Yep. Another road trip. The Wandering Lensman is going wandering once again. This time instead of with my wife, I’ll be traveling with a couple of lifelong friends. For a little background, there are four of us who grew up together, lived on the same block and have known each other since any of us has any memories at all—over 70 years! Unfortunately, only three of us are available for this particular trip. We’ve taken a number of cross country road trips in the past and they have been some of the best times of our lives. Think of it this way; three 70-something ‘teenagers’ on the loose, unsupervised by our wifes, driving aimlessly across country. Just exploring and having fun. We think the road trip will be three to four weeks in duration.
Where are we going? Well, we decided, while heading to the west coast from my home in southeast Virginia, that we’ll do Route 66 one more time—or loosely follow it as our route is subject to change at any time. This will be my third time driving Route 66 but I know I’ve missed quite a bit on my previous two journeys driving the “Mother Road.” We’ve not yet firmed up the return route but we’re thinking of driving north to Washington State from Southern California, then taking U.S. Route 2 (The High Line) all the way east to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But, one of the nice things about these road trips is that there is no ‘real’ agenda or schedule. Everything is subject to change based upon how we feel and what we potentially might discover along the way. (Note: If you are thinking of driving Route 66, next year is its 100th anniversary and there will be a lot more activities and things to see. It might be ‘the’ year to go.)
So, the plan is to leave my home and start the trip by heading toward Chicago. On the way, we plan on stopping in our hometown in western Pennsylvania to visit some relatives, check on the old neighborhood, visit some places where we used to hang out when we were growing up and that kind of thing. I think we want to prove that old phrase, “You can’t go home again,” might not be entirely true! (In a different sort of way) From there we’ll continue toward Chicago and start the Route 66 portion of our adventure.
I’m sure many of you are wondering what photo gear I will be taking. Being this is not a photographic trip, but certainly one that will present a plethora of photographic opportunities, especially in the realm of Americana, Southwestern U. S. landscapes and other like subjects, I want to make sure that I can make most of the images I will find but not necessarily all of them as I want to keep my gear to a minimum as I did on my last road trip in May. I will take a similar kit as I did in May, with some differences, as my anticipated subject matter will be different. If you want to read what kit I took in May as well as why, you can find that in this post here.
I’ve already decided that my primary camera will be my Fujifilm X100VI. I just love photographing with that camera. More about that in a minute. My initial thoughts were to take different gear as my secondary system this road trip. Since I primarily used my OM-1 Mark II on the last road trip, I thought about taking my Nikon ZF and the Nikon 24-200mm f/4-6.3 lens as well as a Viltrox 20mm f/2.8 lens. But there are some things I need to consider.
Due to its size, I’m not even considering taking my Nikon Z8. Nor am I considering taking my Fujifilm X-T5. Its size is right but I don’t have a lens that covers a wide range of focal lengths such as the Nikon 24-200 or Olympus 12-100mm lenses. I wish I did since the X-T5 is (still, for now) my favorite digital camera. But, in my opinion, Fujifilm doesn’t offer one of sufficient quality.
If I take the ZF, besides a polarizing filter (which I always take), I would also need to take a couple of neutral density filters. If I take neutral density filters, I’ll then need to take a tripod. Also, the ZF is 24mp, which is perfectly adequate. However, if I took the OM-3 (which is a bit smaller and lighter than the ZF and the OM-1 II) with the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens, which is also slightly smaller and lighter than the Nikon 24-200mm lens, I would only have to take a polarizing filter since the OM-3 has virtual ND filters built into its computational photography features. No tripod necessary, in my previous use of this feature. The bonus is a bit of weight and size savings. The OM combination is 1057 grams and the Nikon combination is 1280 grams. Then I would have to add the two extra filters necessary to use with the Nikon kit.
Since the difference in resolution is only 4mp between the Zf and OM-3, I don’t consider that a meaningful loss. Besides, the OM-3 has the 50mp handheld pixel shift feature which the Zf doesn’t have. It works pretty well. Not perfect but well enough to enable it in particular circumstances. To use the feature on the ZF, again, I would have to mount that camera on a tripod then, back home, use Nikon’s proprietary software to merge the images. The OM-3 merges the separate exposures in-camera. OM also captures the larger file in raw format. The ZF captures the larger file in JPEG only. Those two factors are huge differences! So, I will take the OM-3 and 12-100mm f/ PRO lens. If I find at some point in time that I need a wider focal length, I have a work around for that.
One other consideration that may or may not make a difference. What about using two different camera systems with two different concepts of how color should be rendered? Won’t that look a bit strange? Images rendering the same scenes differently? Yes, I could edit them to match in Lightroom but I don’t want to do all that work. Instead I have and use the Cobalt Fujifilm film simulations engineered for the OM-3 so that will ensure both cameras record colors very similarly. As I said, it may or may not make a difference.
I mentioned my Fujifilm kit as my primary gear for this trip. Since I acquired the X100VI last spring, I’ve added the Fujifilm WCL-X100 II Wide Angle (28mm) lens and the TCL-X100 II Tele Angle (50mm) lens for the X100VI. (I know—bringing two lens attachments may degrade the experience of using a fixed lens camera but I’ll consider this a test to see if I find that to be true.) I’ve now tested both of these add-ons extensively and I am very pleased with the performance of both. If there is any degradation of resolution or sharpness, it is really difficult to find even at high magnifications. So far, I haven’t seen any. I did buy and try the less expensive Freewell version of the wide angle adapter and sent it back. The copy I had was not at all good. Other copies may be better but I don’t know.
(By the way, I purchased both Fujifilm adapters using Amazon US but from the Japanese version of Amazon, at about 40% of the U.S. price. They were delivered within two weeks and came in the same boxes as if I would have purchased them here. As far as I can tell, both are pristine and in no way different from the more pricey U.S. versions. What about potentially warranty issues? Well, there is nothing to these converters but extremely well made multi-element filters. Not much to go wrong. Warranty claims aren’t a concern. The prices may be different now due to tariffs.)
In reference to using the X100VI, attaching the wide angle adapter gives me a 28mm (FF) field of view with 40mp. I’ve experimented with using it and making composite wider angle images and that works perfectly and results in even more pixels. Attaching the tele angle adapter gives me an equivalent 50mm (FF) field of view at 40mp as well. But either using the camera’s internal crop feature or later cropping in Lightroom, I can effectively get a 70mm field of view at 20mp, the same as is in my OM-3, which I find entirely sufficient. I think I can cover most of my anticipated photographic needs with this three piece kit.
I will carry the Fujifilm gear in a Bellroy 9L sling bag, and the OM gear in a PGY Rope bag. Both are small and lightweight and hold the gear sufficiently.
Okay. For this trip, here are my tentative choices for gear. As I mentioned, the Fujifilm gear will be my primary camera and the OM my secondary and backup camera to be put into use if necessary.
Fujifilm X100VI
Fujifilm 28mm Wide Angle lens adapter
Fujifilm 50mm Tele Angle lens adapter
49mm & 72mm polarizing filters (72mm fits the OM lens)
72mm to 62mm step-down ring (62mm fits the Fujifilm Tele adapter)
2 extra batteries
1 cable for USB charging
1 extra 128gb memory card
OM-3
12-100mm f/4 PRO lens
2 extra batteries
72mm polarizing filter (same 72mm filter mentioned above)
Same USB-C cable to charge this battery as above
2 extra 64gb memory cards
1 small Giottos Rocket Blower
4 small lens cloths and a few Zeiss lens wipe packets
1 Bellroy Venture 9L sling bag
1 PGYTech Rope bag
1 small tabletop tripod
I know I’m limiting myself tho a pretty minimal kit, but, as I mentioned, this is not primarily a photographic trip. As I did last May, as I encounter pleasing compositions or interesting subjects , I’ll photograph them. If there is something that needs a much longer focal length, I’ll try it using the 50mp handheld high resolution mode (or 80mp tripod mounted high resolution mode) in the OM-3, then crop appropriately or just etch the composition into my memory and be thankful I was able to see it. I won’t be worrying about ‘missing a shot’ or ‘getting every shot.’ The idea is stress-free travel, having fun, sharing the experience with lifelong friends and bringing back lasting memories.
Next up, the first road trip post. See you on the road!
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Safe travels Dennis, and as always, I look forward to your Route 66 posts. - Jim
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim! ~Dennis
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