Traveling to Iceland, torn on 4x5 vs MF 6x6

[Drew Wiley]

Should be practical enough to carry both systems, even in an airline carry-on, provided your 4x5 is itself light and compact. But even though I've never been to Iceland itself, I'm willing to bet the determining factor in how much use you'll get out of one or the other will depend on the wind. And in my experience, there have been plenty of times in treeless areas where the wind has been so intense that I had to resort to handheld shooting. But then an opportunity opens up where the larger size of sheet film and its plane of focus movements make it worth every bit of the extra effort.

But carrying too many lenses, backs, and just too much sheet film??? If you save 4x5 exposures for just the most special shots, and trim down your kit somewhat, yet with room in your carry-on for a collapsible yet really solid tripod, I think you'll have a more enjoyable experience. The quality of shots is way more important than the sheer quantity. That's how it look at such opportunities - but I'm no machine-gunner, and never want to be; couldn't afford to be anyway. I'd rather come back with two classic 4x5 shots rather than a thousand ordinary ones. If they aren't worth printing, they aren't worth shooting. Being under constant pressure to shoot and shoot takes away from the travel break and turns it into another chore. Take some time to just soak in the light, and then press the shutter when it feels downright compelling.

[lassethomas]

I went to Iceland last September. Two weeks with a 4WD driving the ring road around the island.
Brought my 4x5 with a 75mm Super Angulon, 90mm Angulon, 135 mm Symmar 210 G-Claron and 355 mm G-Claron. With 8 holders and a 6x12 horseman back.
And also my Will Travel 47 XL and a digital full frame with a few selected lenses, mostly good quality zooms to cover wide angel to tele.
Put the 4x5 camera in my camera backpack in a large suitcase together with two tripods and stuff and checked in. And then a Pelican Case with all the lenses and digital stuff. Also checked in. And then all the film in my cabin luggage. In lead sleaves in case hand checking was denied.
Brought 100 sheets of FP4 and 40 sheets of Velvia 50 plus 20 120 rolls of an assortment of Velvia and Provia.

I found the combination of 4x5 and digital full frame a blessing. Wind is a problem but even more so rain for me. And then digital makes it possible to shoot anyway with a good rain cover.
And you don't have the time to set up the 4x5 for every opportunity so digital is sometimes a blessing. Gets you a few good ones that would not otherwise been taken.

In the end I did manage to get film hand checked both in Stockholm on the way out and in Reykjavik on the way home.

Shot 70 b/w sheets, 25 Velvia and around 15 rolls 120. And then around 1500 digital exposures.

Very pleased with my setup, but I wished I had got my DJI drone before the trip. It would have been great as a complement.

And it's brilliant. You are going to have so much fun!!

[Mick Fagan]

Iceland is about the windiest place around, probably second only to Antarctica. We spent a couple of months there in 2017 and it was one of the best places we've ever visited, you will certainly enjoy it, but you will get wet and yes, it does get so windy that we needed help to open the car doors with the car facing into a very strong wind.

Some places are windier than others, attached are a couple of pictures of a church which has been bolted to large rocks buried into the ground to stop it being blown away. We saw unbelievable stuff bolted, strapped, chained and sand bagged down, but seeing smallish buildings also being bolted down, does tend to give a true idea of just how windy it can get.

We had a snow storm in June, which started around 03:00 and lasted until around 08:30. The whole time the snow was falling in a horizontal manner, as does the rain quite a few times.

Churches; Iceland churches were a complete surprise to us, as all of our pre-trip searching was mainly for geographical features. The depth and breadth of Iceland's little churches in some unbelievable settings, are made for photography.

[m00dawg]

Thanks everyone!

Yep the whole car door wind thing shoulda clued me in last year when I was already thinking about it. I think if I had even one ok day or location where I could've used LF but didn't bring it, that'd bother me. So I think I'm gonna stick to the LF plan but augment that with perhaps my Hassy (instead of 35mm). I was gonna bring a digital kit either way (assuming my kiddo or Mrs wanted to use it) but that's not really my thing (the day job is IT so film photography is part escapism which is partly what I wanna do while on vacation). Still in a pinch I could use that.

Hassy lets me still do normal vacationy shots except perhaps for some indoor things and it's small enough I might be able to swing that and could then be a backup for a landscape if need be. Hand-held means no flowy waterfalls but could point me to stylistic choices there. Also might be a good way to shoot IR since I find I get less blemishes on Rollei IR in 120 than 4x5 (though much prefer it in 4x5 when I can swing it, blemishes in all).

Not sure about grabbing a wide for the Hassy just for the trip given the price of Hassy glass, so that would be one downside compared to 35mm. Might be able to snag another back but not sure about getting it serviced in time, unless I grabbed one up ASAP.

[Joseph Kashi]

I've found that a good weather-resistant M 4/3 camera and zoom combo like the Olympus E-M1 II and Olympus 12-40 Pro zoom is a very good foul weather complement to my LF and ULF gear, particularly when traveling.

[Joseph Kashi]

I've found that a good weather-resistant M 4/3 camera and zoom combo like the Olympus E-M1 II and Olympus 12-40 Pro zoom is a very good foul weather complement to my LF and ULF gear, particularly when traveling. We're in coastal Alaska and not uncommonly get foul weather.

[phdgent]

Be aware of volcano eruptions and (snow-) storms, with a 6x6 in your hands you can run faster ...

[arthur berger]

I would definitely take the 4x5 as a first choice for most photographs that I saw when I was in Iceland many years ago. Also the 210 would be an important lens for much of what I saw., not the 75.Also take the Hasselblad with maybe.just a normal lens. I used an 8x10 with mostly normal or longer lens. And a 21/4 camera for windy days.

[Tin Can]

Be aware of volcano eruptions and (snow-) storms, with a 6x6 in your hands you can run faster ...

Ditto

[interneg]

Hasselblad, buy a 60mm (rather than taking 2 lenses) and a decent amount of film (if you're not a yelling idiot, getting film through airports is fine). Forgo the tripod. Maybe take a spare camera just in case.

Unless you really have a very clear understanding of why the 4x5 is going to really be better (a metaphysical, not specifications question) for your work, you're really just going to be hauling a load of ballast round the same cliches (and tripod holes) that everyone else has gone round ticking off a list.