I don’t travel enough to have a system in place for what gear to bring. Instead, about an hour before my flight, I go into a panic about what camera and associated gear I should bring with me on said travels.
Last February I went to Las Vegas for the first time. I took a Fuji X100s mirror-less camera with me that has a prime 35mm lens. I also took my Nikon D600 with a 24-70mm Lens. Both cameras are great, however, I only used the Fuji. It was simply lighter and easy to carry around, whether walking the Vegas strip or hiking in the desert. I didn’t use the big DSLR at all.
Next trip, a conference in Toronto, Ontario and a visit with family. For this trip I opted for only the Fuji. I wasn’t primarily going for a holiday and didn’t suspect I would be doing much sightseeing. It works perfectly.
The dilemma with this trip I’m on, that will have me going from Victoria, BC to Portland, OR and then back again along the west coast, is that I don’t know what I will encounter.
Food Festival and street events in Portland, the Fuji would do fine. Driving up the coast and hiking in Washington’s parks, I’m not so sure of.
The deciding factor that finally made me decided to only bring the Fuji X100s was a simple question to myself: what will I be using the photos for.
The answer, nothing but blogging, Facebooking and Instagraming. I’m not a photographer who is going after photos to sell or to get into a big magazine. I’m a casual photographer who likes to document the experiences that I have and then share them through some of these mediums.
The Fuji works perfectly for this.
And at the end of the day the Fuji does shoot some amazing RAW images that could be used in print if I ever wanted to explore that route.
Expect more from me on the topic if Portland and travels through the area.