A very positive thread!! So much good advice and information here - what I'm getting out of it is, there isn't any such thing as THE ideal (or dare I say it - perfect) camera for travel. It all boils down to what suits the individual traveler best. Each and every one of us has his/her preferred camera/s, all for our own reasons, the one/s we use best and feel happiest with when we are on the road. As it should be.
After years of traveling with my Nikon kits, like many of us here I'm getting on a bit and I no longer want to cart around say a D700 or D800 with a grip and a kit of lenses. So lighter and smaller is better for me.
When I can get out of Australia again (soon, I hope, Malaysia will reopen to foreign tourists next month and I'm hoping Indonesia will give up its idiotic visa and quarantine regulations so I can get back there and resume my explorations for old Indies architecture and ancient temples) I will probably take two kits with me. Like others, a Rolleicord Vb with a 16 exposure kit, a few accessories, a small meter and 20 rolls of film in a metal K-ration can I bought in the '70s for the express purpose of carting film around, will suit my B&W film shooting urges.
I found it interesting that the Rolleicord wins out with many posters. For reasons obvious . Not too expensive to buy, the accessories are bayonet I and can bebought cheaply, it's light, easy to work with, and a fun camera. My second choice would be one of my two Rolleiflex Ts with a '16 kit, but my pair are almost mint, so I hesitate to fling them into a backpack or a crumpler bag for some of the rough outings I do when I'm in the tropics.
Digitally (and let's face it, we all take one with us, don't we?), the Nikon DSLRs are too heavy for me now, so a recently purchased Fujifilm XT-1 with two lenses, the oustandingly good 18-55 kit zoom and the other maybe an 18 (= 28mm) or 23 (35mm), will do everything I want.
I quite fancy the idea of going with a Fuji GA or GS (ideally one of the 'W' models as the 28mm optics suit my way of seeing) as they seem to be ideal one-size-fits-all shooters. Or to go ultra light, which appeals to me more and more as I crawl and creep into my mid-70s, one of my folders, either the circa 1950 Zeiss Nettar with an Albada finder or a Voigtlander Perkeo I with a lens hood and a yellow-green filter. Minimalist to the core. Less is bess... best, sorry!!
Many thanks to all who've posted for your good ideas, you have all been a most inspiring inspiration to me for my next outing to southeast Asia!!
KoTao
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