by Miserere

It’s the eternal question of photographers the World over: I’m going on holiday/vacation/adventure/a walk in the park…what gear do I take? You’d think we’d have it all figured out by now, but I find myself asking the same question every time I leave my house for an extended period of time. It’s not that I’m stupid, it’s that the answer to the question changes with every trip.

I’m off to Montreal for a long Labour Day weekend and once again asked myself the question. For the past few weeks the answer has been easy: either the Panasonic G2 with kit lens and 20mm f/1.7 or the Samsung NX10 with kit lens and 30mm f/2. Sadly, I returned them to their home at B&H this week, so I was left scratching my head wondering whether I wanted to haul my K10D DSLR around Montreal or not. This is a trip with family, so Photography is something I’ll be practising on the side and as hurriedly as I can, which means I need to keep it simple.

While looking through my Photography shelf I picked up my Pentax ME Super and wiped the dust off. Realising it had a roll of film in it with 34 exposures left the answer to the question became clear: I’ll shoot film for the weekend! The choice of lenses was quick and required no thinking: I’d take two of Pentax’s best ever optics, the 31mm f/1.8 Ltd and the 77mm f/1.8 Ltd.

I’m quite excited because I haven’t shot any film in over a year (I hope the film inside the camera is fine!) and also because I’ve never used these Limited lenses on film before (i.e., on full-frame before). Speaking of which, I’ll be shooting the rather mundane Kodak BW400CN C-41 B&W print film. It’s convenient to develop (any place that does colour developing will do it) and if you get scans and convert them to monochrome, you end up with a true B&W image (direct prints often have magenta or cyan tints to them). Film purists will cringe at my choice and reasoning, but it’s what I have lying around and I’m shooting for fun, not on assignment. As a digital backup I’ll be carrying my trusty Canon S90.

I’ll let you know how it goes when I get back.

Au revoir!

UPDATE: I packed my camera bag just before heading off to bed and found it to be very empty—it’s amazing how much space a DSLR and a couple of zooms take up. So I decided to take my Pentax A 50mm f/1.2, as I’ve always been curious to see how it would fare on full-frame.

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