Just got back from a short holiday in the UK. With just limited carry on baggage, I slimmed down my kit to maximise the possibilities I could cover with the minimum kit. I wanted gear that could cover landscape and historic town and monument photography. Maybe how I maximised my possibilities might be of interest. I was surprised how much I used the P24PC
The three lenses I chose, might be considered unusual. I took the Z14-35, Z28,400 and a Nikon 24PC shift lens + FTZ. I had no room for a tripod or monopod. The two Z lenses cover a huge range, and the 24PC was what I wanted for monuments and building shots.
It all worked better than I expected. The fact that modern IBIS is now so good, and the Z sensor is still very usable up to ISO2000,the 28-400 was never too slow. also made the 24PC very usable for interiors. The viewfinder level makes the use of perspective control lenses very usable off the tripod.
Here are a few shots.
On the Bridge of HMS Belfast, London, extreem wide angle .
OK, my last trip two trips to Japan (winter 2022 and summer 2023), I basically used a Canon 6D2 with a Tamron 35-150 / 2.8-4 "glued" to it, and everything else was with a Canon R, usually with the Canon 16-35 / 4L IS. Those two bodies with those two lenses cover 90%+ of my photography. If Canon would let Tamron make the 35-150 / 2-2.8 for RF mount, I'd have that on my R5 and a 14-35 / 4L IS on my R as my "go to" kit, travel or otherwise. However, they don't, and they won't, so eventually I'll have to go dual system (ideally, a Z8 to hold the tammy, but a Z7.2, Z7.3, or even A7.4 might work as well).
That said, two FF bodies with a pretty large lens on one of them may seem a bit excessive for a travel kit, but I can always just use a smartphone, too.
Actually the two Z7 bodies with their lenses removed for the light did not take up a lot of space. The logistics of how I packed for the flight might be of interest. We just took carry on luggage. My wife had the classic trolley and her biggest handbag. I used a briefcase for my computer , a book and charging stuff. I folded a holdall and put it at the bottom of a medium rucksack. I put my camera gear in the rucksack with some clothes that acted as padding. Once in the hotel the rucksack became my camera/day bag, and clothes were transferred to the holdall.
Hand baggage is getting to be a problem on flights. On nearly all my recent flights with BA trolley bags are either forcibly or with a sweetener like priority boarding, put in the hold at the boarding gate. I guess most other carriers are the same. So keep fragile stuff out of the trolley bag. As rucksacks theoretically go under the seat in front, you are OK to carry camera gear in one of these. We took advantage of the sweetener this time to avoid the usual crush, when you are in the later boarding groups.
What I actually took out when we were out and about varied. Sometimes it was just the cell phone, or just the Z7 with the 28-400. We had a hire car so carrying gear was not a problem.
I would go for a Z7 over the Z8 for travel. It is lighter more compact and costs much less. The Z8 is for those who need quicker focusing for wildlife and action. The Z7i can be had second hand for a relatively low outlay.
When getting on the plane, my gear is a non-issue. All my lenses, laptop, R, and other stuff I might need on the plane fit neatly into a "carry-on regulation" sized backpack. Then my "ready" camera (6D2 + 35-150 / 2.8-4) fits into my "ready" bag (a shoulder bag that I have the camera I will be mainly using). Thus, not an issue bringing my gear on the plane.
When I'm out and about, I usually have one camera + lens in my "ready" bag, and the other camera + lens in a smaller backpack, along with one or two additional lenses. For example, I'll typically have my 6D2 + 35-150 / 2.8-4 or my R + 16-35 / 4L IS in my "ready" bag, with the other in a small backpack along with either the 35 / 1.4L II or 85 / 2 IS macro (sometimes both, as the latter lens is pretty small). Then, I'll either carry just the ready bag and backpack, or leave the backpack in the car, depending on what we're doing.
I do have other lenses, such as the Canon 15 / 2.8 FE, Sigma 70 / 2.8A macro, and Canon 70-200 / 4L IS II, and I may swap one of those for my usual kit if I know I'll be using one or more of them. But only very rarely do I take all with me, even if the backpack is going to be left in the car. In fact, if I have no plans to take photos for a particular outing, I'd just take the ready bag.
I've heard that the Tamron 35-150 / 2-2.8 focuses a lot better/faster with the Z7.2 than the Z7, thus my interest in at least a Z7.2. However, more than that, if I do add Nikon, I'd likely get other Nikon lenses, so I'd want the better AF for those lenses, too. When I got the R5, the operation of this camera was so far above my 6D2 and R that it absolutely qualifies as a "last camera" for me. However, my lenses don't quite yet qualify as "last lenses", but the Tamron 35-150 / 2-2.8 does.
On the other hand, to be honest, the R sensor is "good enough" for me. Yes, my R5 has a better sensor (more MP, more DR, less noise), but the R is good enough. Hell, even the 6D2 sensor, the laughing stock of FF sensors, has rarely left me wanting (pretty much only when I needed to push shadows a lot, which, quite honestly, is pretty rare). Because of this, I was thinking even a Z6.2 might be "good enough" and the A7.4, with the ability to mount those fabulous Sigma lenses that Nikon has not yet allowed, is still very much on the table.
Still, not only is what I have more than good enough, I have more great photos (well, photos that I consider "great") than I have space to put on my walls, by a large margin. So, while I've done precious little photography in the past year, I've done a lot of processing of photos I never processed before as I go through my hard drive, and am coming to realize that, really, there's no rush for more equipment. Thus, in a very uncharacteristic move for me, I'm being very patient with regards to adding/replacing equipment.
By the way, let me take a moment to say what a bitch Canon has been by not allowing Sigma and Tamron to produce lenses for RF mount. I mean, how many years has RF mount been out and their still blocking them?! I don't care if it's a "smart move" for their bottom line -- it's protectionist and petty. I guess they want to be the Apple of cameras and lenses. They're probably working on making a slave city in China to produce their wares as I type.
My wife and daughter love Apple. My wife because, initially, Apple incorporated Japanese better than Android. My daughter, because my wife had Apple and she's all about fashion. Later, when my Android phone (LG) needed upgrading, I switched to Apple. Why? Well, it was a 2-for-1 deal, and my son wanted Apple to be in line with my wife and daughter. I wanted Apple because I could never see the video that my wife sent me from her Apple to my Android, and because I could facetime my wife with Apple.
So now, we're all Apple. Personally, I didn't (and still don't) see a big difference between Apple and Android. People made all this fuss about it, and, yes, there were differences, but nothing major, and easy to adjust to (especially, since I put an Android keyboard on my iPhone 😁). I've heard that Samsung is doing some really lame shit, too, though, by pushing ads in everything. Just what I heard, though -- don't really know. But it's easy for me to believe that everyone is raping the consumer for corporate profits with the courts and politicians they bought letting it go unchecked.
Bottom line, though, is F Canon for not allowing Tamron and Sigma to freely produce lenses for RF mount at this point in the game. I'm not saying that Canon shouldn't be allowed to charge a fee, but from where I'm sitting, Canon is simply shutting them down.
My main kit is made up of Panasonic S5II with three zooms: 14-28mm, 24-105mm and 70-300mm, and a few primes: 35mm & 50mm.
I was using a m4/3 Panasonic GX85 that I've had since 2016 as my light-weight travel and walkaround kit but compared with my FF gear, I haven't been as happy using it especially in lower light.
So I recently traded in the m4/3 gear for a new Panasonic S9. It's almost the same size as the GX85 but is FF, uses the same batteries as the S5II and of course is also L-mount. I've picked up a few small Sigma primes to use with it: 24mm f3.5, 45mm f2.8 and 90mm f2.8. It's a great light-weight kit and fits into a small bag.
I got fed up with the different rules for carry-on that the airlines have. I used to fly to Portugal to record concerts for CD, and for obvious reasons I needed to put the expensive gear in the carry-on, microphones, a/d convertor, etc. I spent a lot of time finding the lightest case that I could to pack these in securely.
As far as photographic gear is concerned, I got fed up of carrying lenses for my Canon R6, and bought a Leica Q3, which I have found can cope with almost everything I am interested in, other than extreme wide angle and telephoto.
Carry on is becoming a big problem. If you are boarding the flight with a traditional trolley, you stand a very high chance of it being put in the hold, unless you fly buisness. My recent flights with BA have all had this problem. At least now they offer priority boarding if you volunteer to put the trolley in the hold. So when I travel with my wife it is clothes in the trolley and fragile stuff in the rucksack, at get priority boarding.
The trick is to put fragile stuff in a mid sized rucksack. This is classed as under seat carry on.
Taking the lenses off my cameras made squeezing the most amount of gear into the rucksack easier.
But the next time we take a holiday in the UK, we will drive up to Calais and use the shuttle. Flying has become a real pain in the butt, you basically lose a day for a two hour flight. Driving up from Italy is doable in two days. I can just take more time off, and also see some interesting places on the way.
Gear while travelling is fairly simple and straight forward.
Camera body with walk around lens attached, spare cards and chargers in small camera bag which I normally store under the seat. Additional 1 or 2 lenses max and tablet for backups and internet access packed into backpack which goes into the overhead locker.
If you read the posts above, you will see everybody choses different cameras and lens choices for travel. It also depends on what sort of travelling I am doing. If photography is not important, the iPhone is all I take. But if I travel to bring back some decent photographs, then I choose differently.
I like to photograph Architecture, and a shift lens is a must for this subject. With a couple of zooms I can cover the range between 14-400. It all fits in a small rucksack.
Thre is no simple straight forward solution. Choice is good and different solutions to suit our photographic goals is normal.
