Oooops let's try it again Just got back from a week in Quebec City. Shot almost all architecture stuff and holiday snaps using a PZ1, MZS and LX. PZ1 was loaded with film, MZS with slide and LX with SCALA B&W slide film. Lenses included 16, 20,24, 30, 50 85, 120, 28-70,F2.8 (Tokina),28-105 FA Pentax, 70-200Fa Pentax, 100-300,300 f4. Here are a few Travel notes: When on vacation travel light rather than take lenses you think you might use. A pitcher of Sangria goes down great on a hot day. Shooting B&W and Colour at the same time is difficult. Zooms are much more useable than primes. Climbing up steep hills and steps carrying three cameras and a half dozen lenses is no way to spend a vacation. Sangria does not taste the same at every restaurant. But all are very good. The Pentax 28-105 FA lens is all I really need for 3/4s of my shooting. French women really have a style, a look and sex appeal all their own... Tokina's 28-70 is a close second to the 28-105 as far as an excellent travel lens goes. It's just a little heavy... Autofocus is nice for middle-age guys even for stationary subjects. The MZS and PZ1 are excellent cameras but they offer too many choices. The simplicity of the LX still works for me. Beautiful French women should not be allowed to speak French in front of balding middle-aged men who can only dream .... When you change the MZS or PZ1 to spot metering, don't forget to change it back to evaluative. I must try different Sangria recipes. A light monopod is easier to carry than a tripod and can be used for a crutch after walking up steep inclines carrying too much gear. Looking like a professional photographer is not the same as being one. (Repeat of first muse - (When on vacation travel light rather than take lenses you think you might use.) Develop trust in your cleaning ladies that they are not interested in stealing your lenses. Which leads directly into: leaving 3/4 of your lenese in the hotel room is smarter than carrying them around town with you. Which leads to: Leaving 3/4 of your lenses at home is better than worrying about them back at the hotel room. It's unfair that beautiful French women are allowed to wear very tight-fitting clothes when they are addressing middle-aged men who are, in fact, balding, and sweating profusely from carrying too much camera gear. It is better for your photography and your frame of mind to look and feel cool with one camera and one or two lenses, than to look like a photo geek with three cameras and too many lenses around your neck. Just a few travel notes from the middle-age photo geek who never learns.
P.S. I am happily married and not planning to return to Quebec because I want to keep it that way... LOL Pictures to follow.. Vic
