In your bag No: 586 – Hamish Gill
Hamish has been a long time supporter of the site, but this is the first time we have actually had the chance to check out his gear. And what a great mix of gear he has. Come and check it out.

My (holiday) camera bag

I’m writing this on my iPhone from the depths of north Wales where I’m on holiday.

When thinking about what to bring I got all a bit silly really. It’s the first time I have been on holiday with my near two year old, it’s no coincidence that its also the first time I have been on holiday in just over two years. This combined with the fact that It’s a very pretty part of north Wales, I knew I’d be wanting to take a lot of photos … So I bought a lot of cameras! Logical, right…? Perhaps not…

The third day in and the main tools have only been the Ricoh GR1s and Voigtlander Bessa R2A with Voigtlander 28mm Ultron 1.9, Voigtlander 35mm Nokton classic 1.4 and Leitz Summarit 50mm 1.5. Although I haven’t been carrying the 35mm as much …

I can walk around all day every day and feel comfortable with a 28mm, same goes for 35mm for the most part, but 28mm just has the edge as a carry everywhere for me. And then the 50mm for portraits and the odd time I need a bit of length. The choice of glass is simple really, when I bought the 28, it was the only fast 28 I could afford. Thankfully,  It’s also good! It’s such an easy lens to get passable results in most circumstances. The Summarit is lovely, I love how it glows and swirls when shot wide but is pretty sharp and useable stopped down (if a little prone to flare). The 35 classic has so much character too, by no means a perfect lens, but that adds to the charm for me!

The voigtlander is a great camera, it’s no Leica in its build, but when I did have a Leica I shot more with the R2A. I loved the M6, but when times were hard, it was the R2A that stayed. I just prefer a camera with a bit of automation. Purists would probably scoff at this, but I like aperture priority, it makes life easier and faster. It also handles really nicely especially with the accessory grip that allows a good but light grip on the camera. It’s only shortcoming for me is the lack of 28mm frame lines, but I’m used to working around that now.

The Ricoh, which I bought just before I came on holiday has so far been the compact of choice. It’s the second camera to the Voigtlander (or maybe the Voigtlander is the second to it??) basically because I trust it, I had one before and we got on very well! My thoughts on the Ricoh can be found here should you be interested …

I have also brought a pair of other compacts, the Fuji Klasse W  my recent JCH purchase and the minolta big mini; a recent charity shop acquisition. I like the Fuji a lot, and I think it is probably ideal for the more landscape oriented work the north of Wales lends its self to, I just feel I have been reunited with a lost friend with the GR1!

The minolta is with me to play with for writing about on my blog 35mmc.com … I might or might not get round to using it.

I’ve also brought the Harman Titan. I hope to get a few shots with this, but so far the wind has been too high to even think about risking it with the tiny bendy legged cheap tripod I bought. It’s not a camera I have used much since I bought it in march and this holiday has always been the destination for finishing the last of the box of delta 100 it came with.

And then there are the digital cameras. The Sony RX100 is the most heavily worn, lightly used camera I have ever owned! Regardless of what else I am carrying the Sony goes everywhere with me… And it really looks like it, all worn down at the edges and dented on the top plate. I can’t really understand how it’s got so bad, but it has. I use it once in a while, it’s AF is brilliant and takes stunning photos for its size. It’s a trusted bit of kit, I’m just usually in possession of a compact film camera that will get used first. The second digital is the Sony NEX5, I use this when I want to shoot digital with my M/LTM, M42 and Exakta lenses … That hasn’t come up for a while, but it came just in case! I have a helicoid focus mount for M lenses for it, sometimes the ability to close focus with the 35mm can give lovely results!

There are of course a lot of other things kept within the holiday camera bag! Not least plenty rolls of (in order of most likely to get used) XP2, Portra, Reala, cheapie Agfa branded stuff, Pan f and HP5.

Three 5×4 double film holders loaded with delta 100.

There is a little crap tripod, a cable release and some battery chargers.

There is also a little Tamrac case that’s big enough for a RF lens and a few rolls of film. This gets filled and chucked in the rucksack containing the vast array of paraphernalia the daughter requires when we go out.

I suffer with hey fever so medications for that. Money, a set of earphones, a pen… And my iPhone, which is of course basically a brick here in Wales, although is proving useful for writing this post! And that’s the lot!

The photo included shows what has gone with me the first couple of days of the holiday, and what is going out with me today…

If you want to see the pictures and find out how much of the rest of this gear I ended up actually using, keep and eye on my Blog and Flickr.
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Thanks for sharing your bag and your thoughts Hamish. I hope that you had a cracking holiday. It has been a very long time since I went to Wales.
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Keep them coming folks, we need more submissions, so get your bag on Japancamerahunter.com. Send me a hi resolution image of the bag (please make sure it is horizontal) and its contents, with some details about yourself and what you shoot. Oh and don’t forget your contact details (twitter, flickr, tumbler et al). Send the bag shots here.

Cheers
Japancamerahunter