A Different "What Would You Pack" Thread

[deirdre]

So here's a different "What would you pack?" thread.

We're going on a cruise to Morocco and the Canary Islands, leaving from Barcelona with a day there at either end. Much of our time will be in museums and natural world stuff, so I'll need a mix of lenses. Probably the most anticipated photo opportunity is the Alhambra.

I have:

Panasonic GF1 with 20mm & 45mm macro (40mm and 90mm effective) + Leica M adapter

M8

Leica CL

Zeiss Super Ikonta III (6x6 folder)

Lenses that can be used on the first 3:
15mm Voigtlander Heliar II (M mount) -- it's going with me, no question
28mm Voigtlander Ultron f/1.9
35mm Leitz (Canada) early M-mount Summicron f/2
40mm Voigtlander Nokton f/1.4
50mm Voigtlander Nokton f/1.1
90mm Leica Elmar-C (came with the CL) f/4
135mm Leitz Hektor f/4.5

I need to eliminate a couple of them: it's easy to see that I'm kinda spaced up in the middle. I'm used to 28mm. 15, 28, 50, and 90?

I'll mostly be shooting digital. I haven't yet decided on film, but Tri-X will probably be my B&W choice.

[Lss]

I like having both digital and film and have recently traveled mostly with my M8 and Bessa R2A cameras with a varying selection of lenses (35/1.4 is always there). I have found nothing important missing with this setup. So, I would suggest M8 and CL. If you use the folder a lot take that, too. Unless you want the GF1 for macro or video, it seems completely redundant.

[umcelinho]

M8 with 35/2, CL with 15/4.5 and 50/1.1 on the bag if you feel it will be missed. that should be enough, really. packing light is always better.

I've travelled with an M6 with 50/1.5 and 15/4.5 for a whole month. Also with an R-D1 with 35/1.4 and 12/5.6 for 15 days. so actually a normal + ultrawide combo could be just what you will need. the less to fiddle with, the better, i think. it's less to worry about.

[chris00nj]

I'd bring the M8 and the Super Ikonta. The Super Ikonta allows you to take some photos that you could really enlarge.

As for lenses, along with the 15, I'd bring the 28 or 35 and the 90. The 28/35 is good for a walkabout lens.

The 90 is good for taking pictures from the cruise ship.

Below photo taken with a Canon 100/3.5. A wide angle lens would have left me with a tiny skyline and a lot of water.

[oftheherd]

I don't know your photo preferences, so I can only say what I like. I see better in wide, and it sounds like you are going to be places where you will benefit from wide angles. I realize the sometimes need for telephoto so I would probably take the 135mm. When you need telephoto, 90mm just isn't that much.

I agree with your choice of a 120 folder. Easy to carry, and allows getting enlargements you can't get with digital. Personally I would take tri-x and a slower film, like Pan F or Adox for really big enlargements in good light. But if you don't anticipate really big enlargement, tri-x should be fine.

[deirdre]

When I went to Hawaii, I took a 15, 28, and 50 on an M8 and 20 and 45 on the GF1. This is a 28mm shot. This is a 15mm shot. It's on an M8, though, which means it's more like 37mm and 20mm. I've noticed that ~40mm is my "natural" length, but I've already got 40mm covered on the GF1. Arguably, I also have 90mm covered.

Essentially, if you want that 15mm shot, you'd better have the 15mm with you because nothing else will give you that shot. You can crop a 90mm shot to a 135mm one.

I probably won't enlarge over 16x20 (if that), and I've noticed that my iPhone enlarges better than I thought at 9x12. I have a good scanner, and my workflow's mostly digital.

Usually the 28 lives on my M8.

Given that 15 on the CL is wider than 15 on the M8, I was considering leaving that lens on there most of the time. It's specialty, but it's neat specialty.

If I took the GF1's two lenses, and 15, 28, 50, and 90, I'd have the following effective focal lengths covered with different combinations:

15, 20, 28, 30, 37, 45, 50, 56, 67, 90 (twice), 100, 120, and 180.

Changing the 90 to the 135 offers:

15, 20, 28, 30, 37, 45, 50, 56, 67, 90, 100, 135, 180, and 270.

The 90mm is a much smaller lens than the 135, though, so I wonder about whether it's really worth that. I'd considered renting a 100-300mm zoom for the GF1. Sometimes you just want to see stuff really far away.

We will have a balcony cabin, but there's no real point in tripod shots due to waves and vibration; at night we'll be on the boat, and on tours, only a monopod (at most) is generally permitted.