How often do you take your camera with you?

I mean a real, honest-to-goodness camera (DSLR, film, MF, RF, MILC) in a special bag. The camera aimed at getting its maximal quality photos. I mean when you are busy in town but hoping to take terrific shots.

I do my most worthwhile shooting when I'm not hoping to take terrific shots. It's when I'm as in-the-moment as I can be and in tune with what I'm doing.

 

I almost always have a camera with me nowadays, regardless of whether it's thought of as an "honest-to-goodness" one or not.

As often as I can.

 

I don't take a camera to work (forbidden), nor when going shopping, but just about anywhere else.

 

My only problem is that anything I buy with the intention of keeping it in the car, ends up being 'too nice' to be abused in such a way, or too lacking in quality.

 

I'm still looking for the perfect carry everywhere camera.

Always at least an M4/3.

I take the 'proper camera' when I go birding, or on an intentional photo trip somewhere, but I seldom leave the flat without a pocket camera (currently Canon Ixus 950) 'just in case'. As ever, the best opportunities arise when you have no camera. Can't leave one 'in the car' - I don't drive !

It's almost second nature to me now to spontaneously capture a moment that just feels right, and so, like Sam, some form of camera is always readily at hand.

Buried under a jacket, tarp, and a bunch of other stuff in the cab of my Ford Ranger is a 30-year-old LowePro camera bag with an older Nikon manual SLR, an older Nikon DX series DSLR, a couple of inexpensive but decent lenses for those camera bodies, an EASTAR (Chinese Seagull knock-off) 2-1/4" TLR, a half dozen rolls of B&W film (FP4+/HP5+) for each of the film cameras, a cheap Vivitar tripod as well as a spare battery charger for the DSLR. These are some of the more inexpensive but reasonably durable pieces in my collection of camera gear, convenient if the occasion arises but no great disaster should they get damaged, lost or stolen. Sort of a carry-over habit from my photojournalism days, so I always have a camera available should I happen upon anything news/photo worthy during my travels.

I'm still looking for the perfect carry everywhere camera.

 

I used to carry a Rollei 35, and then various film or digital point and shoot cameras. But nowadays, my iPhone does the job when I don't have the full rig.

I mean a real, honest-to-goodness camera (DSLR, film, MF, RF, MILC) in a special bag. The camera aimed at getting its maximal quality photos. I mean when you are busy in town but hoping to take terrific shots.

 

 

Never. If on a street shoot project, then cam in hand and extras in backpack. It has to be in hand.

 

Otherwise cam in car glove box year round. I shooting inside, then cam may be in small cam bag / pack.

I don’t always carry my camera around. I used to keep my digital M 4/3 with me most of the time but I’m more shooting film cameras these days. much of the time I’m just running to and from work. I’ve gotten into the habit of making trips out, specifically to shoot film, rather than just randomly carrying camera around all the time.

Usually M4/3 in the car when I go out. Also have a film Oly P&S in there. Can't take any camera into the hospital I do work in, HIPPA laws violation.

Never when I am just out and about. The exception is maybe over the warmer months and we head out for lunch and we go for a walk and I take some quick shots with my camera maybe a Nikon FM2N because it is compact or a Fuji XT1 that means your definition right - real honest to goodness. Others times I might just carry a Ricoh GR which isn't a real honest to goodness. A lot of time when I do go with my camera it is going out just for photography, not while I am doing other stuff.

Always carry my DSLR with a 35 mm lens. My biggest regret is driving home from work, stopped at a stoplight and to my left I saw a large dog in a car, sitting in the owners lap with head out the drivers window. Missed the shot! Have to be ready!

... even I sleep with it

I'm still looking for the perfect carry everywhere camera.

Hi, Steve! Great response.

I would suggest to have a look at:

Ricoh GR III (it is a king but no VF)

Fujifilm X100F, X100S (beauties)

Pentax KP + 40/2.8 limited - it is compact and snappy one, but not wide angle if you would want to shoot tight interiors or narrow streets. ;)

Canon G1X series.

I have camera and a few lenses, etc. in a backpack, and it almost always goes in the car - and since I live out in the country, that means pretty much always.

RE: Perfect carry everywhere camera

 

Hi, Steve! Great response.

I would suggest to have a look at:

Ricoh GR III (it is a king but no VF)

Fujifilm X100F, X100S (beauties)

Pentax KP + 40/2.8 limited - it is compact and snappy one, but not wide angle if you would want to shoot tight interiors or narrow streets. ;)

Canon G1X series.

 

I'd love a Fuji X100 series, but even used ones are too pricey for a knockabout camera. I have the XF 23/2 lens so the only real benefit of the X100 would be flash sync.

 

I've been seriously considering the little XF 10. Size is right. APSc in my pocket is right. Price is a lot more acceptable than the X100. It's the 28mm lens that is putting me off, too wide for my taste. Same goes for the Ricoh.

 

I have a little Olympus waterproof compact, but the image quality is meuh. As a result, I don't use it often enough and the batteries are always flat.

 

Current attempt at a carry everywhere kit is a very beat-up Fuji X-T10 with a 7artisans 35/1.2. It's not quite pocketable, but quality wise, it's become my main camera. The 35/1.2 is everything I want from a lens and the combination is cheap enough not to worry about. But I like it just a little too much to just leave it in my car (-20°C winters, +40°C summers).

 

I think my problem is that anything I like enough to use, I want to treat with care, so it has to come with me, and that means pocketable. I still haven't found anything that meets my wishes:

 

Pocketable, at least cargo pants or jacket pocket.

 

Fast lens, f2 or better.

 

APSc, m4/3 would be acceptable with image stabilisation.

 

35 or 50 mm equivalent focal length.

 

Cheap enough not to worry about.

 

Weather sealed would be nice.

Is “maximum quality” a quantifiable attribute related to weight, amount and size of the equipment?

During the past years I have taken more “quality” photos with my smartphone than I have taken with the equipment in my heavy camera bag during similar time spans in the past (before the smartphone era).

I don’t actually lug my equipment around anymore for the purpose of taking quality photos, but rather to enjoy the process of photography- which I don’t enjoy at all with the smartphone.

with image stabilisation

IS is a great thing. I have it in Pentax and can get sharp photos at 1/10 sec. ISO 400 at night, 1/13 sec. It helps in panning technique too.

Is “maximum quality” a quantifiable attribute related to weight, amount and size of the equipment?

During the past years I have taken more “quality” photos with my smartphone than I have taken with the equipment in my heavy camera bag during similar time spans in the past (before the smartphone era).

I don’t actually lug my equipment around anymore for the purpose of taking quality photos, but rather to enjoy the process of photography- which I don’t enjoy at all with the smartphone.

 

I think I'm in agreement with this. I enjoy the act of photography itself. I don't enjoy photography with my smartphone, the main reasons being quality and tactility, it just doesn't feel right.

As to quality, it's hard to define, but both the experience and the results have to please me. That's a very personal criteria and varies with the subject. I think I can say that in general, I personally want the lens to out-resolve the sensor, by which I mean that I don't want to see mush at 100% magnification. I want low noise at high ISO. I want a fast lens at a standard focal length that gives me maximum flexibility to cope with all situations I encounter.

 

I don't want masses of megapixels, nor a super zoom, which unfortunately removes most compact cameras from consideration.

If it requires a bag, then very rarely. I've been very intentional about choosing compact cameras over the last couple of years. It's been a long time since I took the Canon DSLR anywhere.

 

I do carry an Olympus XA around a lot of the time, - it's a compact range finder. It might go in a pocket or in the backpack I bike commute with. Last Summer I purchased a Fujica GS645, - a semi-modern folding MF camera. The hope was that I could slip that into a coat pocket at least. It hasn't quite worked out because it needs a pretty large coat pocket. I haven't given up on it quite yet, I might try it in one of those security holsters people use for passports and wallets. Don't see doing that very often though. It will also fit in the side pocket of my backpack but it's not a cold weather camera, - and its cold here this time of year. ;)

 

The digital camera that gets a lot of use is an old Olympus XZ-2. Not a ton of megapixels but it has a fast zoom lens, an articulating LCD panel, and all the manual options you could want. It also has an accessory tele-conversion lens that's actually pretty good. The camera can fit in my pants pocket though it's more chunky than I'd like for that.

 

Though it may not meet your criteria, a smart phone is with me almost always. It's water resistant and takes pretty good pictures as long as the subject is nearby.

 

Eventually a small mirrorless camera with a pancake lens might work pretty well for me as a replacement for the XZ-2.

I rarely leave home without either a film body or a digital sitting on the front floor of the car. Usually an FE2 or an N90S, maybe a D300S and there is a bag in the back with either some F2's or a couple F4S bodies and the same lenses I used to carry in my newspaper days, a 28, a 135 and an 80-200 or 180/2.8 which is a favorite. I also often bring a 500 mirror and a 300. Sometimes the digital is what I need but mostly I enjoy shooting film for the same reasons I enjoyed it back in the day. It's a lot of stuff to haul around but there have been many times I ran into a great shot if I just stopped and got it. Still waiting to spot a UFO....

 

Rick H.

Depends; my mood isn't eternally stabilized.

• Rushing(!) to work through sunset and riding home by night is unlikely to provide terrific photo opportunities hand held. I haven't solved the tripod issue for myself. I guess a saddlebag like thing, holding a not beloved 2kg Cullmann (all the time) might be the way to go, for me.
   
  
• There was a time when I trusted my backpack more than my home's door and took the camera with me for that reason.
  

The camera aimed at getting its maximal quality photos. I mean when you are busy in town but hoping to take terrific shots.

No! I'm lazy. Whatever I'll bring along "just in case" will be a surely not "quality" optimized compromize.

I try to have my camera with me most of the time, at work and during leisure activities. I only leave it at home if I anticipate problems caused by having a camera with me (meetings, some théatres, etc) or if really inconvenient. It's a FF camera and therefore not discrete but I have missed too many good shots when without a camera. Some people lug around a laptop, I lug around my camera. To each his own.