Essentials.

[Doremus Scudder]

Lightweight 4x5 folding field camera with at least 300mm of bellows and shift.
Small 90mm 135mm 200-ish lenses (maybe a longer one too, like a 300mm on a top-hat board)
Lightweight tripod and head
Spot meter, filters, cable releases and a loupe
Holders with one B&W film (I like Tri-X)
Trays, chemicals and a ticking clock to develop with.
A 4x5 enlarger, trays and washer to print with.
Dry-mount press and board to mount with.
Misc. small stuff to go with the above.
Darkroom of some kind that allows me to make at least 16x20 prints.

This is my list of essentials. I can do all the Zone System tests without a densitometer, I can shuffle well enough not to need a Jobo, and I can use/repurpose other things for darkcloth, graduates, etc.

For me, 4x5 is really the sweet spot between portability, negative size and movement capability.

I have more cameras, enlargers and other stuff than I've listed, of course, but 95% of my work (maybe even more) could be done with only these items. I do like my Zone VI compensating timer, but do without one in Europe just fine (where I do indeed use a ticking clock or metronome plus an oven timer to develop film with). And, I really like my Zone VI viewing filter, but can do equally well with a rectangular hole in a card if need be.

Strangely, many of the things that I deem real time savers or extremely useful are very small: my viewing filter, a great pair of 4x reading glasses, a lipstick brush, a yellow LED flashlight for the darkroom, etc. These things take up little space. The big item on my list is a darkroom to work in. I am fortunate to have one now, but worked in reconfigured bathrooms and rented darkrooms for years and could again.

I could pare down the list a bit more if needed, to just the camera, a 135mm lens, tripod, meter, a few filters, etc. for the taking end of things and still pretty much feel gratified.

Best,

Doremus

[Jim Jones]

A 1957 video showed Ansel Adams loading this kit into an ancient 8-passenger Cadillac limousine with a 5x9 platform on the top:

1 8x10 view camera with 20 holders and 4 lenses: Cooke convertable, 10" Wide Field Ektar, 9" Dagor, 6.75 wide angle Wollansak

7x17 special panoramic camera with five holders & 13.5" Protar lens

4x5 view camera (Calumet?) with six lenses: 12" Voigtlander Collinear in Compound shutter, 8.5" Apo-Lanthar, 9.5" f/9 C. P. Goertz Am. Opt. Co. Apo-Artar in Ilex Synchro shutter, 9.25" Apo Tessar, 4" Wide Field Ektar, Dallmeyer 8-on telephoto

Hassleblad camera with 38, 60, 80, 135, and 200mm lenses

Contaflex 35mm camera outfit

Two Polaroid cameras

Filters for each camera: K1, K2, Minus Blue, G, X1, A, C5, B, F, 85B, 85C and light balancing series 81 & series 82

SEI exposure meter and two Weston meters

Two tripods; one light (Tiltall?), one heavy

Lens brush, Stop watch, level, thermometer, focusing magnifier, & focusing cloth

Heicolight strobe portrait outfit with 200' cable

Special storage box for film

Ancient Cadillac Eight passenger limousine with 5x9 platform on top

[Michael R]

Tough question, but the original premise is an interesting one in that I'd have to ask myself what really makes it "worthwhile" (OP's word) to me. In the end it is about art for me, and a lot of the gear is about putting as much technical quality as possible into the art. If I dispensed with that, I could surely get rid of some things. I'd use one wide angle lens and crop everything as required in the darkroom, forget about the compendium shade, filters etc. Actually the more I think about it, I could simply dispense with large format altogether, use my 35mm camera and be quite happy. If you work carefully there is a lot of quality to be had out of 35mm.

Most of the stuff I've accumulated has more to do with the darkroom than the camera, so I suppose another approach could be to get a bigger camera and only make contact prints. Something like that. Regarding the densitometer, as someone who loves his and uses it a lot for scientific-type work, it would probably be the first thing to go. It is one of the least useful things for practical work. Densitometer or not, virtually nobody ends up with the negatives they think they are making. Studying sensitometry, tone reproduction and exposure theory is fascinating on its own, but among other things it shows you that the transition from subject to print is complex, that the control you think you have over the negative is actually relatively limited, that most current films produce virtually the same tonality, etc. Printing (for us darkroom workers) is where most of the power is anyway.

[John Kasaian]

A 1957 video showed Ansel Adams loading this kit into an ancient 8-passenger Cadillac limousine with a 5x9 platform on the top:

1 8x10 view camera with 20 holders and 4 lenses: Cooke convertable, 10" Wide Field Ektar, 9" Dagor, 6.75 wide angle Wollansak

7x17 special panoramic camera with five holders & 13.5" Protar lens

4x5 view camera (Calumet?) with six lenses: 12" Voigtlander Collinear in Compound shutter, 8.5" Apo-Lanthar, 9.5" f/9 C. P. Goertz Am. Opt. Co. Apo-Artar in Ilex Synchro shutter, 9.25" Apo Tessar, 4" Wide Field Ektar, Dallmeyer 8-on telephoto

Hassleblad camera with 38, 60, 80, 135, and 200mm lenses

Contaflex 35mm camera outfit

Two Polaroid cameras

Filters for each camera: K1, K2, Minus Blue, G, X1, A, C5, B, F, 85B, 85C and light balancing series 81 & series 82

SEI exposure meter and two Weston meters

Two tripods; one light (Tiltall?), one heavy

Lens brush, Stop watch, level, thermometer, focusing magnifier, & focusing cloth

Heicolight strobe portrait outfit with 200' cable

Special storage box for film

Ancient Cadillac Eight passenger limousine with 5x9 platform on top

HEY! I'm as old as that Caddy. Who are you callin' ancient?

[John Kasaian]

If I had to, I could probably get by with just my 14" Commercial Ektar. My other lenses are nice though.

I hear you! Nearly each lens of mine plays a role in the drama. Without the entire cast there are shots that would have likely escape me----I think this would be more evident with landscapes.
According to the Ansel Adam's list he had four lenses with one being a triple convertible---that's six focal lengths!

[Ed Richards]

I cannot remember if it was Picker or Adams who said that you should start with a 4x5 field camera and a 121 (now 120/115/110) and a 210. While I am partial to extreme wides, I shot for a while with just a 120 when all my other lenses were stolen. Except for some interiors, I suspect I could do most everything with these two, and the discipline might be good.

[Ari]

I cannot remember if it was Picker or Adams who said that you should start with a 4x5 field camera and a 121 (now 120/115/110) and a 210. While I am partial to extreme wides, I shot for a while with just a 120 when all my other lenses were stolen. Except for some interiors, I suspect I could do most everything with these two, and the discipline might be good.

I did that for three months, and it was great; and yes, those two FLs cover 95% of situations on 4x5.

[Alan Gales]

I cannot remember if it was Picker or Adams who said that you should start with a 4x5 field camera and a 121 (now 120/115/110) and a 210. While I am partial to extreme wides, I shot for a while with just a 120 when all my other lenses were stolen. Except for some interiors, I suspect I could do most everything with these two, and the discipline might be good.

I shoot 4x5 for color with a reduction back. I recently sold my 90mm because it was sitting. I own the 121mm f/8 Schneider and a 250mm f/6.7 Fujinon. They are a nice combination.

For 8x10 I own the 250 Fujinon again and a 19" Artar (480mm) which is close to the same combination as I use for 4x5.

Then mainly for portraiture I have the 14" Commercial Ektar and a 305mm Kodak Portrait lens that I just picked up.

[Lenny Eiger]

Context.

I bring very little, a normal lens and one extra a little longer if I can't get close enough. A few holders - I don't shoot two of everything, after 50 years I am confident that I can expose and develop properly for each shot.

Back to context. i find that it is most important to know who you are. What do you like to photograph? What is it about what you are looking at that makes you want to point the camera there? Have you understood something? Will you like this shot after you develop it? Will anyone else see it? And most importantly, what genre of photography do you live in? Which one feels like a comfortable old friend?

Equipment is plenty of fun, but understanding what you are doing is the only way to increase the number of images you will keep. It requires study of the history and study of your own work to figure out what makes you tick, and be able to focus more directly on that...


Lenny

[Randy]

Lenny, I have never heard this before. I am going to have to read it several more times and then contemplate...but thank you.

Context.

I bring very little, a normal lens and one extra a little longer if I can't get close enough. A few holders - I don't shoot two of everything, after 50 years I am confident that I can expose and develop properly for each shot.

Back to context. i find that it is most important to know who you are. What do you like to photograph? What is it about what you are looking at that makes you want to point the camera there? Have you understood something? Will you like this shot after you develop it? Will anyone else see it? And most importantly, what genre of photography do you live in? Which one feels like a comfortable old friend?

Equipment is plenty of fun, but understanding what you are doing is the only way to increase the number of images you will keep. It requires study of the history and study of your own work to figure out what makes you tick, and be able to focus more directly on that...


Lenny