Re: A Puzzlement!!!

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>]

>You're off for a two- or three-month picture-gathering trip. You want (1)
>people-- portraits, at-work/play/home, atmospherics and environmentals,
>and (2) scenics/landscapes/color & flavor/detail.
>
>You can take anything you want, as long as it will go into the 2 checked
>pieces and the 1 (small!) carry-on. (Remember to leave room for clothes!)
>
>What do you take, what do you put where, and what's your working plan?

I travel by motorcycle a lot so my luggage capacity is even more strained 
than the above. 

Last summer, I spent six weeks roaming Scotland, England, Holland and 
Italy. My photographic instruments were a Nikon 35Ti, a Leica M with 
28/50/90 lenses when I left. I sold the Nikon for a Rollei 35 Classic 
while in London. I found I only took out the Leica on four occasions, and 
when I did I would have preferred to have my Nikon FM with 20, 50, 85 and 
70-300 zoom and a motor available. More flexible, more suitable to what a 
system camera would have done best when I needed it. The Rollei and I 
reached a particularly nice harmony for everything else.

The next trip I will carry the Rollei 35 and a Contax TVS. The Contax has 
the 28-56mm lens range that will be useful for flexibility I want ... the 
longer optics I would carry with the SLR are really for the sports work I 
like to do at the motorcycle race track, and I don't think I'll be doing 
that too much on my next trip. The exposure/focus automation and built in 
flash have their uses too. The Rollei and I have a real synergy and its 
40mm lens is superb, suits my eye perfectly. One camera acts as backup to 
the other in case of catastrophe as well.

These two cameras together take up much less space than the Leica M 
system alone, which space can be devoted to film, spare batteries and 
even a monopod and table top tripod. All the equipment mentioned fits 
nicely into a space about 6x6x10" in size, and weighs about three pounds 
maximum.

I'll also carry a Minox B. There's always room in my pocket for a Minox 
and it relieves me of having to carry anything else a lot of the time. I 
like the freedom to walk without encumbrances.

Godfrey