For a number of years, whenever I've had the good fortune and finances to travel abroad, I've taken more than one film camera to cater for what I want to achieve in my photographs. I did go through a number of trips when I deliberately restricted myself to just one camera, and, eccentrically, chose the
Stereocrafters Videon to make stereo shots, but more recently I've always taken a 6x9 folding camera, the perfect combination of portability
and negative size for landscape shots (which for a time was my
Agfa Record I), and, for 'snapshots', a half-frame camera to get the most out of a roll of 35mm. However, I've since added a 35mm folding camera to my bag for general photography.
On a forthcoming trip to St Petersburg by train and boat, I'm taking three cameras I've written blog posts about: the
Zodel Baldalux,
Kodak Retina IIa and my
Olympus Pen EE3. For film, I am taking: 5 rolls of
HP5 Plus medium format; 3 rolls in 35mm; 3 rolls of
Ilford Delta 3200 in medium format; Ilford Delta 100, also medium format, 4 rolls; 3 rolls FP4 Plus in 35mm, 1 roll medium format; 2 rolls of
Ilfodata HS23; my last roll of
Kodak Tech Pan; and some vintage film in
620 format to use in the Zodel Baldalux (which also requires taking a few spare 120 spools, as the 620 spools won't fit in the take up side of the Baldalux), which are: 2 rolls of Verichrome, with 'develop before' dates of October 1948 and May 1949; 1 roll of
Verichrome Pan, (March 1986) and 1 roll of Ilford Selochrome (March 1950).
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| 1940s vintage Kodak Verichrome |
Although I very rarely shoot colour, I'm also packing a couple of rolls of recently expired Fuji medium format colour film. This may be an excessive amount of film for an eleven day trip. Additional equipment includes: a
Weston II lightmeter; a yellow filter to get the most from skies such as in
this shot (which happens to be a 32mm push-on filter, which fits the 50mm f2 lens on the Retina, and rather conveniently, the 105mm f4.5 lens on the Baldalux); and gelatin tricolour filters if I want to attempt
three-colour composites. I may also take the
Mamiya-16 Automatic as it doesn't take up very much space.
"This may be an excessive amount of film for an eleven day trip." -- Bite your tongue! :-)
ReplyDeleteI shot all the 35mm film, all the Delta 3200 and HP5 and colour medium format. I didn't use a couple of the Delta 100, and I was wrong about the 620 spools in the Baldalux as it turns out.
DeleteCamera bags are an essential part of any photographer's equipment and even more important for the reason that it shall be protecting the very equipment that shall be used in photography.
ReplyDeleteCamera and Laptop Backpack