In your bag No: 778 – Roberto Nania

In your bag 778, Roberto Nania
Roberto has different bags for different situations, and they are all classic lovers dreams. He is also a returnee, one of the earliest in fact (link) Come and check his bags out.

I’m Roberto Nania (in your bag no. 7). Here there are three camera bag I’d like to share. I’m 37 and I travel for business; I always take one small bag with me with one main camera (one of my Nikons, especially the FE2 or the FM2n or the Spotmatic F, one lens, 35mm or 50mm) and one compact camera (often the Olympus Mju, sometimes one of my Holgas, the 135BC or the 120GFN).
I love color, I shoot on 200 or 400 color negative (cheap brand which are most of the times Agfa or Fuji negative rebranded) or Agfa CT Precisa reversal (the cheapest you can find but good enough for my style); I use black and white too (Tri-X 400, HP5 pushed to 800, T-Max 3200 for 35mm and Neopan 100, 400H, 160S for 120).

The bags:

The San Francisco Bag: this is the bag I took on my last trip to San Francisco on December; it’s a small Crumpler Light Delight 4000, very light and small but very handy at the same time. Olympus Mju II for point and shot situations or when I didn’t want to carry the bag with me; it was loaded with Tri-X or Agfa CT, depending on the light of the day and my subjects; the camera is very compact and has a great lens, it doesn’t like to focus in low light anyhow.
The FM2n was one bargain I had on my previous trip to Osaka together with the attached Nikkor 35/2; it was loaded with color negative. Sekonic Studio Deluxe light-meter, super reliable and needs no batteries (I never use  batteries on my mechanical cameras, they run-out too fast, I expose by feeling and f16 rule or through the Studio Deluxe). Passport (if you want a beer in US you need your ID always with you, they don’t trust you even if you look over 70…).

The Nikon Bag: I don’t carry all this stuff with me, I use this backpack for storing; it’s a Lowe Pro Pro Runner 300AW, pretty light, robust, configurable and plenty of space. On the front line there is my first Nikon, a black FM bought something like 18 years ago more or less, I don’t use it anymore since it started to have problems of stuck curtains.
Then there are a FM2n and a FE2, I really like the size, the viewfinder and the dials of these cameras, I don’t have to think nothing else but my subject with them. The F2 is one camera I always like so I bought one at a good price on the bay; the black one is the most beautiful in my opinion; I will look for the plain prism on my next trip to Yokohama (I don’t us built-in light meter and the photomic is preatty big and heavy). The MD12 motor drive makes the FM/FE cameras very handy when shooting portraits (well, not light of course, it takes 8 AA batteries).
Lenses: I usually don’t take more than one lens at a time, I find distracting to change lens and to think to what lens to use while shooting, it’s better to have one lens and to deal with it and the subject. I have three 50mm: f1.8 AI-s, super sharp, super smooth, very light, I use it on my FM/FE cameras; f2 H-C, F series, very beatiful, incredibly sharp and distrotion-free, super smooth, it’s hard to think it was made more than 40 years ago; f1.4 S-C, F series, it’s a fantastic lens too, I bought it at very good price while in Osaka, couldn’t leave it in the shop… 24mm f2.8 AI, 35 f2 AI, 85 f2 AI-s.
When I was working as a photo assistant in Milan a lot of years ago I made the question of what is the most important accessory for a photographer: do you know what was the reply? You could loose your bet: it’s the lens hood (some replied it’s their jacket). You can count a professional photographer from an amateur one by the use of the lens hood and the misuse of the lens cap. All my Nikon lense have their hood and I use it always; I prefer screw-in hoods but they are not always easy to find so some of them are clip-on.

The M42 Bag: M42 lenses and Pentax are a recent discovery; I really like the build quality and the smothness of Takumar lenses as well as their rendition. Some of them have yellowish problems (especially my 50/1.4 and the 55/1.8, but some days by the sun should help); the image quality is very high plus they are a pleasure to use.
I have a very well maintained Spotmatic F but I like the plain Spotmatic the most (no hot shoe) and I will buy it when I’ll find a good one. I like the fact you can access to a huge amount of pretty good lenses (Carl Zeiss Jena and Russian lenses). Lenses are: the 50/1.4 and 55/1.8 Takumar; the russian Industar 50/3.5, an amazing lens, super tiny with a really personal nature, not very sharp but I like it a lot, it lacks almost completely of anti-flare coating so backlight has always to be avoided; the Mir 37/2.8, a very good lens with a creamy bokeh and high definition; Takumar 35/3.5, a tiny lens with good definition; Takumar 105/2.8 a very nice portrait lens which isn’t so sharp wide open (a plus for portaiture).

Well, that’s all for now. Thank you for featuring me. You can see my work on my tumblr “Real World”: http://robertonania.tumblr.com/

Thanks for sharing your bags with us Roberto. That is quite the selection.
Check out the links and make sure you come and comment.

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. Please understand that there is a long wait now as there is a backlog of submissions. Not all make the cut, so make sure yours is funny/interesting/quirky. And please make sure the shot is of good quality, as the ones that are not do not go up.

Cheers
Japancamerahunter