New York with one film camera

The problem with owning a bunch of different cameras, is choosing which one to take on a trip. I own far too many cameras. In my quest to find what I like, I ended up buying many different cameras. Film and digital.

I like to travel light though. In all other areas of packing, I would travel as light as possible. Also from trial and error of bringing far too many clothes or shoes in the past. These days, I have my packing slimmed down and am honest with myself about bringing workout clothes and running shoes for every day. The running shoes stay at home, and 1 workout outfit is all that is required.

When it comes to photography equipment, I didn’t always travel light. The hobby for me was rediscovered in the last couple years. So when the world started opening back up and I could travel again, I wanted to bring all my toys. A film camera with some lenses, a compact camera, a digital camera with lenses, and probably my Leica Q2 Monochrom. So much equipment to bring along, especially if I’m flying. I don’t like to check my equipment, and most of it would go into my backpack with a laptop or ipad.

The last few trips I’ve made some hard decisions. I decided I wasn’t going to travel with more than one camera and one pocketable camera. I went back and forth about which camera to bring.

I had a trip to New York in the summer with my son. I waffled on about which camera(s) to bring on that trip. I made a decision, whichever type of carry around camera I brought, digital or film, I would bring the opposite as my pocketable camera. I had a lot of back and forth. I knew I wanted to shoot some color, so the Q2M was out. Even though it’s my favorite camera, I had not been to New York before, and I wanted to shoot color as well.

I had narrowed it down to four cameras:

• Olympus EM10 mark III
• Leica M9
• Leica M6
• Olympus OM-3

I was looking at portability and discreetness. After much internal debate, I chose a film camera. It was hard since I knew I didn’t want the possibility to lose any shots and wouldn’t truly know how I exposed until I got the film back from development. I decided to just go for it anyway. Lost shots or not. It wasn’t a paid gig. It would just be a few poorly exposed shots.

I didn’t know how safe New York was at the time, whether I should be worried about being a target with a Leica hanging around my neck. So I decided to play it safe and bring the OM-3. I also have a few more lenses to use as well, and it’s a bit more versatile given it is an SLR and I could actually focus close. I brought a 50mm/1.4, a 28mm/2.0, and an 18mm/3.5. Zuiko lenses of this era are so conveniently compact. It took up less room than one Sony E-Mount 24-70.

After choosing film, I realized that I’m normally way too stingy with my shot selection. Probably because film is finite and not to mention pricey these days. I decided that I would shoot as much as I wanted and not worry about “wasting” film. I shot nine rolls in three days. I think I did pretty good.

The pocketable camera is an easier choice. I have a Sony RX100M3 or an Olympus Stylus Epic f/2.8. Obviously the Sony came with me since I was sporting film for my carry around.

Only once did I regret not bringing a digital camera. This was when I left the hotel room to go shoot Grand Central Station. The lighting is low, and even with pushing Cinestill 800T 1 stop, I somehow underexposed the entire roll by a stop. I think the developer missed the part about pushing 1 stop. Somehow I still payed for that privilege (and why is this a paid option anyways?!?). Any of my digital cameras could have easily resolved that. But, looking back to my choices, I was considering a m43 and the Leica M9. Neither are real low light performers.

But, for the other 8 rolls, I love them. The gritty Tri-X outside of John’s pizza and on Liberty Island. The Portra 400 at the 911 memorial. So much character in many of these shots. I think I made the right choice for this trip, if such a choice exists. It’s what I chose, and I don’t regret it. It was so much fun to walk around New York for three days with nothing but a film camera. I don’t even think I shot one shot on my Sony RX100.