Mamiya 6 or YashicaMat 124G. Both are light but if you hadn't sold the 503, that would have been my suggestion. You shld be able to find a Mamiya 6 w/50 lens combo for around your price range if you look carefully.
Rolleiflex. I was a skeptic of the "but it only has one lens!" variety before trying it one year. Before that I used to travel with a whole kit worth of stuff, either my Hasselblad with four lenses, or my Contax G series with five lenses, or even my Canham 5x7 with five lenses. Then I took my Rolleiflex to Paris and had a revelation. Having just the one lens makes me concentrate more on crafting the image in the viewfinder instead of worrying about which lens I have on the camera, and I came away with so many more good images as a result. A TLR may not be your thing, but as someone who has used SLRs, TLRs, rangefinders and view cameras, I've found the TLR to be a natural fit for street photography and travel work because it is lightweight, compact, and very quiet to operate. If you want to see some results, go take a wander through my portfolio here on APUG, and look for the images of Paris, Rome, and Florence.
One more piece of travel photography advice - don't bring multi-systems with you. Bring your film camera, or bring your digital, but don't bring a 35mm-esque digital and a medium format film camera. I'm not saying you CAN'T switch back and forth between them successfully, but switching between a 2:3 ratio ( or 4:3) and a square, one set of controls and another, is asking for trouble. Invariably you'll miss a shot because you have the other camera than the one you want in hand at the time and your mindset will be on the wrong camera.
Of course they have a different look. Just as Ektar 100 and Tri-X have very different looks when shot through my Rolleiflex. My point in saying to carry one system is that if you're switching back and forth between a square format and a 2:3 format all the time, you'll find yourself trying to compose for the one when you're looking through the other, and as a result, your compositions will be off. While it is possible to switch back and forth, you're making your brain make a conscious choice about something that works better when it's instinctive.Nonsense! The last cruise I went on i took my digital and a super ikonta 6x6 with Fuji across. The square frame of the ikonta and black and white film have a totally different look to some subjects. The two systems complimented each other very well.
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I'm contemplating a major loop out to some of the southwest this summer, but that will be by car and I will probably take the Bronica with the Perkeo as backup, along with some "other stuff." There is also an Ercona II 6x9 folder here that is quite respectable, but bigger and heavier and only gets eight shots on a roll, so I often lean toward the old friendly 6x6 square.
Eventually, I'll get a set of Fuji 6x7 rangefinders.....normal and wide.....big neg, good lenses and the redundancy that makes me feel better!
There is only one good answer to this: Mamiya6!Hey all, I was wondering if everyone could toss their 2 cents in regarding their best suggestion for a travel oriented MF camera.
I have experience shooting MF through 8x10 and in the past made the natural MF progression from the RB67, through the C330's of the world, to a 503CW. All of which were sold for various reasons, upgrades, etc etc etc.
I am heading on a massive road trip with my wife and will not have access to electricity for large portions so I don't want to have to worry about charging batteries for my digital camera. I also want to avoid my tripod and large format gear, for the sake of not driving my wife insane with the "slow look".
I initially was thinking a MF RF, something like a Bronica 645RF but would love your insight. As of now the budget is really unclear, but under 1500 bucks helps.
There is only one good answer to this: Mamiya6!
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