What's your backup camera?

[ambaker]

I do not take backup cameras. I never have. I've never had a camera fail in the field. I've never had a hard drive fail in a computer, either. Though for years I spent money and hours doing tape backups.

I should add to the above, I've never had a camera fail, till today. So here I am, sitting in a hotel room, 467 miles from home, with a sick Oly XA.

Two more days to go, on the World's Longest Yard Sale, and there will be no pictures. Well, unless I can score a camera for cheap money along the way. I did see a Nikon N65 slowly roasting in the mid day sun, on one sellers table. I almost asked for a price, but it and the seller were questionable looking.

I'll probably backup my hard drive, when I get home, as well.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Spicy]

had a lens fail (the front element's outer retaining ring unscrewed itself due to vibration in the saddle-bag) on a cross-country bicycle trip once, and the second body came through with 90% of the keepers i took on that trip. the first lens was a 21, and the majority of the images with it turned out decidedly out-of-focus (despite having been taken hyperfocaled at f8)

ever since that happened, i've been a bit sensitive to equipment failure on big trips. infrequently, i'll bring 2 cameras out when i'm just out shooting, but whenever i travel for photography, i'll usually have a back-up body (in the same mount, when possible) that i keep but don't bring out daily.

backup depends on what the primary camera is, but it's usually either something with the same mount, or something very small with a fixed lens (ie: olympus XA or rollei 35s)

 

[klop]

Nikon F4S ------ Back Up = Nikon n8008 or Contax TVS
Hasselblad 500 C/M ------ Back Up = Hasselblad 500 EL/M
Calumet CC-400 ------ None (living on the edge):w00t:

 

[fstop]

8x10 Wehman

 

[StoneNYC]

I keep an old minolta with an f/2 100mm (or maybe 105mm?) in the car with a roll of film (used to be Eastman Double-X but now it will be HP5+

If I ever need a camera and the one I have breaks I can always use that old thing, it's been through the Vietnam war and hundreds of Kodachrome frames shot on it, it was my neighbors, it's battery doesn't work for the light meter but the shutter works just fine.

I don't really need it, so much as I keep it as an homage to his memory, we NEVER talked about photography and it was only after his death that I learned he was heavily into it in his younger years. His Kodachrome slides that his son showed me told me something about him, they were all from the war, and were fantastic... If I could only be half as good at documenting life events, I would have won the Pulitzer... So sad we never truly got to know each other.

His son sold me his Nikon and Minolta and a ton of lenses and odd and ends for $50 because he didn't want to deal with it, I sold the Nikon stuff, gave the macro lens to a friend to encourage her film work, and kept the Minolta for myself.

But I digress...

 

[GarageBoy]

No matter how many film SLRs I'm rolling with, I always have a d*gital rolling with me

 

[GarageBoy]

Hasselblad 500 C/M ------ Back Up = Hasselblad 500 EL/M

The irony of a battery dependent, heavier backup

 

[damonff]

Yup, my F2 backs up my F6.

Hmmm... Depends: 1). If shooting medium format, I use a 500c/m...to back up...my other 500c/m;
2). If shooting with a rangefinder, I carry a pair of M6 bodies;
3). If shooting 35mm SLR, I carry an F2 body to backup whatever Nikon I happen to be shooting with at the time...

 

[ToddB]

Canon QL17 GIII

Probably my Canon QL17 GIII that I aquired from my grandmother over the summer. Awesome camera.

Todd

 

[spacer]

Still trying to figure out which one should be primary...

 

[mweintraub]

Still trying to figure out which one should be primary...

Exactly what I was going to say.

I guess my backup would be whatever 2nd camera I take with me that I don't use as primary. Sometimes it's 35mm, sometimes it's MF, sometimes it's just a camera phone.