Portability is your friend when traveling. We can always justify the larger negative, but ask yourself if the smaller kit will be easier. Film will certainly be smaller, allowing the ability to hold more film/exposures.
Portability is your friend when traveling. We can always justify the larger negative, but ask yourself if the smaller kit will be easier. Film will certainly be smaller, allowing the ability to hold more film/exposures.
Forgo the tripod???????????????????????????????????
Just take a pair of Google Glasses.Originally Posted by Drew Wiley
Forgo the tripod??? Well in my experience you need a tripod for any camera on Iceland. At least if you are coming for landscapes and nature. Which are the reason why most people go.
Really?
Lasse Thomasson | Instagram
Whatever you decide, you'll have a truly wonderful time, simply because it's hard not to on Iceland!
And NO amount of equipment or images will ever match the lived experience.
Good-luck with your choices, be happy and enjoy!
I wouldn't take a 4x5 on your first trip (it's easy to go back). I took a good digi with a wide/tele zoom and for a film camera an Ikonta 6x4.5. I'm not sure I recall needing a wider lens than the lens on the Ikonta but I could have used a longer one a few times. I would take the Hassie with a 60 and 100 or an 80 and 150. And several backs (loading film in the wind/rain/snow will not be easy!) and a good tripod that will go low (when that puffin comes right up to you, eye level is the way to go). Hand holding is quite possible. Enjoy!
I asked a similar question a dozen years ago when we were planning our Iceland trip. Gudmundur Ingolfsson, a photographer in Reyjavik and a member here, advised me to bring my medium format gear (Mamiya 7 and lenses) rather than a 4x5 kit, citing the wind and rain we’d likely experience. I’m very glad I listened to him. While a tripod would have been nice for a couple of shots, I had no real problems with TMAX400 handheld.
Last edited by Steve Goldstein; 17-Jan-2024 at 07:37.
I went to Iceland in 2012 and took my Wista 4x5 with three lenses in a Lowepro Minitrekker - Which was fine for IcelandAir overhead compartments. (Tripod was in checked luggage along with film holders, pup tent etc). I also took a Fuji 645Gzi. I must say - I wish I'd made more snaps with the 4x5" setup. Windy as it was, I still enjoy very much the pictures I made on that trip, and would probably do the same now if I was to go. I f you book a guide in a Landrover for trips, they have much more patience for LF insanity than larger groups, and will take you to odd and enjoyable places, as well as having a wealth of stories. On a repeat trip, I'd probably hire a car and avoid the obvious tourist spots I'd already been to...
Marc!
If I had the opportunity, I'd just do what I always do. I've dealt with high winds for decades. I'd not only bring a decent collapsible tripod but probably a lightweight 4x5 folder too. But the majority of successful shots would no doubt be taken with my Fuji 6X9 RF, which can be handheld if necessary, though I prefer using a tripod. But I have handheld it in winds hard to even stand up in, with about a 50% success rate (or close to 100% if a backup shot is taken). Second choice - a Pentax 6X7 kit with two lenses (normal plus a 165 tele), and likely the 4x5 folder too. Any of these combinations fit into an airline carry-on.
I’d consider the advice of Gudmundur Ingolfsson, but I’d take the largest camera from which you want a negative. Fred Picker took his 4x5 around the perimeter of Iceland. I have a number of Dick Phillips’ 7x17s from his 1999 trip to Iceland with Gudmundur; he didn’t seem to have a problem with ULF.
“You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”
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