Films/Lenses to bring to Spain/Italy?

[code]

Any suggestions would be most appreciated. I will be going for about 3 weeks in May. Not sure I should bring both slides and negatives or just negative. For negative films, thinking of bring a mixture of Superia 200/400 and Reala. What's the ISO for reala anyway?

As for lens, thinking of bring my Tamron 28-75 as my main lens. I also have the 17-40L and 50mm but my preferance would be to bring the 17-40L. I think I can fit all in my Lowepro Roadrunner.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Terence]

I personally like to bring a selection of b/w and color on a trip. b/w is usually more forgiving to push/pulling so it has greater latitude over color negatives. I would pick up a roll of something in asa400 and stretch it between 200 and 1600 when needed.

 

[code]

Thanks Terence. Which B&W film do you suggest? Quite a newbie in terms of B&W. My pal just passed me a Ilford 100 Delta (not sure expiry) and 2 TCN 400 (expired in Mar 05). I tried TCN before... though the contrast is a bit lacking, it's cheaper and easier to develop.

 

[Terence]

I personally shoot XP2 and HP5, I especially like the creaminess of XP2. Contrast is not bad either. XP2 is $5/roll and HP5 is $4.50/roll at Ruby. Any lab can develop them although you need to be a little more careful with XP2 as it's rather thin and can be scratched easily when not handled properly.

 

[code]

XP2 and HP5 can be developed at any lab?? Are the cost (for developing and printing) the same as per color negatives?

Will take a look at Ruby soon.

 

[kelccm]

For a minimum setup, I would say just bring the Tamron 28-75. But if you can accomodate more lenses, bring them along also.

For films, it would depends on your personal preference. If you intend to have prints of your tour, then go for negative films. Reala is rated at iso100 and would be great for your daytime shoot. Use Superia 400 for night shoot. But if you really like the colour of slides and don't intend to have every photo in prints, then bring some slides. Velvia would be great for landscape.

 

[reachme2003]

ot, watch out for pickpockets in Italy.

 

[grantyale]

ot, watch out for pickpockets in Italy.

They are robbers but just without a knife or gun. Be Careful !!!

 

[AReality]

For a minimum setup, I would say just bring the Tamron 28-75. But if you can accomodate more lenses, bring them along also.

For films, it would depends on your personal preference. If you intend to have prints of your tour, then go for negative films. Reala is rated at iso100 and would be great for your daytime shoot. Use Superia 400 for night shoot. But if you really like the colour of slides and don't intend to have every photo in prints, then bring some slides. Velvia would be great for landscape.

Changing films mid-roll will be very troublesome...
I suggest stick to 1 type, dun have to think about it on the trip...

 

[songandesther]

Reala is asa100. It is my choice of asa100 color negative when I travel. For asa400 negative, I always bring Fuji Superia400. For handheld lowlight photography without flash, I suggest bringing asa800 film like Superia800 or Press as well.

If you have a good film scanner, I suggest using slides and scanning the slides after it is developed. Then print the digital copy. It is a bit troublesome but you will have the best of both worlds.

It is necessary to bring different asa films because for a trip, you will want to shoot in whatever kind of lighting situation tat is presented to you.

 

[richard9318]

Any suggestions would be most appreciated. I will be going for about 3 weeks in May. Not sure I should bring both slides and negatives or just negative. For negative films, thinking of bring a mixture of Superia 200/400 and Reala. What's the ISO for reala anyway?

As for lens, thinking of bring my Tamron 28-75 as my main lens. I also have the 17-40L and 50mm but my preferance would be to bring the 17-40L. I think I can fit all in my Lowepro Roadrunner.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi, I travel quite fequently to Italy, twice a year, you can view my photo at www.pbase.com/kiah
I used to bring along slide and digital camera. But i found that it is more convinient to shoot digital thus i left my slide camera at the hotel most of the time.
Among the lenses that i used the most during the trips was the 17-40L.

kiah

 

[code]

Thanks for all your advices so far. Will only bring a film SLR and a compact digital camera. The latter is more for snapshots. 17-40L is prob more useful for DSLR than for SLR.

Anymore suggestions/advices?

 

[theITguy]

If you want to print them all out, then negative/digital is the way to go. For decent quality, place like KT is cheap (but quality of less control). If you want better quality, BM is the place but expensive to print a lot. If you want consistent, cheap and decent quality (KT does not have these 3 as they are not consistent, BM is consistent but not cheap), Stanley is the place.


Do not bother about bringing slides unless:

1. You use Velvia 50 but it is not for people shot.
2. You use Kodak E100GX which I find it a better overall travel slide than Provia 100F, but harder to find in SG (Cathay no more stock, Ruby might have).
3. You want to spend $$$ to get it scanned and printed digitally, but few labs did it right properly.


For negative, just bring Reala. Rarely you will need more than ISO 100 and if you need it just use flash and/or tripod. Then you not have problem of always changing film mid-roll etc, just enjoy your trip instead of thinking what film to use at what situation.

 

[code]

Now I'm thinking whether to bring a tripod to take photos of me and my wife. My Manfrotto 055 CLB seems a tad heavy for the trip. Wonder if there is any suitable travel tripod that CSers here can recommend? If possible, can I borrow while I lend you my Manfrotto 055?

 

[cheechee]

Well, Hope it is not too late.


Just back from a driving trip to barcelona 2 weeks ago.
So for spain can only comment on barcelona itself.

Weather there now is very sunny and warm, and the flowers are blooming along the highway.
Things to shoot are mostly modern design buildings and street photography(if u are into street photography). Buildings by gaudi is a must for you to shoot, not to mention park guell and sagrada family temple.

If i were to go there again, i would bring my film slr fitted with reala and if possible some b&w film (for street photography). A monopod is more useful than a tripod for me, i think in barcelona.

And, you need wide angle lens for all the amazing buildings, so 17-40L fits in, and the tamrom lens on film camera for all ard shooting plus detailed shooting on inside the buildings. Think should be enough. 50mm lens is not that crucial i think, except that during my stay in barcelona i used it (X1.6 on 300D) to shoot detailed structures inside the buildings low light condition.

Barcelona is very safe, comparable to munchen in germany. Don't worry about security, as usual, pickpocket is a common scene in europe, but there it is not as notorious as those pickpockets in rome metro.

And another thing special is that barcelona ppl flock onto the streets after 9PM and stay on partying till ard 1-2am. It is like they are sleeping in the day and coming out at night enjoying, unlike most cities in europe whereby after 9PM there aint much activiy.
So please do enjoy the night life of barcelona.

And for buildings in barcelona, i am amazed at their city planning, the buildings and residence are nicely arranged and formed squarish block of building groups. You can check out on the map and know what i mean.

A nice place to take overall city photo is at the hill beside the olympic park, you can have the view of the special squarish block and including the segrada familly temple, plus the special formation of the diagonal avenue.

P.S A side note, in all cases, DO NOT ALLOW a female getting near the ZARA headquarter in Barcelona, it is a huge building and loaded with all the new designs and some special zara designs which you would not get in France and Italy and elsewhere. Plus the stuffs there are dirt cheap, abundance of zara shirts at ard 5 EURO and is the cheapest in europe ZARA shop.
=> means that it is a potential time killer, my gf spent 3 hrs there, not to mention the other girls that went along with us.
If in any case you are stuck with ZARA, a good suggestion is to tell the girls to continue shopping inside the ZARA HQ and for the guys, can take metro to the football stadium. Me and some of my frens chanced upon ronaldinho inside the soccer coach heading into the stadium while we were there, and everyone are screaming at the highest tone. ;p

Well, hope that it is helpful.
Do enjoy ur spain trip.

Cheers

 

[cheechee]

Sorry, missed out Italy.
Since too much time now in office, continue with italy.

Italy depends on where you are going.
Think most popular destination is Milano/Venice/Florence/Rome.
To me the same setup for spain is valid for these places.

Some extra information for you:

Milano-
The attraction is Duomo in central Milano, the building is the 3rd largest chruch in the world (or 2nd, remember that i watched it on tv) and it is a must to pay 4 euro to climb up duomo and have the amazing view of the structures on top. After that, you can go to the Rinascente shopping centre (something like takashimaya in singapore) and take the escalator to the highest level where there is a cafe ard same height level as the top of duomo and you will have a special view of the duomo. Sip a cafe latte machiato (typical italian coffee, but for this version it is not so strong with the latte=milk and acceptable to asians) and relax for awhile. Note that the price of the cafe is different if u sit outside open air. The cheapest would be to approach the counter, buy the cafe and stand and sip the cafe standing beside the counter. No sitting charges. Then you can go out and take photos.
So here you need a wide angle lens.
The front part of the duomo is under renovation, so the best spot to take photos is during morning hrs, taking duomo from the behind.
It is free to go inside duomo, interesting internal structures and you will need a lens for low light shooting, best if you have a monopod or tripod with you. Able to use flash (officially no).

Then you would wanna go to the Vittorio Emanuel II building beside duomo, there you have all the costly brands like LV, Prada, etc. If you are there, look out for the bull painting on the floor center of the building where italians will rub their foot on its testicles and turn one round for good luck (nowadays it is noticable as it is the place where tourists would gather ard it and taking snap shots).

Then you can go along the building and come out to an open space with the scala(theatre) plus a statue of leonardo da vinci.

Backtrack a bit, and you go back to front part of duomo and walk along to the directions of castello sforzesco, a fortress telling the history of milano under spain, germany and austria rules.
Along the way you will find shops selling Gelatto (italian ice cream, ard 2-2.50 euro for 2 scoops, very nice, must try)
Then you can travel to the park just beside the fortress.

Roughly this is what a tourist would visit in milano other than shopping. There is another street with branded shops but i am sure you will chance upon it if you are looking for them.
Not far from duomo.

All within walking distance.
For local dish, try out the raviolli (meat dumplings) and polenta(something like a mash potato but is fermented vege, those who like it praise it till no extent, those who couldnt take the taste it curse it. So depends on diff ppl. I hate it but my colleagues like it)

 

[cheechee]

Still 1 hour from 6, so some intro on roma(rome)

IMHO you would enjoy the shooting more in rome and florence. Trust me, if you have time you will keep shooting and shooting, every piece of land you step on in rome is a piece of history.

Short note for rome, be careful of pickpockets on rome metro, especially in those exchange terminals. Must see places are Vatican Museum(countless wall paintings, but ultimately it is the sistine chapel, amazing 3D view of the paintings on top and the large judgement day painting. It is not allowed to take photos inside the sistine chapel but some ppl managed to snap using cameras without the snap voice. If the guards ard realized that you are snapping, you will be told to head to the exit, but of course, it will be so crowded that you aint gonna be escorted). Low light condition generally and needed wide angle lens in sistine chapel. Then in the vatican it is the St. Pietro(peter) square where you would see in the telecast during the last pope funeral. Must visit the st peter tomb.
Then places like Navona Square, Pantheon, Monument of Vittorio Emanuel II, Forum, Trevis Fountain etc. Mostly day-light condition and nice for wide angle. Colloseum is also an astonishing building to take, especially at night.

For more info i think you can refer to lonely planet, it is accurate in general.
Cheers

 

[code]

wow... thanks chee chee for the detailed posts. i will actually be leaving in 3 hours time so this is timely. Have been busy today buying films (too bad i missed a post today selling films on the cheap but nm).

Ragdoll was also kind enuf to lend me his Slik Sprint pro. Looking forward to taking some evening scenes.

I have been to Rome actually. Italy is more like a stopover than anything. will be spending 3 days there before flying to Spain for abt 19 days. From your description, looks like I will enjoy Barcelona very much. Given that it's a F&E trip, can stay as many days as i want. As for ZARA, will let nature take its course. If my wife manage to stumble upon it, so be it... will have some free time to do street photography then.

 

[theITguy]

code, enjoy your trip and continue to take beautiful pictures you like.