POV | Shortlisted Gear For Hanoi Project
In less than two weeks, I'll be in Ha Noi working on a personal project, and the feedback so far is that the necessary scouting has been done, strong contacts within that special community have been made, and the vital groundwork has been set very well...so I'm very lucky to have been assisted so ably and so reliably by wonderful Vietnamese people.
I have researched all I could find on this project, and also spent -quite enjoyable- hours using the Google Translate tool to understand Vietnamese websites. I have a thick notebook filled with handwritten information, which should be useful if and when I interview people involved with this project.
Naturally, the fearsome Murphy's Law hovers over all arrangements... but crossing fingers, all systems are go.
I don't want to divulge the project details at this stage, but photographing it will occur in different venues and at different times. Consequently, I have to give a lot of thought as to the equipment I will take with me...more so than usual because, as I haven't been to these venues before, I'm literally "flying" almost blind at this juncture.
My choice of equipment at this stage is this:
1. Fujifilm X-T1, along with the XF 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 zoom, the Zeiss Touit 12mm f2.8, the XF 56mm f1.2 and possibly (not shown here) the XF 18mm f2.0.
2. Leica M9, along with Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 and possibly the Elmarit 28mm f2.8 (mostly for the street photography days).
3. A film Mamiya 645 Super with a Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f2.8 as I am toying with the idea of making formal portraits of the project's protagonists.
4. Tascam Field Audio Recorder.
I might swap the Mamiya 645 for a Canon 5D Mark II (and a 24mm f1.4 Canon lens) since I may produce some multimedia, and will need its video capabilities. If so, I'll also include a SONY shotgun microphone.
I will probably change my mind a few times before departure, and regret the choices once I'm there....but that's the upside and downside of such projects.