Travel gear - the aftermath

Okay bitches, I know you’re sick of that pseudo philosophical family talk, so let’s dive right into the next episode of Hansi’s gear corner. As our travel comes to an end, I look back on what gear I actually used and what was useless. First of all let me sum up what I brought with me:

• Fujifilm X100V

• Fujifilm X-T5

• XF16/1.4

• XF35/1.4

• XF70-300/4.0-5.6

• 5 batteries for the X-T5

• 3 batteries for the X100V

• Black pro mist filters

• 6 128GB SD cards

• The worlds tiniest travel tripod
  
  

In the following I go from useless to priceless:

The worlds tiniest travel tripod - no explanation needed.

The telezoom lens XF70-300. Keep in mind the crop factor, so it’s actually 105-450. If you use this lens for your photos you’re gonna be emotionally more detached from the subject than Britney Spears from her father. For me this lens does not get along with my style of photography what so ever - sorry Isabelle, I know you meant it good and you do incredible work with it. I’ve taken a few photos of the skyline of Hong Kong and I really got that compression of objects into these shots but it’s just not mine. Generally I don’t like to work with zoom lenses but that’s of course very subjective. Another minus is the weight and size. I just can’t handle more than bulky thing on me so this MF has to go. I’m gonna list it on my eBay, so if you’re interested, let me know.

XF70-300/4.0-5.6

The XF35/1.4  - as much as I love this lens especially for its’ character it would have been too narrow for the most situations. I must say that I haven’t used this lens a lot and it will not make it into my travel kit next time. Although it will remain my favourite portrait lens.

XF35/1.4

Another overrated thing for me (now) are spare batteries. With either camera I never used more than one fully charged battery a day. One has to consider that I don’t film and I rarely use the LCD screen or I do a ton of long exposures.

SD cards - I have no idea what in god’s holy name I wanted to do this holiday but I certainly didn’t shoot a terabyte of photos. I have only used the cards that were already in the cameras. At least I don’t need to bother around with buying SD cards for the rest of my life.

Now we ware getting into a region where things become actually useful. I took a Tiffen black Promist Filter with me that fitted the X100V. I really like the look it creates and although I would definitely prefer a 1/4 over a 1/2 variant now, I don`t regret that i forgot to take it of in HongKong.

 X100V w/ Tiffen black promist 1/2

In hindsight i could have documented the whole trip on the X100V. The camera is the perfect travel companion due to its`weight and size. It`s also a fun camera to use but you should know by now my love for this thing. If not you might wanna read this.

The pole position has to be shared by the X-T5 with the fantastic XF16/1.4 glued to it. With its 24mm equivalent focal length it covered all my needs during this trip and - most importantly - it forced me to get out of my comfort zone quite often. The most amazing images of this trip were shot with this lens. Thank you Marcel for this recommendation.

 XF16/1.4 on X-T5

 XF16/1.4 on X-T5

Being at home and looking back on my trip I know a few things now that i would do different. It’s obviously a huge learning curve but keep in mind that all the stuff I brought with me fitted on one normal Rucksack together with a lot of other non photography related stuff, so the weight was actually never an issue. However I definitely think that with modern cameras being so reliable you don’t have to bring two digital bodies. Sometimes I wished I had the trusty M6 with a rollof Kodak tri-x400 loaded but too late know anyway. Other than that I won’t buy anymore zoom lenses, neither in the wider nor in the tele range. I just don’t like having too many possibilities. I’m a simple mind I guess.