Best "field" camera?

Hypothetically speaking, if you were going out in the field for a few weeks and didn't know if you'd have electricity or not or how many days you may go w/out electricity, what would be the best camera to bring along... in your opinion?

I'd almost have to lean toward the Leica M7. Film Camera (no worries about cleaning a sensor), manual wind/shutter arm, manual focus, light, and small but extremely high quality. I believe the only battery this camera uses is a small watch battery to light a few LEDs.

What do you think would be the best camera for this kind of "field" work?

I'd take a Canon A-1 or AE-1P with a 50mm f1.4 FD mount and a couple of batteries. Just would need a lot of film.

Depends. Is it cold?

Oh hell who am I kidding. If it's cold, I ain't going anyway.


I'd take my 1D, 36 gigs of cards, and 2-3 batteries. I suck at manual focus and don't feel like hassling with film or the costs of developing it. I can't afford a Leica anyway.

I would take my canon Eos300 with all my lenses spare batteries and a lot of film
i would also probably take my 1d and use it till the battery died, then switch to the film camera

cdifoto wrote in post #4215297
I suck at manual focus and don't feel like hassling with film or the costs of developing it. I can't afford a Leica anyway.

The M7 is a Rangefinder, so it wouldn't be like manual focus on an SLR (which I'm not good at myself). Also, taking a look at your gear list... a Leica M7 really wouldn't be that much more expensive. Not as many lenses, but about the same cost as what you have.

I'd pick a Mamiya or Fuji medium format rangefinder over a Leica for almost all shooting situations, except maybe portraiture.

My old Canon FX, the 35mm and 135mm FL lenses and a whole boat load of film (200 and 400 ASA). If the battery fails all I lose is the meter, that is not coupled to anything.

Jack

DrPablo wrote in post #4217150
I'd pick a Mamiya or Fuji medium format rangefinder over a Leica for almost all shooting situations, except maybe portraiture.

Keep in mind, you're going to be carrying this thing around on your back or your shoulder for possibly long periods of time. Weight will be a factor.

FlipsidE wrote in post #4217480
Keep in mind, you're going to be carrying this thing around on your back or your shoulder for possibly long periods of time. Weight will be a factor.

If a Mamiya 7ii presents you with a problem carrying it around, you probably need to spend more time at the gym

I routinely carry a Hasselblad with three film backs, a flash/bracket, three lenses, and a light meter. All in all it's lighter and considerably more compact than my Canon DSLR with its lenses. And I did the Inca Trail with a Canon and several lenses in a shoulder bag, and without any particular problem (except for mild altitude sickness, which I'd have gotten anyway).

The Mamiya rangefinders are light and compact, and a 6x7 negative blows the pants off a 35mm negative, even if it's from a Leica. And the Mamiya lenses are stellar in their own right (as are the Zeiss lenses for Hasselblad and the Schneider lenses for Rollei). The Fuji lenses are a slight notch down from these other ones, but still excellent (and you can get a 6x9 rangefinder from Fuji for $1000 -- that's more than 6x the recording area of 35mm).

I've gone a week with my 20D & 2 batteries in my grip without charging while shooting all along. Of course I'm not shooting 500 shots per day, but my max was 4000 in one day with both batteries. I just turn off my LCD & set the auto off feature to 2 min. If you need a flash use an speedlite so you don't kill your camera battery.

About sensor cleaning unless you are changing your lenses in the wind & dust sensor cleaning won't be a problem. I've only noticed sensor dust while on location shooting when I change my lenses at off road races.

If it becomes a problem try to keep your aperature below f/8 or so.

FlipsidE wrote in post #4215637
The M7 is a Rangefinder, so it wouldn't be like manual focus on an SLR (which I'm not good at myself). Also, taking a look at your gear list... a Leica M7 really wouldn't be that much more expensive. Not as many lenses, but about the same cost as what you have.

Maybe so but I'm not selling what I have and enjoy to get something I don't really want.

cdifoto wrote in post #4218362
Maybe so but I'm not selling what I have and enjoy to get something I don't really want.

Understood but it'd be cool to do some shooting with a Leica M7 - just for grins.

Karl C wrote in post #4218394
Understood but it'd be cool to do some shooting with a Leica M7 - just for grins.

Why? Just to say I shot with an overpriced film camera? I would still be wasting film due to crappy images.

There is some appeal in shooting with a Leica, which is basically the perfect 35mm rangefinder with perfect lenses. A Contax G2 would be another 35mm rangefinder in the same class.

But there isn't much that attracts me about 35mm anymore, except for shooting birds with slide film. MF really is in a separate world from 35mm, even some of the smaller 645 rangefinders.

A Canon 1-series or EOS-3 film camera with a new battery. It'll let you take over 100 rolls of film unless you're doing an extensive amount of near to far autofocusing.