So what do we carry with us? Fixed lens or zoom? One camera or several?

[Asher Kelman]

Just around town or visiting a new place, most of us take with some camera! Previosuly, I'd have the 24-105 L IS on my 5D Mark ll and a 70-200 in a bag over my shoulder.

Now it's all changed. One of the advantages of mirrorless cameras is the shrinkage in size and weight.

With the Sony A7R and 36 MP, I manage with one lens 99% of the time. The 55mm f1.8 Zeiss is stellar and the extra resolution provides detail that my 24-105mm Canon glass would pull in for me. To get the wide angle shot, I stitch or go back until it enters the frame.

but then my pockets are plain empty! So I realize that I should slip in my Ricoh GR at 28mm (equivalent "35mm" focal length) and then I can get a complete view on its own and if I wish it would be the reference image for stitching Sony A7R overlapped images. With the 21mm add on convertor lens it still goes in my pocket, albeit making me look either clumsy or pleased to see everyone.

So what do you carry with you around town? Micro four thirds perhaps? A fixed lens or a zoom?

Asher

 

[Tom Robbins]

These are interesting questions, Asher, though I'm not sure where it was intended to apply. Around town? I'm not a street shooter and usually don't carry gear into urban settings. Out in the weeds or woods? Now that's my style, and a different kettle of fish entirely.

I've got an old Canon 5DMKII that just keeps on going despite seeing almost daily use, almost since its introduction. State of the art it ain't. My old zooms, gathering dust in storage for a few years, have been long ago replaced by Canon's 24, 45, and 90mm tilt/shift lenses. Using shift movements with the body in portrait or landscape orientation, the images, when merged in Photoshop, provide some rather unique and creative aspect ratios. The merged files tend to be big too, so it's possible to print larger than the usual 35mm format.

So, shifting and merging are sort of like zooming, except for the extra effort at processing. Another consideration is the ability to foresee, or predict, the result of merging two or three shifted frames. I've found this comes with practice, as with anything else.

This is a view of the old (as in mid 1800s) I&M Canal aqueduct taken about a month ago with two horizontally shifted frames using the old TS-E 45mm f/2.8, just as an example.

Aqueduct over the Little Vermilion River, August​

 

[Maris Rusis]

Digital picture illustrating an 8x10 view camera in the field.​

It's just a camera, a couple of lenses, light meter, five film holders, focussing cloth, backpack with a good harness, some bad weather gear, and a carbon fibre tripod. The complete outfit weighs about 22kg so I travel easy. My approach approach is to venture out early, walk slowly, and don't stop until the top, and then photograph during the downhill journey back to the car.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Digital picture illustrating an 8x10 view camera in the field.​

It's just a camera, a couple of lenses, light meter, five film holders, focussing cloth, backpack with a good harness, some bad weather gear, and a carbon fibre tripod. The complete outfit weighs about 22kg so I travel easy. My approach approach is to venture out early, walk slowly, and don't stop until the top, and then photograph during the downhill journey back to the car.

So who took the picture, Maris?

I like to have someone with me now to help carry the backpack or the tripod.

Is this a 4x5 or 8x10?

for 8x10 I only have 5 film holders, but that's 10 sheets. I take with far too many lenses.

But I have not trecked with my 8x10 for several years. That has to be remedied, ASAP!

Asher

Asher

 

[jake klein]

All my lenses are primes so no choice there.

I usually do not bring everything. I'll often just pick one and shoot everything at that focal length for the day. Sometimes I'll slip a lens into Debbbie's purse or a cargo pocket if I have one.

I'll usually stagger my lenses by bringing a 28mm and 85mm or 50mm and 135mm. I often find myself with the 28mm and 50mm in my pocket because they are both small.

 

[Chris Heilman]

I've about a dozen odd cameras. The camera I am never without is my iPod, I use it mostly for documentation, like if I need to remember a sign or something. It takes the place of a notepad. For pictorial photography, I usually also have one or two other cameras at hand: a first generation Graphite Lytro, and an Olympus XA3.

When I need them for something specific, I use SLR and large format cameras. But I rarely carry any of that stuff around for opportunistic photography.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I've about a dozen odd cameras. The camera I am never without is my iPod, I use it mostly for documentation, like if I need to remember a sign or something. It takes the place of a notepad. For pictorial photography, I usually also have one or two other cameras at hand: a first generation Graphite Lytro, and an Olympus XA3.

When I need them for something specific, I use SLR and large format cameras. But I rarely carry any of that stuff around for opportunistic photography.

So, Chris,

If you are really seduced by something that happens before you, which camera has allowed you to create something you treasure, or, do they all serve just as well? After all, your mix is rather eclectic!

Asher

 

[fahim mohammed]

 

[Asher Kelman]

Handsome, Fahim, that for sure!!

But what model and lens? ....and what other lens would be in your pocket?

Asher

 

[Michael Nagel]

I think that I answered the question already here before this thread came up. For µFT the answer reading the lenses is simple: all I have because it is neither heavy, not does it need much space. For the DSLR it depends what I am looking for.

For me it all boils down to the point that the camera must be up to the task. I f speed and/or stealth is required, I am ready to sacrifice some image quality over usability and size to get the right picture.

Best regards,
Michael

 

[Maris Rusis]

=Asher Kelman;155927]So who took the picture, Maris?

Zigi Georges working for hire for an article published elsewhere.

I like to have someone with me now to help carry the backpack or the tripod.

Is this a 4x5 or 8x10?

It's an 8x10, Tachihara 810HD triple extension field view camera, to be exact. The lens is a tiny and light Wollensak 159mm f9.5. Unpaid camera carrying assistants are a bit rare these days.

for 8x10 I only have 5 film holders, but that's 10 sheets. I take with far too many lenses

If you shoot ten sheets of 8x10 in a day that's a busy day. My accountant (a humourless man) tells me I should allow $100 for every exposure. That certainly prompts editing before shooting.

But I have not trecked with my 8x10 for several years. That has to be remedied, ASAP!

Asher

Treking with an 8x10 on speculation is a challenging notion. You could walk all day, get totally wasted, and come back empty. I walk the ground, hands in pockets, before going out with a camera and mark potential camera set-ups in advance. Went the light is right I go back and shoot.

This is diametrically opposite to someone carrying a miniature electronic camera on speculation. Here there is minimal effort apart from walking, no weight, no cost, no consequences for failure, and no practical limit on the number of frames shot. The big advantage is that transient and unexpected things can be snapped immediately. The immediate challenge changes from, given the bulk of the equipment, can the shot be obtained to, given the richness of opportunity, is the shot worth looking at? Either way the old dictum applies: any art when practiced at the highest level demands the most from its practitioner.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Treking with an 8x10 on speculation is a challenging notion. You could walk all day, get totally wasted, and come back empty. I walk the ground, hands in pockets, before going out with a camera and mark potential camera set-ups in advance. Went the light is right I go back and shoot.

Maris,

You make a good point! When I take panoramas or in Europe using a tripod and some sort of gimbal, I do similarly. I have either no camera, (unlikely) or just a digicam and first explore to choose the location that will be perfect at sunset. Then I return mentally focused for that shot.

BTW, I have also been interested in that Wollensak 159mm f9.5. Good reports! Instead I managed to find a Super-Symmar 150 5.6 which just barely covers 8x10. How do you think they might compare.

For my "walk around" 4x5 camera I have used my Globuscope with a 65mm focal length JML lens fitted with a nice helical focus. I made a big mistake trying to use it in Florence for night shots of the Ponte Vecchio. Not the ideal challenge for me or the camera! I do need to remember add some black velvet anti-refelctive flocking! I was thinking of having a jacket made with pockets for the 4x5 film holders, LOL! I'll now order the stuff this week and feel better about myself.

It's so much more like cheating, but so easy with the Ricoh GR and a 21mm add on lens to get the same picture at night, in the winter without driving my wife crazy, as I try to focus on a screen with a cloth over my head.

Asher

 

[fahim mohammed]

....

...and what other lens would be in your pocket?

Asher

None. I don't need another lens..maybe want another in the pocket..35 or macro Elmar-m 90.

 

[Chris Calohan]

Nikon D810, 20mm, 35-70mm, 80-400mm - all are with me wherever I shoot. I also have an old Chautaugua 5x7 view camera I use to make negatives for salt and pt/pd printing.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Nikon D810, 20mm, 35-70mm, 80-400mm - all are with me wherever I shoot. I also have an old Chautaugua 5x7 view camera I use to make negatives for salt and pt/pd printing.

How heavy is the 80-400 mm? Sounds like a heroic commitment. If this was micro 4/3 then that would be no sweat, LOL!

BTW, would be great if your filing system would allow you to find some of the 6x7 work - sounds fun!

Asher

 

[Chris Calohan]

It's a bit of a chunker but not terribly so. You wouldn't want to carry it all day, but years ago, I shot a Pentax 6x7 with two lenses at auto races (short lens for infield work, long lens for track work) and I can assure you my current combo is far less weighty or unmanageable.

D810 with 80-400 is about five pounds (about 2.27 kilos). The Pentax with a 150mm was about 7.25 lbs/3.6 kilos.

 

[James Lemon]

I go everywhere with one camera and one 50mm lens if I had a 21mm lens as well I would still go out with one lens at a time not both.

Best,regards
James

 

[Doug Kerr]

I almost always have with me my Canon Powershot G16. It fits perfectly in my pocket.

If we are just out in the car or going to a social occasion that does not warrant my taking the EOS 40D, we take the Panasonic DMC-FZ200.

These both have quite small sensors, and so there are limitations on performance. Most of my work ends up in Carla's blog, and so that is not a real limitation.

I am very intrigued by the just-announced Canon Powershot G7 X, which evidently has an 16.5 mm sensor (the so-called "one inch", or 1/7920 furlong, size).

For comparison, the EOS 40D has a "1.63 inch", or 1/4863 furlong, sensor.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Bill McCarthy]

I generally have a good idea of what I'm out doing,but in the end, I usually end up with my A900 with a Zeiss 2.8 24-70 lens. In the past I carried multiple cameras and multiple lenses. As others, I scout my locations (during multiple dailies walks with my 3 and sometimes 4 dogs. Long leashes can make a photo shoot extremely frustrating). I use my cell phone camera to document ideas, places, and date and time. Then I review them at home and go alone to get final images later.

Here is one from my cell phone the other day, that I plan to revisit.

[/URL]

 

[Asher Kelman]

I generally have a good idea of what I'm out doing,but in the end, I usually end up with my A900 with a Zeiss 2.8 24-70 lens. In the past I carried multiple cameras and multiple lenses. As others, I scout my locations (during multiple dailies walks with my 3 and sometimes 4 dogs. Long leashes can make a photo shoot extremely frustrating). I use my cell phone camera to document ideas, places, and date and time. Then I review them at home and go alone to get final images later.

Here is one from my cell phone the other day, that I plan to revisit.

[/URL]

Superb discovery, Bill. As it is, the cell phone has served you well. There are enlargement techniques that can really fool the eye and make huge sharp prints from such a picture. Likely, everything will be as you left it when you return. Just have to pick the light.

Asher

 

[Bill McCarthy]

Superb discovery, Bill. As it is, the cell phone has served you well. There are enlargement techniques that can really fool the eye and make huge sharp prints from such a picture. Likely, everything will be as you left it when you return. Just have to pick the light.

Asher

Thanks Asher,
I've never printed anything from my cell phone, I use it more like a sketch book. And that was somewhat my point. Things have really changed. But, maybe I'll give it a try. Guess I can pull it into Photoshop and fix a few things and see what I can get for a print size. I'll still run out and garb another take as soon as I can clear the puffy clouds that have invaded the space.
Best, Bill

 

[Murray Foote]

"Round town" I don't usually have a camera. If I did it would probably be a Fuji X100s.

If I'm shooting live music at a gig around town I'll take from a camera and a few lenses to a semi-complete Nikon or Fuji system.

Recently I've been going for walks beyond the back fence every second day (where there are 10,000 acres of "bush"), partly to keep fit and partly to familiarise myself with new equipment ahead of my next trip. For that I take a Fuji XT-1 and Fuji X-E2 IR with 14mm f2.8, 10-24mm f4, 35mm f1.4, 56mm f1.4 and 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 lenses in a Mindshift pack with an RRS tripod.

When I visited India earlier this year I took a Fuji X-E2 with 14mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4 and 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 lenses and an X100s.

When I cover the Narooma Blues Festival in a couple of weeks, I'll take Nikon D3s and D3 cameras, 14-24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4G, 85mm f1.4G, 105mm f2 DC, 180mm f2.8 and 300mm f2.8 lenses plus a Fuji X100s.

I took a similar system on my North Atlantic trip except a D800 instead of the D3 and a 24mm f3.5 PC-E instead of the 105mm f2 DC.

When I visited New York in 2011 I just took a Fuji X100.

 

[Chris Heilman]

So, Chris,

If you are really seduced by something that happens before you, which camera has allowed you to create something you treasure, or, do they all serve just as well? After all, your mix is rather eclectic!

Asher

Hmmmm. Ya know, I think that they all DO serve the same function - everything I do has the same look to it (blury, grainy, - my art teacher sez that it's 'personally coded', which I think means that she can't tell what it is.) And you are right, changing cameras doesn't change that.

Digital cameras make it easier - funky cameras (like my Grover 5x7 pictured below) work like Maris said - I edit before the exposure. But in the end, all the pictures end up looking alike ...

 

[Asher Kelman]

Maris and Chris both shame me and inspire me at the same time! One can sometimes look for Nirvana in the wrong places, and often it's right in one's own home!

I mentioned at the opening that move oft-companion iOS the 28mm fixed lens Ricoh GR for street and events and then adding the 21 mm accessor lens for super-wide landscapes, architecture and interiors.

What's amazing is the fact that it focuses fast, is silent, non-intrusive and no one thinks one has a camera of note. So security guards are not awoken from their sleep!

However, there's another valuable use. When scouting for good angles for large format photography I used to just rely on my fingers made into a frame.

What I discovered is that the Ricoh with the 21mm lens is perfect for framing the shot for the Schneider 150mm f/5.6 Super-Symmar XL Lens on my 8x10 Chamonix camera.

In fact there's about 4-5 degrees more coverage on the LF lens so I am certain that whatever I see in the Ricoh shot can be covered. Since the Ricoh is essentially weightless, this allows one to be more of a tourist and even take a walk with one's spouse as there's almost no delay in taking a few shots from several vantage points.

Of course, one has to return when the light is right, but then, that's the pleasure of it all. Noe I have to check I have film and go hunting!

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

However, there's another valuable use. When scouting for good angles for large format photography I used to just rely on my fingers made into a frame.

What I discovered is that the Ricoh with the 21mm lens is perfect for framing the shot for the Schneider 150mm f/5.6 Super-Symmar XL Lens on my 8x10 Chamonix camera.

Ah, the director's viewfinder:

Wow! What great legs!​

but with capture capability!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[fahim mohammed]

We are planning a vacation..hopefully.

I carry what I think is appropriate, for me, for the place and type of photography I intend to do.

This time this is what goes with me..

The Leica is to hang around my neck when I visit tourist spots or maybe take a photography class.
The lenses shall hang on the shoulder through a transparent lens bag.

I am not rich, but very gullible. And I have to show that I have a Leica.

The Nikon Df...that is for show too.

For photos I shall use my iPhone. iPhone? Status symbol you know. The new one. I have to have that.

iOwl?..you have met. That stays home. For weight considerations. My wife shall carry the tripods and heavy gear.

 

[Asher Kelman]

This time this is what goes with me..

Fahim,

Getting the wife to carry the trapped is almost worth being married!

The owl could give you good advice! So if you couldn't have your iPhone, what two lenses and body would you take?

Asher

 

[fahim mohammed]

Asher, the owl is beginning to show its age. Has given me most of what wisdom it had. Similar to my situation, I might add. It would just be dead weight.

What better way to impress myself, and a few others sharing the same view, I think it would
have to be a Nikon and 50/80( my Nikon mount 35 is a Zeiss manual..so omitted ) or a Leica and 35/75.

Really any one camera/lens combo would do. They are after all pendants hanging around my neck...for others to see.

No iPhone, than I have my iPad..to take photos and send them to my family and friends...almost immediately.

That is the sum of my photography. Gullible, yes.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I think the Leica with some black tape over the red dot and a 28mm or 35mm lens would be my choice!

Asher

 

[fahim mohammed]

Unfair. You said 2 lenses.

If one lens, then no brainer for me. The 50mm. I could do most of my photography with just the 50.

If I felt the need to cover up the red dot, for whatever reason, there are options available from Leica without the red dot.

I need to put the Df to some rigorous use. Want to see what the sensor can do for me.