 60 mm) and a Nikon F2 for 35mm.
Last Decemember I took a Rolleiflex 3.5F and a Konica III rangefinder.

rgeorge911 · Mar 21, 2018

I love using medium format cameras on travel. I agree on taking 35mm as well, as it’s better for on the run trips, in my opinion. I love using TLRs, and have been known to carry a Rolleiflex on travel. A Fuji GS645 is also a nice, light travel camera, though neither of the aforementioned is particularly compact.

I’m also a fan of folding medium format cameras, and have used an Agfa Record III 6x9 to great effect.

But, and if there’s an important part this may be it, I recently bought a Mamiya Six folder that has upped my game in this area. The film-plane focus adjustment (as opposed to moving the lens) and overall film flatness allow the Mamiya folder to give me Rolleiflex-like quality in a folding camera. Add in that the Mamiya has a coupled rangefinder, and there’s very little left to improve, imho.

Best,
Reed

R.Gould · Mar 21, 2018

The Perkeo is one of the smallest 66 folders I know of, I have 2 of them in my collection, and they are truly pocketable, and even with the Vasker triplet lens stopped down to 8 or 11 are very capable of great results, If you can get one with the Color skoper lens then you have one of the best tessar type lenses around, only one other better and that is the Ross xprexx, but you will on;y find that on English made cameras. One warning be careful with the choice of shutter, don't get one with the pronto shutter, just 4 speeds can be limiting, look for one with either a Compur or prontor shutter, other than that well worth getting, as capable as any Tlr,
Richard

NJH · Mar 21, 2018

Also bare in mind that 35mm makes a lot of sense for either very fast lenses (low light shooting) or telephoto work in particular tele zooms and further, modern tele zooms with IS thus allowing for greater capability to do handheld work. I haven't travelled with this set up yet but my thinking is MF for wide and normal, then and a Canon 1v with the 70-200 f4 IS (could also chuck in some wider EF lens options for redundancy).

nosmok · Mar 21, 2018

I travel with folders all the time. Pioneer has it right, above, about knowing your folder and what it likes and doesn't like. I've said it plenty of times before, but a great "first folder" in 6x9 is a Franka Rolfix II, with the coated Rodenstock Trinar lens. No RF, but an external RF is easy to source, and it has all the other virtues: compact size for its HUGE negative, light weight, coated lens, excellent rigidity and quick set up. Plus they tend to be cheaper than other comparable folders. The 6x6 Solida from Franka is a bit more hit or miss, but I had one with a Schneider Radionar that was a fine performer, and the Solidas tend to be really cheap-- the caveat being that a really good one is harder to find.

Svenedin · Mar 21, 2018

MF and 35mm for travel works for me. I usually travel with an Olympus OM3-Ti or OM4-Ti and a Fuji GF670 (6x7). The Fuji is a folder. Sometimes I'll take one my Zeiss Ikon Super Ikontas (also folders). As the folders do not have interchangeable lenses the bag stays light. When I am shooting both formats I tend to be quite selective in what gets taken on MF. Of course the lack of interchangeable lenses means the folder is not as versatile as the 35mm SLR but it works well for many things. Some scenes deserve the bigger format, others are just mementos to jog my memory in the future and will do on 35mm.

Sirius Glass · Mar 21, 2018

JWMster said:
Yeah... but SG... you take your Hasselblad to breakfast, lunch and dinner, into surgery and even in the shower. This would be more in the "fly travel" category... sans ability to "carefully compose, pick time of day, etc.".

You left out that I use my Hasselblads as pillows at night and cushions for the sofa.

film_man · Mar 21, 2018

JWMster said:
film_man: Yes, trying to keep an open mind. LOL. Was that you selling a 6008 on ebay?

Yup, decided to sell the lot as I don't have the energy right now to go into repairs and such. I'll give the Rolleiflex 2.8 experiment a few months and then see what I do. If it works out I'll probably add a Hassy SWC, always wanted to try one of those.

David A. Goldfarb · Mar 21, 2018

One thing to think about is whether it's important for you to have all your images from the trip in the same format for more consistency of form.

The Perkeo II is a very handy travel camera. I've owned a number of folders, some theoretically better than the Perkeo II, and for me that one's the keeper. 6x6 offers a good balance of neg size vs. film flatness for these older folding cameras. It's also handy as a second camera with another system, since it's so small. For instance, I used to travel with a 4x5" Gowland Pocket view for tripod shots and the Perkeo II for handheld shots sometimes, since they're both so light and compact. Or I could bring the Perkeo II with my birding kit for landscapes in between bird photo ops.

If you do get a new camera before travel, be sure to get used to it and process some film from it before you leave, to be sure everything is in working order, and that you're accustomed to the procedures. If you've never used a camera without a single window rangefinder or TTL focusing, for instance, it's easy to forget to focus. I have a separate shoe-mount rangefinder for the Perkeo II and have to remember to focus in the rangefinder and then apply the distance setting to the lens, or zone focus, when there's enough light and distance for that. At least the Perkeo II and most folders have a straight film path, so you're unlikely to load the film with the wrong side toward the lens--done that with reverse curl film backs once or twice.

DWThomas · Mar 21, 2018

My last major trek, a 5800 mile road trip through "flyover country," my film shooting was done with a Yashica TLR and an Ercona II (East German Zeiss Ikonta) 6x9 folder. I also have a Perkeo II with Color Skopar which gives a good account of itself. Given both folders are in excess of 60 years old, I do sometimes wonder, but so far, so good. I add that both were bought within the last ten years or so from someone who does CLAs and checks them out. (it's not as though they were found in granddad's closet!) There are samples on each of those pages linked above, and in the blather at the top of those pages are links to some other galleries containing examples. Some examples appear in my gallery here, also.

Along the way I have acquired a suitable auxiliary rangefinder, but in all honesty have done well enough with guestimation that I seldom carry or use the rangefinder. If you're into serious closeup or macro work, a folder would not be my tool of choice, but for miscellaneous travel shooting they work pretty well. Since I got the 124G, I have worked more with the TLR which is a bit better for working with filters or closeup lenses, and also a bit better optically. But alas, it does not fit in a jacket pocket! More recently I've been eyeing some of those "Texas Leicas" and other heavy duty stuff, but until I can sort out how much is "need" and how much is just "GAS," I've been restraining myself. Another perhaps minor concern, 6x9 only gets 8 shots per roll -- in a target rich environment it can feel as though one is changing film more than shooting.

I'll mention that my whole rekindling of interest in B&W film photography popped up looking at some digi-shots I took of old weathered and eroded masonry in Pompeii -- alas -- after I was home. I started with a Bronica SQ-A system, but were I returning to Italia, I fear I would agonize for days over what exact gear to take!

jim10219 · Mar 21, 2018

I usually travel with a 35mm and 4x5. The film is so much cheaper for the 35mm that I take a snapshot of anything that slightly interests me. Spray and pray! I save the 4x5 for shots that I think will turn out really great and have the time to scout and set up. So taking two different formats isn't such an unheard of idea. Especially if part of the reason for the trip is photography.

That being said, medium format was always the compromise format for me. I shoot more than I would with 4x5, but less than I would with 35mm. If I bring a medium format camera, I don't usually bring any other cameras.

k.hendrik · Mar 21, 2018

Nikon FM + Isoly II covers all in France for Italy I would add a SWC. Have a nice trip.
and PS: all $$ spend on analog camera's is just money down a rathole...

JWMster · Mar 21, 2018

Travel with 4X5? Sounds very ambitious! Alpa 12TC or similar size.. maybe. Kind of beyond what I was thinking.... but wow.

Ko.Fe. · Mar 21, 2018

Perkeo is overhyped, overpriced scale focus camera with FV in the corner and no parallax correction. For less money and same coated lens you could get Bessa 66. It is also very small. And Netstar 515 is very small 645 scale ficcus camera with uncoated lens. Gives great BW.
For any of these cameras, including Perkeo you need to be ready for CLA.

Paul Howell · Mar 21, 2018

JWMster said:
Travel with 4X5? Sounds very ambitious! Alpa 12TC or similar size.. maybe. Kind of beyond what I was thinking.... but wow.

A Crown is very doable, not like a 6X6 or 6X9 folder, but made of wood, light, with accurate rangefinders it can be hand held or used with a monopod, need light meter, set of filters, and 4X5 film holders. Larger issue is need a changing bag to unload and load film. In the distant past I traveled with my Crown, one lens, 10 film holders at the time professional TriX or HP5, one modified backpack.

JWMster · Mar 21, 2018

KoFe: I appreciate your suggestion. Thanks! Looked also at some others like the Zeiss Ikontas...Mamiya Sixes... there's a slew of them. If your point is the selection of candidates determines the price range, I'd agree. The variance within a particular type can be quite wide. I've been looking at Jurgen Certo's offerings in the folder department. And yes, going through a dealer raises the price a bit, but if it means a working piece of hardware, the modest premium is probably fair imho. Thanks for your notes.

JWMster · Mar 21, 2018

Paul: Thanks! But for me, the one-lens camera has the virtue of limiting "the carry" and I'm kind of looking at a MF to slip in my bag WITH my Leica gear. My biggest travel problem is too much stuff and then finding when I get home I only used the 35mm lens (or equivalent)... 'cause that's my "go to".. Another is that as much as my wife is patient with my shooting in our travels, there's a limit to what's reasonable to ask and what we want out of a trip together I didn't throw that into the mix earlier and I probably should have. So as much as I want to make some specific photo trips, I also really like to bring her along, too as part of my picture... behind the camera.This sets some limits, but that's okay. Just means that unless I can find a Sherpa who wants to work for free, the big stuff is someone else's gear. I admire it from afar. But yes, I admire it and the folks that use it.

MF Travel Camera idea sense / nonsense... or is it just GAS?

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