Hi all
I am preparing a 5 week trip to New Zealand's South Island for end of this year. As I am quite new to LF photography (using a Linhof 617 + 72 XL mainly), this forum and the tremendous amounts of roll film to be carried with (I am generally used to CF cards in combination with somewhat poorer picture quality ^^), I wonder if you could advise in different questions. I intend to take about 300 - 400 roll films with me, half of them being Velvia where the other half is BW (Tri-X and PanF).
Velvia's development will be commissioned to a professional lab (E6) where I will develop the BW films myself after returning to Switzerland.
We (2) will fly from Zurich, Switzerland to Christchurch with Singapore Airlines. You are limited to 7 kg of carry-on luggage per person with Singapore Airlines. In our case, one of us would take all the camera gear and the other one all the films - while still exceeding the weight limits (280 roll films without carton will roughly equal 7 kg).
I am wondering if you would recommend a different approach like to purchase (part of) the roll films in NZ. This would save those films from high and long lasting altitude radiation, helps us save time and energy at the security gates with the drawback of being much more expensive. Has anybody ever sent films to New Zealand in advance of such a trip? Are such shipments also x-rayed and are there any issues to be expected with customs?
I am also considering the development of the Velvias to be performed somewhere in NZ. What do you think? Do you have any suggestions, companies - preferably around Christchurch - etc.?
Thank you very much in advance for your highly appreciated recommendations and opinions. Kindly excuse my mediocre English skills.
Cheers
Glenn
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