Fuji Travelling with my Fuji

[vinvin]

Hi everyone!

So, I'm going to be travelling a bit after the next two weeks. Essentially my trip will be Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, then back to Hong Kong. Now being that I have family in Hong Kong I go back almost once a year. I have never been to Tokyo or Seoul though so it's going to be pretty exciting for me. My question is, is what I plan on bringing sufficient for my trip?

The gear I will be bringing are as follows:
Fuji X100T
WCL-X100
TCL-X100
Leica M6 Classic
Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.2
Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f1.1
Ricoh Theta (360 cam)
SJ5000 (action cam)

What do you guys think?

 

[Lightmancer]

Hi Kevin, first and foremost, what a great trip!

As to your question, I'm going to throw it back at you - but bear with me on this because it may help your thinking.

Without knowing anything about you photographically, it is well-nigh impossible for us to advise you on what kit to take. We don't know your tastes, your preferences, your style, your competencies - nothing. Never mind where you're going, it's like asking what shoes, or pants you should pack - we are really in no position to advise, and anyone who says otherwise is talking rubbish.

Now, that said, let's look at this in a slightly different way.

Ask yourself two questions.
1) What do I like to shoot at home?
2) How much kit do I really want to carry?

At the moment it looks like you're taking four bodies, five lenses (including the fixed lens on the X100T and it's two auxiliaries). You'll be carrying film to feed the Leica, batteries to feed the Fuji and will be doubling up on focal lengths (28mm, 35mmx2, 50mmx2). Do you REALLY want/need all that?

Consider a pared-down setup. EITHER all Leica (35 and 50mm) plus the two action cam thingys (I'm not even sure what they are!) OR all Fuji (28, 35, 50mm). Logically, I'd say unless you're a bokeh-monster or expect to be shooting black cats at night in coal cellars the Noktons are overkill for a trip like this. Personally, I'd sling the Fuji, the TCL and WCL, a charging cable, four batteries and a bunch of SD cards into a Domke fx5b and leave the rest at home...

Either way, have a great trip, and show us the results!

 

[vinvin]

Hmmm so to answer the two questions, mostly just street, a bit of landscape, and interesting things i may see in tokyo and soeul. I tried carrying all that around for a day already, not too encumbering.

The ricoh theta is the size of, roughly a mars bar. Takes a 360 degree photo and there are mainly 2 spots that i want to use it for.

The sj5000 is the size of a ring box, and will be constantly clipped to my backpack strap so i can pretty much document my trip by video.

I figured 1 film, 1 digital would be nice i dunno.... maybe i will try lessening it haha

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[KillRamsey]

I hear you. And I've struggled with this same question many times. My advice:

Try to figure out why you'd want to use film vs digital - as in, in which cases would you reach for film? Is it for a certain color tonality? Is it a "permanent" backup for key places and scenes that might survive beyond the death of digital files and hard drive crashes?

If it were me, I'd be taking:
- X100T (for probably 75% of all my shots)
- WCL (for 20% of my shots, mostly interiors or landscapes)
- M6 with 50mm f1.1 glued to it (for people shots and scenes that need that longer f.l. and more bokeh)

and whatever tiny 360 degree / video gear you want, as long as they are indeed tiny. And in my normal walking around bag every day, I'd have the X100T for most shots, and then the Leica for street portraits or vignettes of details or elusive scenes that would really benefit from whatever film you had loaded. Mostly it's the X100T, period. Fast, easy, and high quality.

 

[vinvin]

Pictures i found of the ricoh and action camera

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[bluzcity]

I must be the odd person out. I just cannot move about in a city without at least one long focal length lens. I am always seeing something in architecture, a distant bridge, a person I want to capture at a distance, or some thing that makes me want compression. When I visited London in 2008 I took a 135 mm. And Chicago in 2015 a light 55-200 zoom.

 

[Lightmancer]

Actually, you are not alone and your logic is sound. I made the mistake of going to Florence and Pisa earlier in the year with no real long lens capability and regretted it. Later in the year I went to Sorrento, Capri, Positano, San Gimignano and Siena and took with me the 18-135 for exactly the same reasons as you state. Sometimes you need to draw things closer, and sometimes compress perspective both of which are what longer lenses are for.

When a long lens comes in handy...

Tuscany 2015 Siena 12 Romulus & Remus XPro1 mono par Lightmancer, on ipernity

 

[vinvin]

I've decided on bringing one more thing lol, the olympus air and my m4/3 40-150 R lens.

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[David Lewis]

I've just finished a cruise to the Southern Caribbean and Panama with an Xt-1, Xt-10, Xe-1 and lenses from the 10-24 through to the 55-200 fujinons. I used every lens, with the 18-135 the most. I've been to Asia thirty times and am familiar with Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong. So I feel some longer lenses would be appropriate, but you know best how you shoot. Do visit Kamakura (easy train ride) in Tokyo and Suwon (walled city) south of Seoul (easy train there). I carry the equipment in a large bag on plane or ship and then use just one or two cameras in a sling bag on daily excursions. But at least take a longer lens if you have one.

 

[Lightmancer]

Welcome David, that's a cracking first post!

 

[Amin]

I've decided on bringing one more thing lol, the olympus air and my m4/3 40-150 R lens.

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I'd say you've got it covered!