Taking a Leica R8 to India???

Satyagraha

I have recently purchased a Leica R8; which is an absolutely fantastic camera. But now i'm starting to think it will not be a good idea to bring it to India! Here are the reasons:

It is BIG, for those that have held one can account for this
It is heavy, may not be a good idea to take this camera as i plan to do some trekking
It looks expensive - although i don't plan on flashing it around obviously it will be of great appeal to thieves, although i'm not clued up on how much of a risk there would be.

Any advice would be kindly appreciated. I plan to be in India for around a year.

Shaktipalooza

Lots of people travel to India with far more gear than that. My brother and I had over $8k worth of gear between us last month, didn't have a problem. He continued on through China & Malaysia with no problems.

Theft concerns, use your camera bag as a pillow on trains. The camera goes where you go, unless you feel very comfortable with your accomodations.

You could pair down your lens selection. Since you're taking a relatively high end camera I'm assuming you'll have multiple lenses, that's where things really start to get heavy.

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Pics from India 2006
Traditional Indian Dance

kashi

having purchased this wonderful piece of equipment, why would you want to leave it back at home and go traveling?

just pare down on your lens selection; if you are really worried about weight just take a couple of zooms.

as mentioned in the above post, you just need to follow basic rules of taking care for your camera. in fact, you would get more attention if you were branding a nikon or canon. the average person on the street might not know of leica!!

kashi

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wahh... i want to go back
photos

Wanderer22

Be very aware of the weight you'll be carrying and cut back if at all possible. My first trip to India was in 1970 with a couple of rangefinder M4's and four lenses. By the end of the trip packing the stuff got to be a pain, and I was a whole lot younger then! A pack animal I'm not. The next year it was one body and three lenses, couple years later two lenses. At one point I tried using the old antique thread mount Leicas, models 3f and 3g. Tiny light cameras with excellent glass. Only problem is the viewfinders are terrible and hard to use with glasses. After a long break I finally got back last year for a wander around South India. The M4's were in need of an overhaul, and I didn't want the hassle of putting film through multi Xrays inspections so ended up taking a small 2 Mp point and shoot. Had a lot of fun and came away with some interesting shots. Recently had the antique M's rebuilt so next time will probably take one M4 and a couple of lenses. Would like to re-shoot some of the locations I photographed in the 70's to document 35 years of change. Would be kinda neat to use the same 40 year old camera and lenses for all the shots.

If the R8 is a new system for you it would probably be a good idea to run some film through it before the trip. Just to make sure nothing screws up and that you are comfortable with the controls. Am assuming that you're using film and don't have a Leitz digital back. What ever you end up taking in the way of photographic equipment, have FUN. Hope to see some of your results.

Wanderer22