My very niche problems in picking out the “perfect” travel setup for my trips…

My Ideal Setup

Camera Bodies (yes, plural)

• 1 Full-frame

• 1 APSC

Lenses

• 1 ultra-wide (12/15/21mm)

• 28mm

• 58/85mm

I think 2 bodies are the best combo for travel photography. 2 bodies help you to quickly switch between focal lengths without the need to change lenses and thus saving some hassle. And with modern day mirrorless cameras, 2 bodies do not add that much extra weight/size compared to DSLR of yesteryear. A full-frame body to use with the ultra-wide primarily. No point in using ultra-wide on APSC with the crop factor. Then the 28/58/85mm can go on my APSC body for a narrower FOV to produce tighter shots. This in theory should cover both the wide end and the long end for 97% of the traveling I foresee myself doing in the future. Sounds pretty simple right? But I won’t be ranting about it here if it is that “simple”.

Camera Woes

For APSC, I am just gonna bring my lovely Fujifilm XH-2, no issues here. However, I have 3 full frame cameras [Sony RX1, Nikon D850, Leica M10 Mono] and none of them seems “great” for traveling. Sony RX1 is extremely compact for a full-frame and it has a fixed 35mm lens. But since my XH2 + 28mm is ~ 40mm, there is no need for the RX1, not to mention that 35mm is not wide enough. Regarding the Leica M10 Mono… Its more of the fact that I would never be able to get my kidney back if I lose/damage it so I am definitely not taking that risk. Not to mention it only produces monochrome images which is quite limiting for traveling photography, unless you are Allan Schaller I guess.

Lastly I have my D850. It is a FF body with inter-changeable lenses, so technically it should work. But its a DSLR which has certain downsides:

• Big and bulky, not just the body but also the lenses. I have used this with my Nikkor 14mm AF-D and it is not the easiest thing to carry around.

• Very limited number of GOOD wide angle manual focus lens. From what I have researched, Zeiss Distagon/Milvus/Otus line for Nikon is the best by a huge margin. But I will talk more about this in the lens part below.

• And yes, complaining that the best DSLR ever made is too bulky to travel with is a very first world problem but hey, at least with the purchase of a new second hand camera (spoiler), I am keeping the economy moving while keeping waste out of land fills! I see this as an absolute win :)

Since I fancy myself somewhat as a “Carousell sniper”, getting a compact mirrorless, inter-changeable FF at a very good price is not that bad of an idea. Afterall, I do not have such a camera in my collection either (not counting my M10 mono cause it is mono). Now the choices are simple: Sony A7c or Sigma FP? Honestly, this is not even a close fight. A7c packs so much extra features (mechanical shutter, IBIS, EVF…) compared to the Sigma FP that the choice should have been obvious except for the fact that A7c still has the dreadful star-eating problem! I spent a week mulling over this issue while reading blogs after blogs and forums after forums. Finally, I have decided on the A7c because I am only really planning to do wide-field astro in which case star-eater is not an issue.

(Side note, A7cR seems to have this problem fixed but its more than 2x the price of A7c right now so no point in thinking about that. Though the 61MP sensor is perfect for landscape…)

Ok so it seems like my camera problem has been solved. Just have to get an A7c at a good price and upgrade to A7cR when the price drops.

Lens Woes

A much harder problem to solve. First of all, I only want to own manual lenses from this point on.

But why? Well they simply last longer than AF lenses, even if it breaks there is a decent chance that I can fix it myself since it would only require a mechanical replacement, not an electrical one. Manual lenses retain aperture control which makes it a lot easier to adapt and use between different systems (I have Nikon, Fuji, Leica and very likely a Sony E mount camera). So in theory, I can get 1 lens and use it across 4 different cameras- which in my opinion is pretty worth it! And since my Nikon is a DSLR, it will have the longest flange distance. So any lens that can fit on my Nikon would be usable on all my mirrorless cameras! But of course DSLR lenses are way bigger than mirrorless lens and if I were to put a 21 F2.8 Distagon on the A7c that I hope to acquire, then there is almost no point in getting the A7c at all.

So the next best thing is a Leica M mount lens. Small and compact, fully manual with excellent image quality and I would still be able to use it with my Fuji and Sony cameras. The search for the “best” wide-angle lens begins…

THE CONTENDERS

• Voigtlander 15mm F4.5

• Voigtlander 21mm F1.4

• Voigtlander 21mm F1.8

• Voigtlander 21mm F3.5

• Voigtlander 21mm F4

I chose all Voigtlander lenses because they have the best price-to-perfomance ratio in SG’s second hand market.

As mentioned earlier, I have used a Nikkor 14mm before and I was really comfortable using that for my Sapa and Ha Long Bay trip in Vietnam hence why I decided to include the 15mm F4.5. I included 21mm because its the next most “significant” difference in FOV compared to my 28mm and with 21mm, the distortions should still be manageable for image stitching. Thus I once again buried myself in reviews and sample images and soon came to the conclusion that

1) 21mm F1.4 seems to be the best. Bright and fast, sharp and well corrected.

2) From the sample images, I thought 21mm looked a bit “boring”. But I have never tried 21mm before and I think it would be worth a try.

Few hours later I am ready to settle on the 21mm F1.8 instead because there is only 1 person selling the F1.4 and its over a thousand SGD, which is just too much for me at the moment. The F1.8 is a little bit slower, but still sharp and can be had for 600 SGD (with some negotiation) which is not too bad! Few more hours of reading reviews later I came across a forum on Fred Miranda discussing “Best Voigtlander M-mount lenses for Leica and Sony sensors” which just made me go ???

But after reading through the thread, I have learnt that Leica sensors uses thinner glass as well as different micro-lens compared to Sony/Fuji/Nikon/basically everyone else and it suddenly seemed that everyone else was aware of this issue other than me. No wonder I was having a hard time finding reviews of M-mount lenses on Sony… But thanks to Fred Miranda’s thread, the best 2 lenses for me is the 21 F3.5 or the 15 F4.5